Back to the mill

Saturday was a wash out but Sunday was the most beautiful day ever. We woke up our first frost of the season on the windshield of the truck but that quickly disappeared and we were left with clear blue skies and 16 degrees, perfect fall weather for working outdoors.

Whats left of the load of poplar logs we had delivered in May have to be sawn before winter so we decided we better get at it.

First up we needed to get some logs to the mill.

Things always take longer than you expect, especially when this happens…

In case you can’t tell Jim was gathering up logs and the attachment fell off! It is hanging by the hydraulic lines. He had forgot to put the pins in. So we … well mostly Jim … managed to get it turned around and into position, the thing weighs a ton, and got it re-attached. Easy. Peasy.

First thing we needed to do was put a log on the milll and make stickers. Those are the little pieces of wood that separate the boards and help with air flow while the wood is drying and minimize warping. Its important that they are all the same thickness.

Then it is into the workshop to cut them further down to size.

This is what we got out of that pile. Some are shorter for narrow boards and some are 24 inches long for wider planks.

Here is how it looks when boards are stacked to dry.

After lunch Greg and Shirley came by with three very large, straight 10 foot oak logs they wanted sawn. Beautiful logs.

He wanted them cut, some with live edge, some two inches thick and what ever else we could get from them. This picture is Greg taking the bark off the live edge slabs. It was beautiful wood. (Never thought I would say such a thing) Wow it was heavy! Took two people to carry the slabs to his trailer.

Here is another one of his logs on the mill.

He said he was going to make benches and a clock once the wood is dry.

Once we got his oak all squared away, we took a break, because donuts!! Then we got back to our poplar logs. Needless to say we didn’t get very many of our logs milled today. I’m guessing five.

And these. Jim says a total of about 350 board feet.

We figured we have about 12 – 14 more afternoons to get the rest of the logs milled. Wish us luck.

Best part of the day was we found out where we can source beautiful oak. (Where Greg got his) It happens to be a friends Uncle. Hopefully it will pan out.

After supper, Jim went out and got another load of logs to the crib by the mill, to be ready for the next afternoon we have free so we can get a head start. How’s that for a run on sentence!

Oh, and Greg took some of our stickers home with him so looks like we have to make more.

Later.