Weekend Milling

The weather was beautiful this weekend, but I did not get a whole lot done. Kept getting sap on my arms/wrists and once on my eyelid, was too warm for longsleeves. Goo-Gone will remove tree sap, but I seem to be allergic to both. I milled four logs over the weekend and produced 3-7"x7"x17' posts, and 1-6"x6"x12', plus some random 1x lumber and stickers from the flitches. I loaded up the firewood from the summer's slabs (scrap wood with bark on it) which was mostly pecan. This is my 3rd trailer of firewood from my mill, and I have at least another trailer full in a pile to be cut up. I heat our workshop at work with the scraps and limbs/branches. On another note I started learning google SketchUp last friday. This seems to be a very user friendly program. I was inspired to try it after seeing Bob Le's toolbox done in it a few weeks ago.

Proposed Building Site

This is the area I hope to build on. It is located on my father's land. The section I have picked adjoins property where there was once a limestone quarry (the big blue/black area on the maps). I will either build on the cleared hill, or clear out a spot in the woods directly north. The ground here is solid red dirt, with a limestone rock bottom 15ft under the dirt. A stream flows from west to east across the property along the property line. If the ground perks, and I can get a well dug (for secondary water source) this will most likely be the spot for our future home. Special thanks to google earth for the old satellite images. The top photograph was take from SE facing NW corner. Yellow circle on the sat. image marks planned site.

The Junipers

I am going to take a moment here to share some trees while they are still standing. Most of the Eastern Red Juniper (also known as Easter Red Cedar or simply Cedar locally) that I see are in fields or along fence rows. Free standing trees such as these are heavily limbed from top to bottom, have no true trunk and are extremely knotty when milled. Forest trees are much more desirable for wood, as they usually have true trunks. I only know of a few standing groves of pure juniper, as they are usually found mixed among deciduous forests. If trees grow in barren rocky conditions they will have almost pure red heartwood, with just a tiny band of sapwood. Those trees grow very slowly and produce excellent rot resistant timber/posts. What I am currently cutting is in upper lowland, these trees can grow to tremendous size for their species, up to 36 inches. But they are somewhat cursed by containing more sapwood, sapwood mixed with heartwood, ingrown bark, and other defects. The top left photo shows an average fence tree, bottom left is an old fence tree with almost perfect form yet half doty, bottom right shows a true trunk on a ~24" juniper. The very bottom picture shows a couple of lowland forest junipers .