Logs to Lumber - some more images and video

Young people are threatened... by the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire. - Pope John Paul II

Well....hard work it is...well was...because it's all done.  All 75+ logs have been cut into all sorts of pretty lumber.  We've never owned our own lumber yard before - but there is something satisfying about seeing all the boards stacked up.

Just thought we'd share some photos and video of the last week of cutting.  All in all it was about 43 hours worth of work, at least 7 saw blade changes, and about 12 different people helping.

 

Every night Denise would go over the log list and cross check it with the lumber list.  She not only kept track every night, but everyday while we cut as well.  Each log was marked for a timber but she figured what other pieces we could get out of it as well.  Sometimes logs were mismarked and she had to recalculate and find new logs and lumber on the fly.

Just a few words about pine sap.  It sticks to everything.  Pens, paper, gloves, tractors, saws, pants, shirts, dog fir, kids feet, faces...all of these and more we have cleaned and re-cleaned in the last week.

Mike - our fearless sawyer - put up with all of our recalculating and last minute cut changes.  He really is a easy going guy! 

The following is a montage of some of the work needed to be done on each log.

Using the peavy to get the log to the mill.

 

Holding it in place while the arms raise it.

 Removing "slab wood".

 Pushing "fliches" to the side to be sawed into boards.

 Finished lumber.

 One of the big ones!

Here are some of the stacks as they stood near the middle of the week.  We hope to have some final pictures of the full stacks soon.

 Beams

 2x8, 2x10, 2x6 and 1 inch material.

 The pile of sawdust!

 More 1 inch material with 4x8 and 2x4 in the background.

 Slab wood.  This pile got much, much bigger.

 A second pile of beams with long 2x6 material in the background.

 The "junk pile" - just all sorts of weird left over pieces.

 Yep.  He stacked them all himself!

 Asleep on the job?  Maybe not.

 A sawdust sand box!

 It's like the beach - but softer!

The last log!  Yeah!!!!

Here's some more video of the last week of sawing.