It looks like art to me

The best kind of trash-to-treasure story is when I can tell you that I just ripped a board off an old building and nailed it to my wall and called it art. Okay, so there was bubble wrap to buy (which went completely against my grain), ticket agents to be placated, planes to be boarded, several states to be flown over, luggage to be retrieved, so on and so forth, between the said ripping and said nailing, but let's not quibble, okay?

It went like this: my sister and brother-in-law (seen here) and I were exploring a great old ghost town in Montana after a family reunion in July 2005 - Elkhorn Abandoned. I saw many things I would have like to save from the eventual ravages of weather and abandonment, but most were well beyond the patience of any ticket agent. Then I found this roof board on a low lying roof of some sort of old mill. I pulled it off pretty easily, but it was about 10 feet long, so my brother-in-law kindly stepped on it just so, shortening it to a manageable 6 feet. Next day, I flew out of Bozeman, back to the East coast, with the board safely stowed in the bellies of the planes. It eventually made it all the way to upstate New York, with its lovely lichen and rusty nails perfectly intact.

When I finally found just the right spot for it, I couldn't figure out how best to hang it, but then I noticed the hole just the right size for a rusty nail I retrieved from my basement. And so here we go - a great piece of trash-to-treasure art!