My new member introduction and a bunch of questions for you.

ShaneFromMaine · July 30, 2012, 04:28:02 PM

Hello Forestry Forum! I am super excited about joining this forum, I have been reading old threads for hours now. I was not sure where to start asking questions so i figured this would be a good place (please let me know if it is not)

My name is Shane and i have 100 acre farm in Mid-Coast Maine. I am trying to sell the farm and move to the Hudson Valley in New York and build a new farm. I had this idea the other day to harvest some wood to take with me so i would love some help determining if this is a good idea first.

The part of my property that i am looking to harvest is a small 10 acre sliver separated from the rest of the land by a large power line. We have never used the land and i doubt the new owners would either. There is plenty of wood in the other 90 acres but i prefer to leave it untouched.

I made myself a scale (Biltmore) stick and went bushwhacking with my dog today to try and determine exactly where the lot boundaries are, what i have for trees out there and how big the good trees are.

I counted around 40 red oaks with an average diameter of around 18" and average merchantable height of about 32'. This is a very loose estimate. I was just walking away from the tree 22 paces and reading the scale up from the stump height to where the first branches start.

I did not measure the other trees but counted some that i saw and came up with 12 birch trees over 16" dbh, around 8 big pines (over 24" DBH) and a handfull of decent sized maples and what i think are some kind of beech trees.

•Does this seem like enough trees to make it worth my while to get hauled out?
•Is it useless to cut trees before i have a home/barn even designed?
•Am i wasting my time thinking that it would be cheaper to harvest, mill and haul trees all the way to NY from Maine?

Thanks guys!

beenthere · July 30, 2012, 04:39:44 PM

Welcome to the Forum.

To do what you are thinking, would be a big and likely expensive job.

But having a piece of ME in NY might be worth all the hassle.

Seems best plan (from here) would be to have the trees milled into lumber (or timbers per add'l info), dried, and then moved to NY in dry board form for building there. Or cut and sell the trees and go to NY with the money that you get.

To add, maybe contact a logger in the area and get an estimate of what the charge would be to cut and deliver the logs to a place in NY. That is if he would be interested.

ShaneFromMaine · July 30, 2012, 05:10:16 PM

Hey thanks!

I forgot to mention that I would be using the wood to build a timber frame house. Not sure if that affects the cost of the processing etc.

And you are right, a big part of the idea is the emotional effect of taking a piece of the family farm with me. It pains me to sell this place so building with the timbers would kind of let it live on.

Pullinchips · July 30, 2012, 05:14:32 PM

BT has excellent advice. You cant just "sell" the lumber which i'm sure you realize, as the purchaser is free to do what they wish with them. What you need is either a guy who has the ability to cut and mill your trees for you or have the trees cut and then delivered to a small mill that will then mill them for you and deliver them to your new place or the old to dry. Once dry (several years i think, unless the place has a kiln) you can then plane them for finish grade lumber.

Honestly this will be an expensive proposition and will likely cost you more than you can buy similar lumber for there. But i do like the idea of a piece of your old place for your new place. I would suggest harvesting maybe just the oak and either having a nice custom piece of funiture made or having it milled into wider than the norm HW floor for the living room or your man cave? A custome Oak mantle to go in the room as well? But honestly if it were me and if money was any consideration at all i would limit my target species and end result that your looking to acomplish.

Pullinchips · July 30, 2012, 05:16:57 PM

The timber frame house will cheapen the costs as there is less sawing involved. But your going to want pine to build it from and i dont think you have near enough of it to build a house with any size? Again my suggestion stays. Maybe you use the pine for the main sills for the floor?

I still would go with the oak as that the valuable stuff.

BBTom · July 30, 2012, 05:32:48 PM

Jim Rogers needs to get on this one, He is a timber frame guru.

My opinion is that you have about 50-60 oak timbers and a bunch of nice oak side lumber in that bunch. Don't know why that would not be a good start for a timber frame home, but I am not a timber frame guy.

Looks like about 350 mile haul one way. I wouldn't think a semi load or two would be price prohibitive.

My guess is get it cut and milled in ME and have the timbers and lumber hauled to NY. Can you still get a load hauled for $2/mile?

Sounds like a fun job, but I am too far away.

Pullinchips · July 30, 2012, 06:09:36 PM

I was not considering to use the oak for the frame. Seems like an unusual use for wood that may not be seen. Maybe over head beams or ones down the sides but if hidden i would not want to use oak for that. I would want the oak for flooring personally, but its not my home. OR sell some of the oak to help fund the prosess?

John Mc · July 30, 2012, 07:12:21 PM

Oak was an option I was offered when we were having our timber frame house built. An expensive one, but it was an option. We ended up going with Hemlock.

ShaneFromMaine · July 30, 2012, 11:25:05 PM

Hey would i get charged a bunch more if I had oak cut down and milled?

Why would i not choose the harder wood? If i am reading Bensons book right i can get longer spans with oak vs pine.

John Mc · July 30, 2012, 11:28:48 PM

How long a span do you need? We did 16 foot spans with no problem with Hemlock, and they are not particularly huge beams (smaller than what pine would have been).

ShaneFromMaine · July 31, 2012, 12:00:32 AM

Honestly I have no idea. I have not started designing a place yet. I would really like to find a property and design a few buildings to work with the location not just drop a structure into a lot.

John Mc · July 31, 2012, 08:54:50 AM

There are a couple of very good timber frame companies here in Vermont that we researched when building our house. Their web sites have lots of examples of plans or homes they have built that may give you some good ideas. I'm betting that some, if not all of them would be willing to work with timber you provide, assuming it's of the appropriate quality. We went with Liberty Head Post & Beam in Huntington, VT (we really liked the details of their joinery). I can dig up their web site, and some others, if you are interested.

ShaneFromMaine · July 31, 2012, 02:38:07 PM

John, funny you mention VT. My sister lives in central VT and we were just talking about using someone local to her as all her neighbors manage woodlots and she knows a bunch of timber framers.

Even if i could just take a few of the best big oaks off my land here it would mean a lot to me to have that visual reminder of my old forest when i move into my new place.