I usually cut down a birch tree.
I use a 5 pound axe.
No gloves.
The blisters make me feel alive.
I leave the cut down tree be for about a year or so.
Then I strip it off the bark and usually make two to three totem poles out of it.
I've been making a circle out of them for the last 7 years.
The circle is centered around a glacial stone I have been throwing varied sized pebbles at with my close friends.
Nothing religious about it, though it has been a cooperative, a rather 'spiritual' and a 'bonding' exercise.
I carve social demons into the totem poles.
My friends help me with the finishing touches.