Treevival

You are looking at a spike that was driven into a railway tie approximately 140 years ago. It spent almost 100 years buried under gravel and asphalt.
This was part of the Pioneer Ave. Street car line. (Formerly part of Notre Dame Ave)
Swipe left.
I’ve been looking at this wood for a few years now and it’s time to do something with it. Any ideas?

I’ve been admiring this cradle that my great-grandfather made when his daughter was expecting. It pleases me a lot that there are others in my extended family that also enjoyed woodworking.
The cradle was made over 100 years ago and features hand-cut compound dovetails!
It was probably made out of pine and then painted with a faux wood finish.
Like the Pennsylvania Dutch, Mennonites used affordable material and then embellished it. The hand wrought steel is quite unusual for traditional cradles of that time.
If you look closely (swipe left) you can see a lot of wear around the k**b. My grandmother tied a string around this k**b as a simple way of rocking her children to sleep.
This is one of the few things my grandparents brought with them when they fled Ukraine during the Bolshevik revolution in the early 1900’s.

I rescued this bur oak log from St. Boniface about five years ago. I immediately coated it with wax to slow down the drying and minimize cracking. (An almost impossible task with bur oak unfortunately)
I decided to insert a butterfly today to prevent the crack from getting any wider. (Swipe left for more pics)
I always feel like I’m saving significant history when I bring these pieces home and find a use for them.
Any idea how old this tree was?
By my calculations it was a little sprout when Louis Riel came back to Canada after being exiled to the United States. Métis and First Nations alike were not
happy with no land tenure and unfulfilled treaty obligations so Louis brought a force of resistance to let leaders know this was not acceptable.
I did not end well for Louis Riel but we owe him a debt of gratitude for his efforts.
It’s incredible to me that this tree survived for almost 150 years!