It happened. After the tree came down the sawyer (what you call someone who mills trees - just learned this) came over to my house and painted the ends of all of the limbs so the tree wouldn't start drying out before being milled. A week later he came back and collected the wood for milling. He invited me to come and watch so I did! I asked if I could bring a friend and he said yes, so I invited Kelly, who will be designing the backyard cottage. I really wanted her to be a part of the process so she could get a feel for the tree and the wood and what she feels would be the best way to incorporate the wood into the new structure.
Here are the big limbs that he is loading from his truck to his tractor to drive over to the saw.
This is the kiln used to dry wood a bit faster than naturally drying it. The kiln uses hydrolic heat (110 degrees) to dry the wood. He dried his wet clothes in there once when his dryer broke down. I will be drying mine naturally (about 2 yrs outside) instead of using the kiln. He prefers kiln when possible as it is a more natural, slow dry with better results.
This is a 100 yr. old steel wheel from an old saw mill that he and the team repurposed and used to build their own large saw. Turns out a lot of the machines are not made in a factory but built by the sawyers themselves. These guys are tinker-ers/natural engineers who enjoy inventing and making things. He is also wearing his BLM mask...very proud.
Here is that large saw from another angle. You can still see the steel wheel on your right. This saw is for huge trees like the Douglas Fir he is standing in front of. That tree is from a private collection he has been slowly milling for a customer. This is hard work, takes time and there are so many customers and not that many sawyers.
This is the smaller, portable saw that he used to mill my tree.
Here he is using his tractor to load a limb onto the saw.
Here the limb is just beginning to be cut.
Here the saw is half way through. It is hard to see the blade but it's there.
Here you can see the cut line as the saw goes through the wood.
This is what my cherry tree looks like inside! He said this is the most beautiful time to really see all of the colors as the wood is still wet. It was pretty dry looking within 15 min. and not as vibrant...like a colorful rock in a river that dries out and looks dull. The moisture really evaporates quick.
This is one of the limbs that grew crooked and I was curious/concerned how he was going to mill it.
Turns out he just laid it on its side with a giant hook on a wood handle.
This is what the wood looks like from that limb. You can see how a branch had, at some point in the trees life, started growing and then eventually came off.
He pointed out to us the dark brown lines in this piece and informed us that this was damaged done to the tree bark when the tree was young. Very fascinating.
This limb was not particularly big but still usable. He was cutting down the middle so the two pieces are chunky. They can be used as table legs.
This limb was also skinny and hard to cut on the portable mill without some support (it would jump around) so he used clamps to help support it on the machine while he made the cut.
Another view of the saw making a cut along the bottom of the limb to remove the outer layer of bark/skin.
Another cut using clamps.
Sawyers are naturalist too as they work with trees all day. I asked what the weirdest thing he ever found in a tree was and he brought out this. I got very excited and decided it was from the Clovis tribe and it's worth millions of dollars. But, alas, no. It is clearly forged and he believes it was from back in the day when lumberjacks would use spikes to help drag the wood to the river. He figures this got trapped in the tree and it wasn't until he was milling the tree that he discovered it...cause it broke his blade! You can see the clean, straight cut his blade made.
He did show me a section of limb that he cut that appeared to have some rot. I couldn't see any difference in the beautiful wood but then he had me touch it and it was spongy. He said that section was no longer wood but a fungus or something. He said that it was fine to go ahead and dry the wood and then whomever works the wood can use an epoxy to firm up that area and totally use the wood like nothing is wrong with it. Very cool. Once he has cut all the wood he will deliver it back to my place, stack it on the north side of my house (with spacers and a tarp on top) and I will have usable cherry wood in 2 years!
