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Buzalsky carries the scrubs to his truck parked at the side of the road and takes them home to his basement workshop. There he turns them into attractive lamps that have beautiful, natural twists and shapes and range in color from a cream-white to an attractive reddish-brown.

Each lamp takes hours to create but they are proving a profitable hobby for Buzalsky, who makes them in his spare time, as he is regularly employed by the Bureau of Reclamation in his native state.

Some of the cedar scrub the lamp creator gathers in the mountain territory is half dry and half green. This combination in one twisted form makes a very pretty lamp, as the dry part is a reddish-brown color and the green part is a cream-white color. Some of the cedar woods possess a striped effect, while other pieces have a spotted pattern.

"I spend a lot of time searching for the wood that is suitable for my use," says Buzalsky. "The scrub cedar I use in creating the lamps is found growing close to the ground and among the rocks in the rugged canyons and mountains. Some of the best pieces have to be extracted partly out of the rocks or ground, as these pieces require part of the root to get a suitable base."

Buzalsky allows wood for the lamps to season for about a year after it is cut and gathered.

"I've discovered that if the wood is worked while it is still green, it will crack and the sap will come through the finish of the lamp," says Buzalsky.

"The cedar woods are dirty and the green wood has a rough, thick bark. The dry pieces are dark and weatherbeaten with lots of small cracks in the wood which have to be cut out or removed. The colors of the woods do not show up until the bark is removed and I cut into the wood."

BUZALSKY GOT started making the cedar scrub lamps after his wife came home one day and told of a beautiful cedar lamp she had seen in a curio shop display window.

"The lamp was very beautiful and I had my heart set on owning it, but I got the shock of my life when I saw the sales tag," recalls Mrs. Buzalsky. "The lamp was priced at $50 and we didn't have that kind of money to invest in a lamp."

But Buzalsky didn't like to see his wife's dreams for the lamp shattered. While driving through the mountains the next day, he noticed the scrub cedars in various shapes growing from the rocks along the road. Recalling his wife's desire to own a cedar lamp, he stopped the car and gathered some of the rugged wood and took it home to his basement workshop.

"I'm glad I saw the cedar lamp in the store window—even if my inability to afford it did disappoint me in the beginning," says Mrs. Buzalsky. "This is really what urged and prompted my husband to make the cedar lamps which have proved so successful."

WHEN BUZALSKY completed his first lamp, it turned out to be even more attractive than the lamps displayed in the local store.

"I was thrilled to pieces, when my husband presented me with the first cedar lamp," recalls Mrs. Buzalsky. "I gave it an appropriate place right in the living room window, so that folks could see it and enjoy its beauty. Its natural wood coloring goes well with any type of light furniture and its design gives a modern touch to the room."

From then on Buzalsky found himself in the lamp business and he was kept busy searching for and gathering the raw wood scrubs and turning them into lamps for customers.

The first lamp he designed took thirty hours to complete. Cleaning the wood is a slow process.

"The first step I follow in creating the lamps is to cut the wood the desired size for a table or desk lamp," says Buzalsky. "I have to be very careful in cutting the bottom of the base so it will sit straight on an even surface.

"Next, I use a pocketknife to remove all the bark and rough weatherbeaten wood. Using a rough rasp, I go over the entire surface of the intended lamp. After this step, a finer rasp is used on the entire surface again. The deep curves and crevices have to be dug out and scraped. I use a pocketknife and also have a small, electric grinder that has different cutter attachments which are very useful for the cleaning process.

"After these places are cleaned, I go over the entire surface of the lamp with a coarse sandpaper or emery cloth. Then I use a fine sandpaper on the entire surface, followed by a complete rubbing with steel wool."

NEXT, BUZALSKY drills a hole through the entire lamp base from the top to the bottom. He uses a quarter-inch drill with a "welded on" extension, which he uses in an electric tool. He finds that it is a tedious, slow process drilling a hole through some of the twisted wood shapes, but once this is accomplished the most difficult chore is over.

"If the piece of wood I'm working upon is a twisted form and I can't drill the quarter-inch hole straight down, I drill at an angle and come out the other side," says Buzalsky. "Then it may be necessary to drill at an angle and come out the other side again before I'm able to have the hole come out the bottom.

"Of course a hole is formed at the side of the lamp where I come out with the drill, but after the cord is threaded through, I plug the bole with a wood plug whittled from the same color of wood. This I glue delicately into place, and you'd never know I had made a hole there with the drill."

After the lamp maker has drilled the hole through the lamp base, he drills a ³/8-inch hole in the top of the intended lamp about two inches deep. Then he glues on an all-thread, ³/8-inch pipe nipple on top of the lamp. Next he runs a two-strand rubber or plastic cord through the lamp. The socket is screwed onto the nipple after the cord has been fastened to the socket. To hold a shade, he attaches a harp that will screw on top of the socket, or one that will fit at the bottom of the socket.

On the bottom of the lamp he glues a piece of felt cloth—covering the entire base to prevent the wood from marring the tables, desks or walls.

IN FINISHING and treating the wood surfaces of the lamps, Buzalsky first applies clear varnish with a piece of cheesecloth. After the varnish dries, he buffs it with fine, steel wool and a rubbing compound.

"I apply four additional coats of varnish in the same manner," says Buzalsky. "In the final finishing process, I apply rubbing compound or oil over the entire lamp and buff hard for a good shine or finish, and this completes the lamp."

Buzalsky generally lets the customers pick out their own shades and sells the lamps without them. He cautions the lamp buyers, however, to avoid shades with too many frills.

Several of Buzalsky's lamps have been fashioned with unusual shades of attractive mountain and animal scenes.

"These shades are made for my lamps by a local photographer who takes the pictures, hand paints them and stitches them together to form harmonizing shades for the lamp bases," says Buzalsky.

Some of the wood forms Buzalsky gathers in the mountains lend themselves well to the making of hanging wall lamp creations. The hanging lamps are either hung from a nail pounded in the wall or a screw inserted into it. Or, they may also be hung from a wall hanger. The hanging lamp is fitted with an eye screw at the top from which it may be hung from the wall.

"A GIFT shop in Cody is handling all the lamps I can turn out of my basement workshop," says Buzalsky. Cody is located near the entrance of the Yellowstone Park and attracts thousands of folk during the summer months.

"I casually entered the shop one day with some of the lamps tucked under my arms and asked the proprietors if they'd be interested in handling them on a commission basis," Buzalsky recalls. "They liked them upon first sight and they've been a popular item among the shop s customers.

"Of course, I've had relatives and friends calling at my place and buying the lamps also, so I've been selling all I've been able to turn out. I don't want to hire helpers and turn my hobby into a commercial business. I want to keep this strictly a one-man hobby."

The prices of the lamps depend on the size and shape of the individual creation. The wall lamps are priced at $10 to $15, the table lamps at $20 to $30 and the desk lamps sell for $25.

Buzalsky also makes an attractive desk lamp model which is made from one U-shaped piece of wood. The shade, is also made of cedar wood which the lamp maker carved or hollowed out to be fitted with a socket and bulb.

"On the u-shaped desk lamps, I drill the hole on the side that's more straight," says Buzalsky. "I start at the top and drill straight down to the bottom. If it is a twisted piece, I come out on the side as I do in the table lamps and use a plug to hide the hole.

"When I fit the shade between the sides of the U I drill a hole to meet the one I drilled from the top. Here I attach a ³/8-inch all thread nipple for the socket and this also acts as an axle for the shade. On the right side, I place a screw to hold up the shade on that side. The screw extends outward about one-half inch and a small hole the size of the screw head is drilled into the lamp shade—thus fitting over the screw and holding the shade in place."

IN HOLLOWING out the piece of wood to form the shade, Buzalsky uses a jackknife, wood chisel and an expansion bit.

"To protect the wood shade from the light bulb, I line the shade with aluminum—placing asbestos under the aluminum," explains Buzalsky. "The base of this desk lamp is also made with a felt bottom to protect the table or desk from becoming scratched by a rough bottom."

The desk lamps have a beautiful gleaming finish—highly polished in a becoming shade of cream-color wood with burls and stripes of rich cocoa-brown.

"Just recently, I purchased a sandblaster to help clean the wood more quickly," says Buzalsky. "I also purchased a flocking machine or "gun" and use it to apply flocking material on the bottom of the lamp bases (instead of felt) for the protection of tables and furniture."

"One of the wall lamps I've just finished resembles a large bird sitting on a tree branch," says Buzalsky. "The dark, reddish part of the wood forms the eye and the bill, while the head and other parts of the body are formed of the cream-white part of the cedar wood.

"DURING THE spring and summer my wife and two children, Teddy, age five, and Sharen, two, look forward to field trips and the hunting of scrub cedar," says Buzalsky. "My wife packs a delicious picnic basket. Sometimes we take along a huge watermelon, which disappears quickly in the course of an afternoon.

"I often take along my fishing equipment, too, for I frequently run across a good stream that offers good fishing.

It's at these streams that we rest, relax and catch a nice mess of trout to put into our deep freeze at home. The children have the time of their lives on these wood hunts."

After the picnic is over, the Buzalskys pile in the old, pickup truck—the back loaded with scrub cedar to be turned into unusual and graceful lamps—and head for home.