I've been harvesting many (~5,200 bd-ft of logs) recently dead oaks from my forest over Winter and Spring. Today, I finally got started on milling. FWIW, I hire out a portable miller and just do all the manual labor of offbearing, stacking, etc. Today we sawed only chestnut oak. Some really nice boards and some o.k. boards.
Finally got started stacking and stickering the lumber we sawed Tu-Th. It was zero fun in 90+ degree weather. For the record the blue is chestnut oak, the purple is white oak and the unlabelled is red oak. Black dots are quartersawn.
With all those big oaks you got some nice stock Mike. Ill bet that chestnut oak smelled great while milling. Rare scrounge for me and my favorite of all oaks. What size stock did you mill? Any plans for the stock or do you sell it?
I sawed all types of boards. The best logs I sawed into 4/4 - 6/4 as wide as possible. The lower grade logs I sawed into 1.5" x 8" x 8' trailer decking or 4x4's. Yes I would love to sell it all eventually, but no specific plans yet.
Chestnut oak does smell fantastic. After I’ve split/stacked it, the days after the next couple rains it really lets off the aroma.
Mike, just get yourself a mill dangit. I remember back when you got your tractor, that baby's got to be paid off now. Sounds like you're already have a Lumber yard going. Sorry about your weather , I'll probably jinx myself but I've had shirt sleeves on for 2 days now.
Would love to, but I'm too spoiled by seeing mills with full hydraulics and computer setworks. So, I don't have an extra $50K kicking around.
