When you use wood for furniture that's been sitting outside in the yard

 I'm sure we've all brought wood into the house that has been sitting in the yard for one project or another.
That's exactly what I did here. I thought about making a rustic log end table. I had some nice straight logs that I was suppose to cut up for firewood in the Fall and just never got around to it.  The logs sat out side through the Fall and Winter. I didn't think of anything of it.

I grabbed my chainsaw and cut a few of the logs for the legs of the table.

I took out a razor knife and peeled the bark off the wood. The bark was wet and a few bugs came running out of it. I let it sit outside for a day or two so it would be dry when I sanded it. 

I used some 2 x 6's for the top of the table. I put it all together and brought it in the house. I figured I would wait to until the weather warmed up a bit to stain the top of the table and add some poly for a nice finish.

I had the table in the house for about 10 days. I was using it every night, a place to put my coffee and laptop. Not only was it functional,  it looked nice next to the plaid earth tone Ethan Allen sofa.

I took the vacuum cleaner out for my regular cleaning and noticed some sawdust under the table. I thought it must of been leftover from when I was making the table. I sucked it in the vacuum.

A few days went by and I saw some more sawdust under the table. I said to myself, " I just vacuumed there, what's going on?"

Sure enough, I flipped the table over and the bottom of two legs had little holes on the wood. I didn't notice them when I was putting the table together. I took it outside for better lighting and there it was squirming around. It was either a termite or some kind of wood eating worm like the size of an ant and beige in color. I'm sure there were more burrowed in the wood. 

Sadly enough, the table is now off the property. 

I'm thankful I found it in time. Who knows what could of happened if I didn't. 

So don't do what I did. 

Always inspect the wood you're working with thoroughly before you bring it into your house. The same goes for working with pallets and any wood you get outside. 

It should of been a red flag when I saw the bugs/worms under the bark. I didn't think they were deep into the wood. 

I'm going to make another log table, but this time I'm going to use some clean cedar logs.