Milling day!

I have been looking forward to seeing a bandmill in action for a LONG time (well, at least a year). Today I had my chance on Orcas island.

As background, I had a stockpile of 9 tree trunks sitting on our property (mix of douglas fir, spalted maple, elm, and madrone) that I wanted to mill. I had these taken to our local sawyer in a big ol' dump truck. 

The sawyer, Kai, lives on an incredibly picturesque farm with a giant meadow, swimming pond, barns and of course piles and piles of lumber! Sounds like heaven to me.

The mill produces an incredible amount of sawdust -- trash can size quantities every hour. It was fun to decide how the log should be milled and then seconds later see the inside of the log. But lifting the slabs around after cutting them was serious work. The largest log we milled weighed almost 5,000 lbs!

That pile above is half of my logs. Awesome, right?? So, what will I do with all this wood? No idea! But I am sure I will think of a gazillion projects over the next 20 years. I hope to sell enough slabs to cover the milling fees. 

Will I need to buy more lumber? Yep! But not quite yet. Each project and furniture piece lends itself better to specific species, so I need more variety in my stockpile! Next on my log wish list is cherry, walnut, and white oak.