My friend had a bunch of 100 year old pines lining his driveway. These were big trees over 100 foot tall and three foot in diameter. He had them all cut down as they were at the end of their usable life anyway (one was just starting to rot from the inside so his timeing was pretty good). He had a sawyer come to his house and rough cut everything there. He just air dryed it by stacking with "stickers" between each layer. He got enough lumber to make a 40 x 40 garage as well as a 30 x 30 barn using the rough cut for all the framing, rafters and joists. (He bought T-111 for the siding on the 40 x 40 but used the rough cut board and batten for the 30 x30). Bottom line was he got an awful lot of lumber out of those trees and the drying wasn't even an issue. Well worth it if you have the trees, inclination, and a little time.
Gerard, thanks for the personal knowledge. This is all new to me so all of my reference is from things I have read. We have a fair amount of pine mixed into 20 acres of hardwood and the whole area is really dense and needs thinning. If the pine can be cycled into buildings that would be worth the effort and expense to us. I also just found out that a friend has purchased a portable mill and might well be interested in swapping out a bit. Possibilities.
No problem - He cut in June and built in Sept, did still get a fair amount of shrinkage but not too terrible. Most people recommend air drying for a year but if you get some good hot weather, stick it well and keep the top covered you can get by with a little less. He also put as much weight on top of each pile as he could fit (cinder blocks) to prevent warping.
Small scale logging des not fit the industrial forestry model that most of the foresters use these days. It is not bad; just not what you want. I have a friend who works for a land trust that uses small scale logging operators for situations similar to yours. If you want to talk to him, I'll be glad to put you in touch with him.
You have caught me at an interesting time to ask where we are in Georgia. We have a vacation home on 14 acres north of Gainesville and east of Dahlonega. The place we are talking about in this post is 32 acres in west Georgia 20 miles north of I-20 and almost to Alabama. That one we close on in the middle of next month. Then there is the place we have on the market in Atlanta near Emory U. Sounds pretty good until I look at the extra mortgage payment after next month. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
May just try and get a hold of your friend after we get into the new place. Our first step will be to get the forester in and see what he has to say. Thanks for the offer.
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