jersanct

Thanks, Barry, I appreciate the kind comments. You think I'm heading in a decent direction with this? I suppose it's hard for you to judge, since I always, always forget to take a "before" photo until after I have made the first alterations. If I may sound wildly ambitious for a moment, this is one of my smaller trees that I am hoping I might be able to show in two years, when my local society will be hosting a shohin convention in St. Louis. If I do some good work between now and then, I may be able to sneak it in, in a throw-one-of-these-kids-from-the-local-society-a-bone sort of way.

The trunk is around 1 1/4" in diameter measured from the broadest point of that flare in the trunk (or thick root, however you want to think of it) that spreads to the left. Slightly under an inch, if you measure above that flare/root.