Never assume

[Jeff]

Quite often because of where I work or my web work local people contact me about their trees. For the last couple weeks one of my sons buddies (his name is Justin, they call him Pig, dunno why) has been after me to go look at some trees on a lot he bought. He had started clearing it to build and was blocking stuff into firewood but thought that maybe he should ask me to come out cause he thought that a few were big enough to get a few bucks out of.

Well, I knew the area, right up by houghton lake. and sitting right on its back waters, its known for its crappie aspen and low grade oak. I told him not to get his hopes up and put him off a couple three times. People are always clearing lots and think their trees are worth a bundle and usually if not most of the time they are not worth the bother. Finally, yesterday he cornered me and got me to drive up with him.

Well, we got off of 127 on 55 and then turned off on another road going North. Crappie aspen and black oak along the route. The road made a slight turn and dropped in elevation and just at that time Pig pulled over.

I looked to my right down the drive he started to clear and there stood the first of about 20 Northern red oak pushing 100 foot tall and all stem and hardly any tops. Mostly up-wards of 24-25 inches and some 30. A few smaller but all very high quality. Several nice aspen and a few ash, basswood, balsam fir, hemlock and on the back some very nice Northern White cedar that Justin promised me if I could find somebody to come out and look at his trees.

I will never assume again that a small piece of timber is probably not worth bothering with. Today I took Jake, our Forest Tech out there. Justin is going to end up getting a fair portion of his purchase price of the property back by the sale of these Trees. He was hoping to make a thousand, he will make almost 7 hundred on just the first two trees Jake measured. There look to be a couple three already down that would have been worth some dollars 'cept we don't buy 16" long logs.

[Stump Jumper]

 

[David_c]

thems some nice trees.

[oakiemac]

Them Red Oaks look like the ones that I saw over at the "interesting guys" house that I wrote about in an earlyier post. Dandy trees!

[Texas Ranger]

Jake's got a purty good dbh his own bad self.

[Jeff]

Jake came and picked me up and wouldn't go on to to da woods before we stopped at Big Boy for a buffet Breakfast.

[Ron Scott]

Yes, always look at the timber. Who will be doing the harvest for Jake?

[Jeff]

Jake was going to do it himself, but we have to guys tied up in Pennsylvania picking up a sawmill Ray bought at an auction so Jake is committed to the west mill right now so he is going to have Ritchie cut them. They are to nice to trust to anybody but an experienced feller.

[whitepe]

Jeff,
Cool I knew food would get brought into this thread somehow
Those oaks look nicer than the white oaks that I had
that you said would make nice veneer logs.  

[Frickman]

Nice looking timber! I always make a point of visiting every woodlot I can, as you never know what you'll find. One time we bought thirteen cherry trees behind a house that was down the road from another job. Even if the woodlot doesn't turn out to be much, you've shown the owner that you are willing to look, and he'll tell all his buddies about you. One such gentleman has led me to five tracts so far, so the two hours I spent looking at his backyard pine tree has paid off well.

[Viking]

thems some nice trees.

they sure are

[Dave Shepard]

I've been looking for some nice white pine logs for a timber frame order. The log broker I'm working with is having trouble finding what I need, with less than a week to delivery. My co-worker has been telling me to check out his land about two miles from me. "I've got some really big pine over there". I really don't want big pine for timbers, and certainly not a big multi-leader disaster. After I got the news yesterday that I might not have logs to saw on Monday, I was getting a little nervous. He told me to stop at his house, he had some pines that had been planted. Red pine, I thought. Going up the driveway, my spirits dropped. There was a ton of red pine. Nice red pine, if there is such a thing, but no good for me. However, up by the house, there were some decent whites, even a couple of superb examples of the species. OK, now, I've at least got something to whittle on while I'm waiting on the log broker I thought. He told me to stop in at his land on the way back to my house. I drove down the narrow right of way to his piece of land and stopped as soon as I got to the first chunk of pines. I got out, walked 50 into the woods and got out my cell phone.

Dean: Hello?
Dave: Hi Dean, it's Dave, do you own the land on either side of the firewood pile?
Dean: Yes.
Dave: How far?
Dean: About 300' either way.
Dave: We're all set then.

There's enough high quality pine in there to fill the order and then some. Dropping the machine off tomorrow. You just never know until you look.

[WDH]

I need some serendipity like that.

[SwampDonkey]

  There is a local logger/hobby miller who always cuts trees that are bigger than yours. No matter how huge yours are, he cut bigger ones.

[tonich]

Beautiful trees!!!
If I was the government, I would pay the owner the timber equal cash to let them stand, as they are!

[Ed_K]

 I'd like to get one cherry lot before its over.
 Great to see some good news and good spirits here. Its all in the looking up  .

[DanG]

Well it has been six years now, and we still haven't heard how Pig came out on his trees.  They gottem on the ground yet?

[Jeff]

They are long gone.. There is now a house standing there along with a wife and a baby.