2 trips in 2 weeks, amazing!

I made it out 2 times in the past 2 weeks. Hope to make it out again next week to hunt and possibly do a little milling. It sure is looking good out there. Cut some wood for the mill, fireplace, and to deer hunt. I scoped out a concrete pad I am sizing up to build a pavilion on for picnics. The trees were cut for either posts or picnic table for the pavilion. A beaver has been out there but not sure if it is still around. A lot of dirt has been pushed up around the overflow pipe on the dam and I found the den. I checked on the trees I have planted. The bald cypress are doing well with some around 5 feet tall. The cottonwood has been hit by animals, and all that is left is little mud puddles in a neat line where they were planted. The mayhaws also look to have drowned in the high water. I will need to get a closer look with waders or rubber boots to tell them apart from the brushy plants. I will get another post up soon with pics and better details.

All right, now we are getting somewhere! I took delivery of the Logrite Junior arch recently with the extension handle. It is a well made piece of equipment with everything lining up properly and nice, contnuous, smooth welds. Even the bolts were good quality. The arch can hold up to a 16" diameter log in the tongs and 16' in length because of the extension. I am not sure I would want to pull its full capacity by hand. I can now haul all my firewood as practically tree length material to my firewood pile. It will also hold a log above the ground for bucking into firewood lengths. No more hitting dirt and dulling the chain. I will also start hauling larger, heavier logs to the mill with it. The little lawn tractor was having a hard time dragging much of a log, even with a piece of old barrel as a skidding cone. Cedar was pretty much the limit for it, and short or small diameter pieces at that. I hope to get some use out of it this spring as a lot of cleaning needs to be done and some of those trees will make decent wood for the sawmill. I have been rereading some of my books in preparation for marking and cutting more junk trees to make room for the good ones to grow. I will have a report on how it worked out next time.

Rains and wood

I am really glad I made it out. Previously, I had my wood stack float 10 feet closer to the pond during a big rain event. It has rained 2.5 inches in the last few days, and I am glad I picked up everything. A large portion of the wood was the dead cedar I milled. I added a picture of some to the left. It is some beautiful wood. I also picked up some 6/4 cedar elm lumber and the osage stump I milled. I should be set on porject wood for a while, and need to rig up a router jig to plane the osage lumber becuase fo the size and crazy grain. You should check back in the future to see the final results. The cedar elm has checks in the pith, but I expected that from the small, twisted trees I cut. I believe next on the agenda for the woodlot is to set up the mills wood deck and start collecting up another group of logs starting with rot and bug resistant cedar. If I can get the deck set up, then all of the logs can be kept off the ground and in relatively good condition. It will allow me to log for a while and mill them all at once. Stacking the lumber was a pain when I was doing a log here and there where I cut the movement prone cedar elm well after the eastern red cedar. The cedar stacked on the cedar elm would have weighted it down some, but it is a pain to break up a wood stack every time you mill. I hope to mill a decent stack all at once in the future. I still have quite a few dead cedars to go, some more cedar elm culls, and may cut some stagnant post oaks to release some saplings near the sawmill. The ERC is going to be milled into 8/4 lumber for table legs and a certain style of cabinet I want to make. The cedar elm will become more 6/4 that I resaw after it moves during drying into 1/2" stock. The oak will probably just become yard timbers for a raised bed garden at home, and that means I don't need to dry it. Hope to get out soon, but it may be a while with the kiddo taking up my time!

Woo Wee! Made it out!

I made it out to the property for a little while at least. I did not accomlish much on the forestry end of things other than some pics for a buddy who's business is Texas Timbers. He wants some cedar elm badly to turn into flooring. The photo shows a cedar elm twig with leaves using my hand for size reference. I remember when I first spoke to him on the phone when he was looking for new woodlots to source wood from. He had never heard of cedar elm and wanted nothing to do with it. Now that he has seen what I have done, he has done a 180 on the topic. I am keeping mine for myself, and he has his own sources. I was able to do a little mowing, caught some fish for dinner and through back a 4lbs largemouth, and made sure everything was alright. I made it home with all of the wood I had cut and it appears to be nice and stright with little problems. One cedar elm board has some bug activity, but I think it will pass like my earlier experiments did. Next on the agenda is make some items with all of this wood for the business. Hopefully I will get enough stock built up to begin doing the local Third Monday Trade Days!

Stuck at home, so testing cedar elm

Well, I am stuck at home with the new baby! I guess if there is any reason to stay away from the woods, it is our new little girl. Another good thing to come from staying home is I get to use some of the wood harvested and milled from the property. Here is a pic of a box out of cedar elm I milled from a cull tree that was crooked and skinny. Nobody could tell me anything about the wood except that it must be similar to other elms. Duh, but how close? Well, this is one tough, pretty wood. The interlocking grain makes it stringy, and it is very tough. Sharp tools are a must with this wood to prevent burning. It has a very light sapwood and a medium brown heart wood, and there is a very dramatic break between the two. The sap tears out much more than the heart, and quartersawn rays are prone. It does show a very nice rayfleck in the quartersawn grain. The interlocking grain in the sapwood also shows a very interesting zigzag pattern that can make the planesawn faces nice. The hardness made it dificult for me to remove swirl marks from some coarse grit sanding. I think I have found a new favorite wood as long as I can get past the burning issue. I hope to be out in the woods working soon, but until then I have some fruits of my labors to play with.

Rain, rain, go away ...

Rain is the bane of my attempts to work on the woodlot right now with 13.2" so far this month and we were double the average last month. May is usually the last chance to work outside before it gets hot in Texas. I managed to go out and check on conditions. The pond is way up and flooding where the dead oaks are located. We finally have definitive proof of why that is happening. Full pool only occurs in the spring and saturates the soil enough to kill the post and willow oaks. I will need to plan for planting more cypress or another water loving tree there next year as these trees desintegrate and rot. A high water level is killing my newly planted cypress and mayhaw seedlings. They can stand flooding as long as their tops are above the surface. Mortality will be higher, but I expected some. They don't last long when they are a foot under the surface. A lone, sick hickory was the only casualty from the severe thunderstorms. Hopefully, the place will dry out some soon so that I can saw up the rest of the dead eastern red cedar and start on my forestry projects of releasing some sapling areas and culling some damaged trees for firewood and saw up some wood for a dock.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I will go with the bad first. The state forester came out, looked around for 15 minutes, and said manage for wildlife. I was disappointed that the only two aspects he considers important are pine production and wildlife. The main trees I have, oak and hickory, are good for wildlife and hardwood timber. He said that hardwood takes to long so don't mess with it. I figured I would get a response like this, but not one devoid of any help at all. The good news is the folks over at http://www.forestryforum.com/ have been very helpful with their expertise. I have enough book learning to get a plan in place, and the forum members can help me fill in the gaps and problem areas. The ugly comes in two parts. First is a couple of ugly areas of poor form elm overtopping some nice oak and hickory saplings. The forum members helped me a lot by informing me that it would be a good idea to cut out the poorly formed trees and release these seedlings. The second is the ugly bois d'arc trees I found pushed over may not be good for sawing. I cut up the first on into firewood because of a monster heart check 6" wide splitting the trunk. Combined with the regular exterior checking, the log was toast. I have only trimmed off some of the limbs of the second larger one, but it appears it will be the same. They are going to make over a cord of firewood, so we will have a couple years supply of rot proof firewood on hand.

Cutting some cull trees

I managed to make it out during the wonderful weather we were having, but is changing in a couple of days to cold and wet. The main purpose was to cut a couple of culls. One was a bois d'arc I was going to use for some duck calls for a fellow. I was not able to tackle the big one I have because of windy weather so I took down a smaller stump sprout attached to a funky, gnarly one I like to look at and will keep. This one served no purpose, was a leaner, and was not healthy. It made a few nice yellow boards, but was not clear enough for many blanks. The area it shaded had some hickory saplings that I would prefer in it's place. The whole area around this bois d'arc is a hickory grove. The other tree I took down was a small crooked cedar elm with a busted up top. Nobody could tell me what the wood looked like and all I have seen is some sapwood boards I made out of a large limb. I decided to sample some for myself. The pic at the top shows the grain and color well. I love the coloration. This log was only 12" on the biggest end. It should make some really nice turning blanks. I sawed the boards thick to straighten them out after drying since elm moves a lot during drying.

Business and marketing a niche product

Ah, the joy of coming up with ways my small business can market it's products. I am currently using the mill to make my own lumber from thinnings and cleanings on the property. The higher the end the end use, the higher the profit I can make. The trees were junk to a luber buyer, the lumber I cut could probably be sold for $2.00 a board foot, or I can make a bench out of about 15-20 board feet and a few hours of my time that sells for $100-$200. The cedars I milled on Monday would have been considered junk by any self respecting forester or logger. They were broken 8-12 feet up, most were standing dead, and they showed signs of insect damage. I could see the diamond in the rough. 100 board feet of beautiful, pink eastern redcedar to make all sorts of rustic items out of. I like to build what I see in the wood, not gather up wood to fit to a plan. A nice leaner had perfect slabs for bench legs or possibly book shelf sides. The smaller diameter logs will yield lots of wall shelves or mini picket fences. All from a few junk logs. I still have several larger standing dead cedars to go that are even bigger, and then I can get started on the hardwoods. The trick is to get the logs cut and air drying so that I can get them in the product pipeline. I need to pay for that sawmill somehow since I want this place to be self supporting. I plan on using Etsy to sell the small items, a local flea market once a month, and my website for larger and commissioned items. I may try to sell unusual lumber pieces on Ebay, but I will post it on the website at first. I should be able to start making items in a month or 2 that I can market as 100% Texan, made in the US, and sustainably harvested.

Sawmill is here!

Well, the sawmill is finally home and set up. We had a problem when picking it up with a faulty drive belt. The owner of Mister Sawmill fixed it. I am really glad I asked for a demo run. The drive pully was out of alignment, and that would have been a pain to fix in the field. I ran a test log after getting it to the property and it works well. There is definitely going to be a learning curve with this tool. I went out this past weekend and cleared out some busted, half dead cedar big enough to mill. They cut into ~100 board feet of nice lumber, and one made an especially nice set of 8/4 bookmatched boards for bench legs. I also had my first busted band right at the end of the last cut. Now I need to figure out why. I did not bring a piece home, but you can look at where the cracks start and see chat it might be. Hopefully they don't start at the back since that means the guides are not set up right. Cracks on the front mean something is wrong with feed rate, lube, dull blade, etc. I hope it was just me pushing to hard, and I already know I was not using enough lube. There are still a few more dead cedars to mill and a 8' tall 12" DBH hickory near the mill. I have been wondering what boke their tops out. I get to start fetching logs from farther off with the lawn tractor after that. It pulled a 5'x8' skid pretty well. Hopefully it will pull a log with a skidding cone.

Weather and new beginnings

Weather seems to be my bane right now. The sawmill from Mistersawmill is delayed again because of the severe thunderstorm blowing down part of their building. First the ice storm and now this. Nature seems at odds with me lately. I have begun construction of my business website: http://www.jtcwoodcrafts.com . If you stop by, please keep in mind it is under construction. The site will be used to showcase some larger woodworking projects for sale and show what I can do for commissioned pieces. I will also be showcasing my new sawmill business there. Since the sawmill is mobile, I will be using it to custom saw for customers at their site. I will be practicing a little before I start marketing this new venture. It should key in well with my small item set at Etsy.com: http://jtcwoodcrafts.etsy.com . The Etsy site is where I have been selling small boxes for a while now. I just need to get more of them built and posted for sale.

Picking up speed

Well, things are really moving now. 100 cypress and 25 mayhaw trees are on their way from Arborgen. The dibble bar should make it before they do, and I should be able to get them in the ground before spring. If they ever call to say they shipped. I decided not to wait for the forester to get around to visiting and helping with a plan. A few areas need replanting to a very water tolerant species, and I wanted to get them in the ground now. The mayhaws are jsut for fun. Mmmm, I can already taste the jelly! I also put a deposit down on a sawmill from Mister Sawmill up in Flippin, AR. http://www.mistersawmill.com It should be ready in 2 weeks. I opted for the Model 21 with the 13HP Honda engine and 20' deck. It should handle almost anything I can find to put on it. I sure hope nobody offers me anything larger than I can handle. It will be used to cut some construction lumber for the property, unique wood to sell, and start a mobile sawmill business in the near future.