Antique Acres - Cedar Falls,Iowa -Updated:Videos

[inspectorwoody]

Just got back from the show and couldn't have asked for a better day! Sunny and warm but the results of all the rain we have recieved didn't go unnoticed!

There was a small shop set up and a gentleman was making wooden handles etc. He had some wood species laid out and numbered and laying next to it was a little piece of paper with speices on it. You had to match the sample number with the name on the paper. Natalie asked me if I was going to try it and I did! Was down to my last three. Hackberry,White Elm and Spruce. Guy told me that the streaks in one sample were not normal and than I got it! He told me I was the first person to get them all correct. Than I told him I was a lumber inspector!  ;D :D ;D He has bought lumber from us before and the sample of Cherry he had came from us.


This little boy was having fun operating this crawler when we parked.


This beautifal truck belongs to Fishsticks Mill Work located in Janesville,Iowa. They also had their Lucas Mill and Blockbuster Firewood Processor there. The father was killed last year in a snowmobile accident and the boy has kept the business going.


The following are pictures from what I call the "Mini Circle" and boy was it neat! It made quick work out of small limbs etc. Some were decent size.


Found another Crabb Circle Mill! 


Another Circle Mill they had on display.


Shingle Mill


Mini Steam Baler


Hope you all enjoy them as much as Natalie and I did being there. 

[beenthere]

Thanks for the pics. Looks like a great day too. Was here as well. 
Spent part of the day on a tour boat on the Wisconsin River above the Wisconsin Dells (tourist trap). Great scenery.

[inspectorwoody]

http://www.youtube.com/v/v5arppbOu_E

http://www.youtube.com/v/Dk14efd0CZk

[Tom]

When I was in the UP visiting Jeff, Marcell (isawlogs) and I took a field trip and visited a sawmill that is within a couple of miles of Jeff's place.  There is an older fellow and his son that run it. We got to spend a good deal of time with the father, who gave us a "high-dollar" tour of the operation.  He has a shingle mill too, and it looks a lot like the one in the video above.

The story of this sawing operation was very interesting and I wish I had the whole thing committed to memory.  It seems that this older fellow and a friend started a sawmill years ago.  His friend died but the friends widow wanted an arm and a leg for the land that had the sawmill.  So, the sawmill was moved and set-up on this property where the son became envolved (he was a logger) and now the two of them saw cedar.  The Father led me to believe that, as much as he liked sawing,  the joy was in the fact that he and his son were doing something together.   I can understand that.

They have a resaw(planning another with a turn-around) a circle mill (an old American), a planer, binding equipment, a relatively new Timber Harvester bandsaw, tractors and logging equipment that belongs to his son.

He said that his shingle mill wouldn't cut a thing when he first got it, so, he sent it to Menominee and got it "gummed out" and resharpend.  Essentially, the teeth were reshaped.  Now it cuts just fine.  He is proud as punch of his shingle mill.   When he first got it, he was bringing in butt cutts and shorts from the woods, following the loggers.  When the Mills started taking the stuff that had been preveiously left in the wood, he was left with just the cutoffs at his sawmill.  I think that he has enouogh to keep him as busy as he wants to be though. 

Funny thing about getting some age under your belt.  It doesn't take near as much to keep you entertained.  :D

I look forward to another trip to the UP just to visit with this fellow.  He's fun.