Solodan - Yeah, I'm about 2600', there is a fair amount of Canyon L.O., lots more Black Oak though. The Calif. Bay just about peters out at this elevation. There are some, but they are mostly small, almost shrubby. We don't have any like you see over on the coast. I'm at the transition between foothill veg (Blue Oak, etc.) and mixed conifer. The south facing slope I live on is mostly Black Oak-Ponderosa Pine. On north slopes there is Doug Fir, on ridges Sugar Pine. Just up the hill a ways is Blodgett Forest, the field station for UC Berkeley school of Forestry. When they harvest, they leave the oaks for firewood - that is primarily what I want to mill, whenever I finish with the adjustment phase on my mill. (Maybe by the summer sometime?)
Farmer 77 - I have some Madrone, I hear it is really tough to dry too. Kind of like manzanita I guess. A friend who once lived up by Puget Sound said that an old timer told him that if you buried Madrone in the bay mud for a year or so it would saw and dry without the bad checking. Sounds like it would be fun to try, if you lived close to the ocean. Not really an option for me. BTW, the really big Interior Live Oak I saw was in the valley near Chico. Most of it in this area is too small, but there are occasionally some big ones near water.
Ray
