Daninvan
ArboristSite Operative
Down to the beach with a milling buddy, the city crew set up another piece of cherry for me, as well as the piece of elm that I was eying last week. The cherry is the trunk from an ornamental flowering cherry that was a city tree in a park or boulevard. Got there about 9, it was a pretty foggy day. Cold too, the van had ice on the windshield which for some reason I had a terrible time getting rid of. A put the handwarmers in the gloves day, at least for a fair weather miller like me!
As we worked at it, the fog gradually dissipated. It was quite a sight to first see the tops of the mountains peeking out of the fog, then the ships in the harbour, then more and more of the mountains. A guy meditating in the cold there on the lower left of the picture.
By the time we were done, there was just a touch of fog/haze left.
The milling worked out very well, with minimal chainsaw issues for a change. Thought we had hit a nail at one point, but happily it was a false alarm. The elm was a bit shorter than I had recalled from when I first saw it, I was able to trim it to 30" long and mill it 90 degrees to the usual milling direction. Tons of noodles produced when cutting that way! Wound up with 13 or 14 slabs by the end of it, I never did a final count. Though they are not long, the wood is beautiful and I am happy with them.
The cherry was hiding some very nice burl action in the last two cuts, my friend who is a turmer was delighted to take those pieces home.
We did not leave much behind this time, just skin and bones.
Afterwards I went and scouted out the big woodpile that has been accumulating for a while, I marked three more similar cherries, a plum log, and another piece of elm, even bigger than the one we cut today! I hope to get to that next week, will probably use the 60" bar. With the four cherries that I have milled recently, and the additional three I marked, and two others also waiting for me, I will have nine cherry logs this year. If each slab is very roughly 25 bf (4'x2'x3"), with 5 slabs from each log, and 9 logs, I am looking at close to 1000 bf of cherry this year! Actualy, it's a shame that they are being cut down, but at least I feel better that they are not wasted.
As we worked at it, the fog gradually dissipated. It was quite a sight to first see the tops of the mountains peeking out of the fog, then the ships in the harbour, then more and more of the mountains. A guy meditating in the cold there on the lower left of the picture.
By the time we were done, there was just a touch of fog/haze left.
The milling worked out very well, with minimal chainsaw issues for a change. Thought we had hit a nail at one point, but happily it was a false alarm. The elm was a bit shorter than I had recalled from when I first saw it, I was able to trim it to 30" long and mill it 90 degrees to the usual milling direction. Tons of noodles produced when cutting that way! Wound up with 13 or 14 slabs by the end of it, I never did a final count. Though they are not long, the wood is beautiful and I am happy with them.
The cherry was hiding some very nice burl action in the last two cuts, my friend who is a turmer was delighted to take those pieces home.
We did not leave much behind this time, just skin and bones.
Afterwards I went and scouted out the big woodpile that has been accumulating for a while, I marked three more similar cherries, a plum log, and another piece of elm, even bigger than the one we cut today! I hope to get to that next week, will probably use the 60" bar. With the four cherries that I have milled recently, and the additional three I marked, and two others also waiting for me, I will have nine cherry logs this year. If each slab is very roughly 25 bf (4'x2'x3"), with 5 slabs from each log, and 9 logs, I am looking at close to 1000 bf of cherry this year! Actualy, it's a shame that they are being cut down, but at least I feel better that they are not wasted.
