Love Hate Relationship

This is a multi-part saga...skip or follow along as you desire.

Since Thanksgiving I have been SO miserable!! Allergies galore! I've been racking my brain....what have I changed? Have I eaten anything different? Two doctors, allergy eye drops, wicked mean cortisone cream, eyes swollen, I'm exhausted as my body tried to combat, sleeping for hours, all with too little relief!

Walnuts: For most of you this probably is a rather benign food item maybe causing a canker or two. As you know, for me it is cause for alarm. I avoid all tree nuts with diligence that is only equal to that of following the Prophet. I am the poster child for extreme allergies...do they have a poster adult???

I love wood! I love walnut, cherry, mahogany, maple! I'm not such a fan of oak...
I have the most beautiful walnut table! My brother in law made it, just for me, one of a kind. Making me custom furniture isn't his day job, but he has access to all the wood and equipment. He's made me a lot of beautiful furniture...but that's another story. For the last several years (I'm not going to count!) we've used our wonderful blue folding chairs mingled with bar stools to sit at the table. Note: The table is not a standard height, thus you sit on a bar stool and are too tall or a folding chair and feel like a three year old. The wood for the chairs was sent to our friend in Tonga. (He made much of the furniture for the Tongan Temple, he has an amazing talent.) When he was finished with the chairs he sent them via airplane to Utah with mutual friends. It was then Lane's job to assemble what Kishore had made and make the seats. Quite a job!!! Lane makes beautiful legs and arms, and is incredibly good with his hands but this was a new adventure! He did a lot of research, talked to people who make chairs (few and far between!!!)
To make a long story a little shorter...Lane decided that he was going to finish the chairs Thanksgiving weekend. I was elated!

Lane worked for two days solid and the result is beautiful! Wow, so worth waiting for!
They'll be back from the finisher next week. You're welcome to come ooohhh and aaahhh if you'd like.

Now for some walnut education. (Out of necessity, we just learned this...) The leaves of a walnut tree are so poisonous that they must be raked immediately as they fall or they will kill the grass. Green Walnut is not as toxic as Black Walnut. (I don't know what we have...probably black.) Walnuts often open while still on the tree thus dropping only the nut. Quinone is released into the air and is highly toxic. It is present in all parts, the leaves, the roots, and the wood. When landscaping or gardening you must be very careful as to the proximity you plant as even the toxins in the air will inhibit growth. There are some plants less affected. Anyway, so as Lane has been working his little heart out sanding and prepping our chairs the quinone has been released into the air in our garage, porch and driveway.

Now, remember who is highly allergic to tree nuts?!?!? It was 3:00 a m about five days ago when he sat up in bed and said, "I know what you're allergic to!" Sure enough as he did some research it became very clear.

I am so allergic to nuts that if I walk into your house and you've been chopping nuts, I will react. I don't have to actually ingest the nut. It never even crossed our minds that the chairs would be a problem. He's worked on other woods without incident...but not nut woods. So, being the amazing man that he is, he has totally sterilized the garage and everything in it. Hopefully soon the toxins will have worked their way through my system and I'll feel better!

And yes, the chairs will be fine once they are varnished. The table has been. What an education this has been! Now you know....and so do I.