Question on wood for cabin build

[hoodoo406]

Long time lurker, finally created an account to get some advice. A little backstory first. Buddy and I are in the process of buying a piece of property together, and the plan is to build a cabin ourselves. He's done one before, and we are both fairly handy when it comes to this type of projects. The idea is to buy our own saw mill, as we both like the idea of doing the whole thing ourselves. I also have a good friend that ran a sawmill for a couple years willing to help us get started. 

So, to the questions at hand. We live in Northwest Montana, and we just recently, (as in last week) had a huge wind storm rip through Montana. My family has a large junk of land that is very timbered, and about 40-50 (I'm guessing, I haven't actually counted them yet) mature tree's fell down in the storm. A mixture of Ponderosa Pine and Doug Fir. The majority being Pine. Most are good size tree's. My first question, can these tree's lay on the ground until spring before we start cutting them up and stacking them? I'm worried about rot, and while most tree's have plenty of branches holding them off the ground, I walked through and looked at them and about half are not held up by branches at all. It should be cold enough this winter to freeze, but it hasn't yet. We've been in the mid 30's-40's so far this winter. Neither of us has much time right now to deal with them, so it would have to wait till spring. Will that be an issue? 

Another issue, is this project is at a minimum 2 to 3 years before we could actually start working on the tree's. Possibly longer. We've been trying to buy a place for a couple years now, but we are pretty picky about what we want, and have just now submitted our first offer. I'd say a minimum of 2 years before we are ready to start building. Can we stack these tree's and let them sit for a couple years, or will they start rotting? If we stack them, do we need to "sticker" each row so there is ample air flow, or can we just throw them into one big stack? Does the bark need to be removed now? Or can that wait for the sawmill? 

Anything I'm missing? We don't mind spending some time cutting these up and stacking them if it benefits us in the long run. But what I don't want to do is spend 2 or 3 weekends working on these tree's only to find in 3 years that they have all rotted. This property has plenty of wood on it, so it's not like wood is an issue for us, but it just seems like such a waste to sell it to someone else when we can use it. 

Thanks in advance! 

[Ljohnsaw]

Were the trees snapped off or blown over (uprooted)?  If snapped, I would think there would be damage to the wood not seen until milled.  If off the ground, the logs should be fine until spring/summer.  How much of a tangled mess or are they distributed about the property?

I milled a bunch and found out if you box the heart, there will be a lot of checking - not a bad thing but something to consider.  If you are FOH, the logs need to be big enough to be distant from the pith or the wood may/will bow/crook.

[hoodoo406]

I knew I missed something. 95% or more where uprooted. I didn't see very many that snapped off. We have had a bunch of moisture, and like I said it's been very warm winter, the ground was soft and they uprooted. They really aren't that tangled, they are distributed pretty evenly about the property. 

Like I mentioned though, they aren't all off the ground. I'd say maybe 50% or so. 

[Don P]

Wood doesn't rot when its cold so you are safe for now. Stacking or piling the logs, if its for a log cabin peel them and sticker and cover with tin or a roof, top only, leave the sides open to let air through. If they are for boards you need to go ahead and saw them , sticker and cover the same as above, the drying checks in log form would make board recovery dismal later. As you are sawing you can saw rustic framing for a drying shed and find some old tin for a quick shelter.

[hoodoo406]

Hmm, sounds like I'd have quite a bit of work to recover this wood right away. Don't have a mill yet, so sawing right now isn't an option. 

I was hoping I'd just be able to stack all the wood in a big stack and let it dry for a couple of years, that doesn't seem to be the case though? 

[Thomasjw4]

With the pine i would worry about bark beetles.  I am also in Western Montana and just cut a bunch of P pine that has been on the ground and its full of larvae.  

[btulloh]

Do you have a pond you can submerge them in until you're ready?  That would work. 

[reride82]

Hoodoo,

What type of construction are you doing for the cabin: Log, Timberframe, or conventional framing? That will affect how you deal with them in the meantime. Log cabin I would peel them and stack them in an area with good airflow and off the ground covered. Timberframe or conventional framing you can still store the logs for a year or so but get them stacked off the ground and mill them before they start to check. You should be fine waiting until spring, but this winter has been pretty mild so I would start now. I had a fair amount of lodgepole come down in that storm as well.

Levi

[hoodoo406]

Log cabin. I doubt either of us have the time to peel them this spring, so this is starting to look like a lost cause to salvage this wood for my project. Might have to call a local guy and have him pick them up so someone can use them. I just don't want to see them wasted, and I'm just a couple years away from being able to do anything with them still. Bummer. 

Thanks for the input! 

[firefighter ontheside]

What about paying a mobile mill to come in and mill it for you.  You will need lots of dimensional lumber for your log cabin.  

[kantuckid]

Do you have: Chainsaw, machine to move logs? If not, lacking the mill as you've already said, what you do have is a desire to not waste downed trees and dream to someday build a cabin.
I sit in one I built from logs gotten from trees that were not available on the forested land where the home sits. I also lacked a machine to harvest trees back then too. I bought the trees, paid to have them sawed into my wall log configuration and self-peeled and stacked them at the mill where they were delivered and sawed. I owned a log truck and the logs were loaded at the mill then I hauled to my build myself and mostly self-built my log home while holding down a FT job.

Ya gotta go with what you've got which isn't much right now far as we can tell? Except one huge part which is LAND!

FWIW, I never thought about that area being warm enough in this season to bother trees that much, el nino or global warming, whatever, it's been too wintery here in KY for me to saw my logs lately, or too muddy around the mill, pick your mess here. But, I worry not about my pine logs until real warm weather comes.
Hire it out makes sense if there's enough good trees to make sense?

[hoodoo406]

Yes, have a chainsaw and machines to move logs. Good size tractor and skid steer. 

Had a good chat with my buddy last night. We decided we might be rushing this project a little. Decided it's probably best to sell these tree's to a local logger that will utilize them right now. I just worry about going through all this time and effort right now and in 3 or 4 years start sawing on these logs and turns out it's all been a waste. 

It has been a strange winter here. Got 2 feet of snow in October, and haven't touched my plow truck since. Average temp has been in the 30's. 

Thanks for all the help, appreciate it! When the time comes and we are ready to build our cabin, fingers crossed for another 120 mph wind storm! 

[cabindoc]

I built log cabins and now I restore them.  I would hate to see you waste the logs.  I am of the opinion that you could buck them, skid to a sunny section near a road, lay out, off the ground, or if you stack, throw a skinny tree across the stack and build another layer etc...  Come spring/summer get your sawmill, or your buddy's and cut some 10-12" logs for wall logs by making a flat on bottom and a flat on top.  Most common is 6", but cut them at 7" so later, after they twist a little you can still get 6".  Stack with 2x4 stickers, place a tin hat over and let them sit for a year.  You now have only 2 sides to debark.  If you can debark in that year, all the better, but you have 2 years, no longer.  Some of the larger logs, cut them into cants, but a tad bigger as before.  14x14, 16x10, etc...  You will need rafters, blocking, rim joists, girder stock etc.. also, anything as big or bigger than a 2x4 except with those, add weight to keep them from looking like a pretzel.  do the same as above with regard to stickers and covering.  You will need a [I have typed a profane word that is automatically changed by the forum censored words program I should know better] ton of lumber for this house, not knowing the size.

Good luck

[kantuckid]

I spent a couple of hours yesterday, turning my edgings from sawing 2x6's into stickers for my wall logs. Weathers been mostly crappy here so mine are still standing in the woods until logical to log them out. They come from my source(logger/sawmiller) dead stacked, be peeled by your's truly one at a time then spread out off the ground and stacked apart to dry (solubor them a layer at a time) for later move to the build site.
 Like already described above.   ;D

[Dakota]

Too bad the trees came down so far ahead of your plans.  I'd sell the downed trees to a logger and use the money to buy your sawmill.  

[Don P]

Depends on local conditions but pine here left with bark on through a summer is riddled.

[cabindoc]

Depends on local conditions but pine here left with bark on through a summer is riddled.

But the OP is in Montana.  Much drier air.  Lets face it.  The bugs are already in the wood.  With 2 sides milled off, the 2 remaining sides are likely to fall away as logs dry and shrink.  Untimely, logs should be kiln dried or bathed in borate no matter what.

[Don P]

Yup, and dry is better than green but if you can get the bark off sooner than later it'll sure help things