KINGSTON — Paul Markham has a new yard ornament that’s definitely a cut above the rest.
So many people are stopping by to take a look, he had to put out orange cones to prevent an accident.
The newest addition at his home at 44 Newton Junction Road is a 12-foot statue of a bear on a rock, carved from a pine tree that used to stand nearly 100 feet tall.
When utility workers were trimming tall pines in his neighborhood to prevent power outages, they decided to cut the huge tree at the home where Markham and his wife, Joanna, both 51, have lived since 1990.
A worker was sawing the tree from the bucket of a Unitil truck.
Paul Markham wasn’t home, but his wife called him when huge chunks of the tree began falling to the ground. Only about 15 feet of the tree was still standing.
“I said, ‘Go out right now and tell them not to cut the rest of it,’” he said.
Markham told Joanna he wanted the rest to be carved into a statue. She ran out and stopped the worker from felling the rest of huge tree — approximately 10 feet in circumference.
“The guy in the bucket truck said, ‘Oh, that would be really cool,’” Markham said.
For the full article, click here.
