Ladies and Gentlemen;

Some time ago I queried this forum for advice on milling lumber. I thought I would report how things went. I milled back in July.

I felled, limbed and bucked 8 trees, including pine, cherry, a small walnut, 2 very large poplars, and a large red oak at my in-law’s house in Virginia. I had contacted the Va Forestry Service for a list of sawyers, and of the 7 I called, only one returned my call. This was Mr. Chris Bird. Chris has a portable sawmill with all the bells and whistles, to include a hydraulic log loader, and the machine combined with his skill translated into about 3500 bd feet of lumber, now air drying. He charged me $50/hr for the work, and worked non-stop. He did not charge me for our lunchbreak, but I did pay him for the hour it took to drive to the worksite. I think I paid him for about 12 hours labor. He cut the logs however I wanted them…but I relied on him for his advice…this man knows his stuff.

Some lessons learned:
–Milling wood requires labor! I employed my brother in law and 16 year old son to offload boards (and the waste slabs) from the mill, load them into a truck, and then unload them at the drying site. Some boards were 12/4, and at 9 feet, there was quite a bit of weight. At the drying site, my other 2 children (13 and 18) stickered the boards and sealed the endgrain.
–We worked over two days (1 full day and one partial day). Cant hooks and peavies were indispensable. As you might imagine, we generated tons (literally, probably) of waste in terms of limbs and slabs.
–We made 1″ by 1″ stickers out of the smaller poplar logs, and this took Chris only about 15 minutes on the mill. Had I bought pine to make stickers it would have cost me over $100… I was hesistant to use green stickers, but they have dried quickly and I have seen no staining.
–Overall, great experience! Chris Bird lives in Virginia near Warrenton, and you can reach him at (540)675-3409. You can use my name if you wish…I’ve cleared the posting of his name and phone with him.

Ron