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Wife is sick of talking about my mill.

Started by woodjunky, November 24, 2014, 01:30:30 PM

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woodjunky

New here. I am a log home builder by trade. Did some milling on a hydraulic LT40 for an operation around here when I first came off the road 7 years ago. Wanted one since. What changed everything was i got my first piece of land this fall. 3 Acres with power. Nice mature hardwoods in there! Mostly sugar maple. But has some nice mature white ash and basswood mixed in. There was also a mystery tree, that turned out to be black cherry! Lucky me:) At the same time this fall I was building a full scribe from scratch for a big logger. He dropped off a skidder, and a crane, and let me loose. Was my first experience in logging. So all that was missing was a mill........

I found out the mystery tree's were cherry when I was cutting down trees that were leaning on healthy trees. General clearing of dead stuff. The mystery tree is bright red! These trees dont have cherries on them , so i had to do more looking before i was sure. These cherries are no bigger than 12" mostly. And are a sickly breed with alot of dead and dying. alot of funky burls. I hacked about 10 down that were standing dead, and have them piled next to my new mill...

Oh yea I got a new mill! .... got it the day before the 5 feet of lake effect snow dropped on us, and my front axle broke on my truck..... So it sits under tarps under snow with my logs waiting for my truck to get fixed. 10 days and counting. My wife can not handle my OCD anymore. So I found a forum full of equally addicted wood junkies.

The Maple is a good 30" diameter with a few larger. But we are in harsh country. Glacial gravel bench. Shallow bedrock. Also in an old seasonal flood zone. The ground is saturated with large underground springs in areas, and spring thaws surely flooded it every year. But old timers dug a ditch across the section and water level dropped. I see huge stumps of flakey black desintegrated wood that I believe are the old cherry. The Cherry and yellow birch didnt like the lower water table, and died off. The Cherry keeps growing but gets funky before they get big. Yellow birch isnt growing back, and i plan to cut the two I have to use them before the funk sets in...

There was a large maple that was hollow and blew over a year or so ago im guessing. 12' stump was 30+-" diameter  at chest. All my trees flare at the bottom with rootballs kind of sticking out... They are also all gnarly. There will surely be a high percentage of curly and figured wood. I think i have a large birdseye as well! But i wont find out for sure til i get my operation in order, and drying shacks built.  Large maple on the ground was fair game though. Halved the stump for my small mill. Cut a triple crotch that the slabs should be able to mirror eachother with very little loss. There were spalted main branches. There was a log that was streaky with a rainbow of colors that is still completely solid. I'd say half is getting a little soft, and will be nothing more than experiments of what could have been. But the other half will give me a great assortment of clean white, curly, spalted, and other weird fungal staining I have never seen before with my limited hardwood experience... An area of the trunk was actually spotted. Not birdseye, but had a color diference of white spots on a darker (heartwood colored) area. Similar look to a quarter sawn oak spots but I dont think it actual quilting of any kind. Just a rare fungal discoloration? Wont know til i get it cut cleaner and maybe even throw a board through the planer.  See what it actually is...

Finally I bought the smallest manual Hud-son bandsaw. Only cost $2600 new, with a couple hundo for a box of blades. Just under $3k total. Does 21" diameter in a perfect world. and 10' length. 6' extensions are $405. I plan to get one when i get my log moving equip. Right now 4wheeler skidder, and my bad (admin edit) self. I have my tricks. I also have a small crane that I will surely be motivated to fix the bad hydraulics next spring:) Until then 8-10" cherry, and a few beefy maple chunks that are sitting right next to my piers I hand dug (when the snow started).

Game on guys.

jrose1970

Sounds like you have plan! Good luck.
After the snow melts of course. LOL
HFE-36; International 424-37HP; McCullogh Pro 10-10

beenthere

Welcome to the Forestry Forum.
Sounds like a good beginning....

Now be so kind to add your general location to your Profile. Will help to relate to your posts, which I hope will be more in the future. smiley_thumbsup

And we like pics.  :)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

wetdog

Be carefull feeding your "wood addiction". Every tree will appear to be dying and before you know it you'll be living next to a stump orchard.

thecfarm

We never get sick of talking about wood.   ;D 
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

drobertson

Howdy! and real good to hear about your land acquisition,   Can hardly wait now for this ongoing saga ;D  I find my wife kinda tunes me out once in awhlle ;D   
only have a few chain saws I'm not suppose to use, but will at times, one dog Dolly, pretty good dog, just not sure what for yet,  working on getting the gardening back in order, and kinda thinking on maybe a small bbq bizz,  thinking about it,

RM Farm

Welcome woodjunky, I agree with wetdog, I just got my mill about a month or so ago, talk a about addiction! :D Have fun and be safe.
Thanks, Robert

Woodland Mills HM126; Kubota L3200 with FEL, quick attach forks.

Magicman

Hello woodjunky, and Welcome to the Forestry Forum.   8)
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

WmFritz

Like D.R.'s, my Wife tends to tune me out too. Sometimes her eyes glaze over first.  :D

Welcome to Forestry Forum.
~Bill

2012 Homebuilt Bandmill
1959 Detroit built Ferguson TO35

Brucer

On the other hand ...

When we pass a logging truck, we'll both take note. And if I have to concentrate on the road, Barb will tell me what was on the truck, how big, and what the quality was ;D.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

dboyt

21" diameter is a fair size tree, but I bet you'll be trimming logs with your chain saw and be scanning for a bigger mill before long.  Sounds like a good plan.  Sounds like you've got a good assortment of interesting logs.  Cherry is always welcome on my mill.  What are your plans for the wood?
Norwood MX34 Pro portable sawmill, 8N Ford, Lewis Winch

trapper

stihl ms241cm ms261cm  echo 310 400 suzuki  log arch made by stepson several logrite tools woodmizer LT30

woodjunky

How did you train your wife to do that for you Brucer? Bribe her with safe driving i guess? girls like their safety .... They always like their flower gardens... Im writing this down guys  :laugh:

Have you figured out how to stop the eyes from glazing over WMFritz? And do they ever get stuck that way? Because we been stuck in this house together for 12 days now, and Im starting to get nervous that her eyes are going to stay glazed over perminent? ;D

I am making her some black ash cabinets for her kitchen this winter. Sped things up a few years and bartered some great boards from a log whisperer friend of my. Wide boards with a pile of 16" , 12" and less to choose from... raised pannel. I am going to angle them a bit, and mirror them to make V's or WWWWW when you look at a row of doors, or the front of my penninsula (like an island but attached:)). Thinking of adding some color with some inlaid lake superior agate slabs. Local rock hounds sell them fairly cheap up here.  And agates for handles... Thinking i can free hand with my small router for the inlay. Drilling the agates for handle knob hardware will be the hard part i imagine. agates are hard! might have to buy a special bit or something. hope its that easy. lol Its going to look nice tho.

WmFritz

 Woodjunky, Vicki likes to give me a hard time about the mill when I'm not sawing, but when I fire it up, guess whose tailing? And then she gets all particular about scraping the boards down with 'her' 10" drywall knife. I can never do a good enough job for her.
Don't even get me started on her fussiness with my stickering. She's right on top of me pointing out every sticker that I may lay a 1/4" cockeyed.  ;D

You'd think she was trained by red oaks lumber himself!  :D
~Bill

2012 Homebuilt Bandmill
1959 Detroit built Ferguson TO35

woodjunky

Truck is fixed and getting picked up in morning. Then I have a good 3 feet of compacted snow to shovel...... I'm trying to throw a positive twist on it, but it basicly is terrible any way I look at it:) The next day though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

backwoods sawyer

Backwoods Custom Milling Inc.
100% portable. . Oregons largest portable sawmill service, serving all of Oregon, from our Backwoods to yours..sawing since 1991

Brucer

Quote from: woodjunky on November 25, 2014, 12:25:28 PM
How did you train your wife to do that for you Brucer?

I would never dream of trying to "train" my wife -- I'm not a masochist :D.

She started paying attention to trees and logs when I got my mill 'cause that's where a good portion of our income comes from.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

Magicman

Bruce's wife Barb is quite a gal.  She is also a good cook.   food6
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

woodjunky

Got the mill temped up to cut some beams to mount it onto the piers. Couldnt get it started in the 5degree weather

  

  

  . Flooded it bad, and it got dark on me. Tomorrow should be a great day though.

YellowHammer

Quote from: Brucer on November 30, 2014, 02:46:11 AM
Quote from: woodjunky on November 25, 2014, 12:25:28 PM
How did you train your wife to do that for you Brucer?

I would never dream of trying to "train" my wife -- I'm not a masochist :D.

She started paying attention to trees and logs when I got my mill 'cause that's where a good portion of our income comes from.
Mine too, when she gets tired of hearing about the mill, or logs, or kilns, or planing, etc, she goes inside and tallies up the day's receipts, then comes back out and asks why the mill isn't running. :D :D

YH
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Magicman

Quote from: woodjunky on December 01, 2014, 08:02:31 PMCouldnt get it started in the 5degree weather
I wouldn't ah started either.   :snowball:
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Swatson

My wife glazes over when I talk about milling, woodworking, firewood...you know all the good stuff.  Now as for the training, I would rather walk into a pen of starving tigers wearing a pork chop loin cloth than try to train her.  I would expect that in both scenarios the outcome would be near the same.
I cant figure out which one I like better: working with wood or making the tools to work with wood.

beenthere

south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

woodjunky

My wife has me trained.......? I thought I could train her, with the whole womens rights thing and all???
  Im glad i met you guys before the tigers eating pork loin thing happened to me!!!

jrose1970

I actually got out of the tiger cage long enough Saturday to cut up two 8 foot logs about 20" diameter. LOL
HFE-36; International 424-37HP; McCullogh Pro 10-10

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