TSRuff
ArboristSite Member
Was back at the cabin this weekend for some firewood cutting and milling. Ended up finding a nice black ash about 50' from the main trail and with a great landing spot clear of brush. Couldn't complain about the weather as it was partly cloudy, 55 and a light wind. Only the mosquitos were a bother.
Here's the site after it was dropped, slabbed and removed. I dropped it right down a deer path/dry creek bed so it was nice and easy cutting with plenty of clearance. I cleared up most of the brush as well for firewood since ash burns well, even green.
Once I cracked open the first log there was some great blue mineral staining. The ground has a high concentration of copper and iron so it's not uncommon to see some traces, but this log in particular had streaks running the length.
After 3/4 day of milling I ended up with (8) 3" x 18" x 8' slabs and (12) 3" x 16" x 5' slabs... most of which are shown but without the final cuts made. I left two of them with live edges for making a couple of benches for the cabin, but the rest were trimmed and hauled across the river. They are destined to be re-sawn into 1 1/2" boards on the band saw, then eventually will become a dining room table.
The hauling across the river piece was made infinitely more difficult by the fact that the ramp between the fixed portion of the dock and the floating portion of the dock mysteriously collapsed between when I arrived and when I left. It took about 2 hours to get everything from the barge carried up to the road instead of 15 minutes... in hindsight I should have just dropped a pine and cut some boards for a new bridge section, probably would have been faster.
Here's the site after it was dropped, slabbed and removed. I dropped it right down a deer path/dry creek bed so it was nice and easy cutting with plenty of clearance. I cleared up most of the brush as well for firewood since ash burns well, even green.
Once I cracked open the first log there was some great blue mineral staining. The ground has a high concentration of copper and iron so it's not uncommon to see some traces, but this log in particular had streaks running the length.
After 3/4 day of milling I ended up with (8) 3" x 18" x 8' slabs and (12) 3" x 16" x 5' slabs... most of which are shown but without the final cuts made. I left two of them with live edges for making a couple of benches for the cabin, but the rest were trimmed and hauled across the river. They are destined to be re-sawn into 1 1/2" boards on the band saw, then eventually will become a dining room table.
The hauling across the river piece was made infinitely more difficult by the fact that the ramp between the fixed portion of the dock and the floating portion of the dock mysteriously collapsed between when I arrived and when I left. It took about 2 hours to get everything from the barge carried up to the road instead of 15 minutes... in hindsight I should have just dropped a pine and cut some boards for a new bridge section, probably would have been faster.
