I stopped to Lowe's on the way home from work yesterday to get some decking screws and just for fun I wandered through the lumber section. I was dumbfounded that the price of a white wood 2x4x8 was $8.53! I don't even know what to say about that. Maybe I should quit sawing cedar and start sawing framing lumber. 🤨
It's been 5.35 by me for a couple months now. It was like 6.50 before that, so it's going down a little bit. Doesn't seem to have effected the hardwood market much though, as far as I can tell. Prices around me are the same as they were before the RONA hit us lol
The really sad part is that, somewhere many are paying that amount.
I feel the same way about new trucks. I don't know how people afford them.
Every week for the past few months the wholesale price of tractor trailer loads of various hardwoods published via The Hardwood market Report have been increasing, especially in the last 4 weeks. Get ready for a pretty good retail hardwood lumber price increase.
Quote from: WDH on February 03, 2021, 08:14:40 AM
Every week for the past few months the wholesale price of tractor trailer loads of various hardwoods published via The Hardwood market Report have been increasing, especially in the last 4 weeks. Get ready for a pretty good retail hardwood lumber price increase.
Thank goodness!
SYP 2x4 wholesale hit a new high two weeks ago, $1075 / MBF if I remember correctly, might be even higher now, it was higher than all other categories. Get ready for EVERYTHING to get a lot more expensive in a hurry. My beef processor sent out an e-mail yesterday explaining they are increasing their prices due to the cost of all their supplies going up. She detailed things like gloves, knives, etc and how much they have jumped. So guess what, my beef, chicken, and lumber prices have gone up just the same. Fuel is going up, none of us win when this happens.
Quote from: Southside on February 03, 2021, 08:37:09 AM
SYP 2x4 wholesale hit a new high two weeks ago, $1075 / MBF if I remember correctly, might be even higher now, it was higher than all other categories. Get ready for EVERYTHING to get a lot more expensive in a hurry. My beef processor sent out an e-mail yesterday explaining they are increasing their prices due to the cost of all their supplies going up. She detailed things like gloves, knives, etc and how much they have jumped. So guess what, my beef, chicken, and lumber prices have gone up just the same. Fuel is going up, none of us win when this happens.
What's the rate now for a whole cow? You going to NC or up to Fauquier? I was going to trade some log moving for a nice walking piece of beef, I really wanted the bull the destroyed the bed on the truck but he's not for sale/trade.
0% money for two years and the Fed handing out 3 trillion last year and now they want to do another 1 trillion, yah going to fuel some crazy stuff.
Quote from: nativewolf on February 03, 2021, 08:47:09 AM
Quote from: Southside on February 03, 2021, 08:37:09 AM
SYP 2x4 wholesale hit a new high two weeks ago, $1075 / MBF if I remember correctly, might be even higher now, it was higher than all other categories. Get ready for EVERYTHING to get a lot more expensive in a hurry. My beef processor sent out an e-mail yesterday explaining they are increasing their prices due to the cost of all their supplies going up. She detailed things like gloves, knives, etc and how much they have jumped. So guess what, my beef, chicken, and lumber prices have gone up just the same. Fuel is going up, none of us win when this happens.
What's the rate now for a whole cow? You going to NC or up to Fauquier? I was going to trade some log moving for a nice walking piece of beef, I really wanted the bull the destroyed the bed on the truck but he's not for sale/trade.
0% money for two years and the Fed handing out 3 trillion last year and now they want to do another 1 trillion, yah going to fuel some crazy stuff.
To add insult to injury no one wants to work if they are getting paid to not work. So they have money, and are doing nothing. Great, just great.
Plant a big garden. Us "Good Ole Boys" are going to be on the barter system before it's over. My business is dead when inflation kicks in.
Wudman
Quote from: Wudman on February 03, 2021, 08:49:43 AM
Plant a big garden. Us "Good Ole Boys" are going to be on the barter system before it's over. My business is dead when inflation kicks in.
Wudman
Jeff have the rates for pine stumpage moved up? I mean lumber prices have been soaring, either mills are just raking in $ or the retail folks are.
Out of curiosity what's pine stumpage running today?
Grass finished steer, ready to be harvested $3 / lb as it stands in my pasture. Frozen beef, USDA inspected, $8 / lb.
My dad bought some kiln dried curly maple last week. The owner of the yard told him he just beat the increase. The next week hardwoods are going up $1 a bf
It's a sad story in Southern VA. Stumpage hasn't moved significantly......we actually took a $2.00 / ton price cut on delivered wood back when things dried out a bit and the lumber market was at record highs. There is not enough competition here. We lost about 60% of our processing capacity back in 2008. Very little of that has recovered. The Klausner Mill down in Enfield, NC was purchased out of bankruptcy and is projected to commence sawing late this year. At 360 million feet per year, that will certainly help. It has the capability to double that production, so it would help a little more. The mills are making an absolute killing right now. I ask myself everyday.....why are you selling stumpage into it, instead of sawing yourself. I guarantee that if I stepped into it, the world would turn upside down overnight.
Wudman
If my math is correct.
I assumed that a 2 x 4 is actually 1.5 inch x 3.5 inches.
Around here, an 8 foot 2 x 4 is $2.00 per board foot.
10 foot 2 x 4 is $2.21/ bf
12 foot 2 x 4 is $2.29/ bf
2 x 6's are a few cents less per bf
It seems to me that the question is: How much does it cost you in materials (log) to make each of your own piece of framing lumber. How much would you charge per board foot to cut that board if you were cutting it for a customer.
To confuse this a bit more I have been know to cut my own rough ones at 2 full inches by 3.5 inches so that they match the same wall thickness (studs), for my own small projects. Full 2 inch thick gives me a little more meat to nail or screw into.
Are you confused yet? I am.
we've seen a lot of peaks in the last hundred years and they all have a commonality. record highs come just before crashes so don't go spending dollars you can't chance. not being political, its just statistical. when you get to the top rung of a ladder the odds of you going down are better than of going up, and the odds of going down fast are pretty good, especially if anything comes flying out of left field.
price rises right now are a correction from money printing. the goods are repricing to correct for a new lower dollar value because the goods still have the same intrinsic value but the money doesn't so the goods are worth more of the lesser money. money is just a place holder for hours of labor.
do not be fooled into thinking this is inflation from economic growth, it is absolutely not. there is rapid economic contraction hidden beneath the veneer of rising prices. when free money stops being mailed out and/or fed bond purchases is ended, it will all come crashing down. that could be next month, next election or next decade but its coming and it will wipe out everyone who plays the hand wrong.
Careful what you wish for!!! Trading work for a "walking, grass fed (over fed) beef. Since the big packers got hit with the virus small packers got booked out 8-10 months. Then small processors rushed the processing. Should be hung several weeks and pushing thru in a week hanging. Producers losing money feeding cows that should already be in a freezer. Processors are raising processing charges........because they can.
Time to go back "in time", when farm families did their grocery shopping in the garden and raised own beef, hogs, and milked cows. Were those the good old days or ...NOT....... Today, most people have no idea what hard work was and is. 8) :P :D. Just some food for thought. Oh, FOOD. :o
i think the coming years you're gonna see a big rise in barnyard slaughtering and 'clandestine' family meat markets. not to mention a spike in small insulated reefer container prices.
Quote from: DixieReb31 on February 03, 2021, 07:27:58 AM
The really sad part is that, somewhere many are paying that amount.
I feel the same way about new trucks. I don't know how people afford them.
Some people pay the high cost of lumber and trucks. On the other hand, some of us mill our own lumber and drive old pickups.
Quote from: 1countryboy on February 03, 2021, 09:17:44 AM
Careful what you wish for!!! Trading work for a "walking, grass fed (over fed) beef. Since the big packers got hit with the virus small packers got booked out 8-10 months. Then small processors rushed the processing. Should be hung several weeks and pushing thru in a week hanging. Producers losing money feeding cows that should already be in a freezer. Processors are raising processing charges........because they can.
Time to go back "in time", when farm families did their grocery shopping in the garden and raised own beef, hogs, and milked cows. Were those the good old days or ...NOT....... Today, most people have no idea what hard work was and is. 8) :P :D. Just some food for thought. Oh, FOOD. :o
It's like anything else, some cut corners, and some simply continue to produce a great product. It's all in what matters to the producer. I know what our focus is and our customers appreciate it.
I was reading a article in risk journal my work subscribes too.
It says the Fed has inflation still below 2%, which is their target, but it just redefined the allowable inflation target to 2.5%. However, they did not adjust their "basket of goods" that predicts inflation. Many of us know, the price of goods has gone up more than 2% in the last year.
The same article also said with the price of lumber where it's currently at 12/2020, it adds 18-22K to the price of an average house from the same time in 2019. Assuming a 200K house, just the lumber upcharge is adding 10% in overall cost. Then factor all the other things that go into a house build and your looking at around a 20% increase in price in just one year.
That's a lot more than the 2% they say is currently happening.
There is going to be some tough days ahead...no question about that.
Quote from: 1countryboy on February 03, 2021, 09:17:44 AM
Careful what you wish for!!! Trading work for a "walking, grass fed (over fed) beef. Since the big packers got hit with the virus small packers got booked out 8-10 months. Then small processors rushed the processing. Should be hung several weeks and pushing thru in a week hanging. Producers losing money feeding cows that should already be in a freezer. Processors are raising processing charges........because they can.
Time to go back "in time", when farm families did their grocery shopping in the garden and raised own beef, hogs, and milked cows. Were those the good old days or ...NOT....... Today, most people have no idea what hard work was and is. 8) :P :D. Just some food for thought. Oh, FOOD. :o
That is why he wants to trade, cash is tight but trees are in his fields and he is no spring rooster. Prob 2 days of work for us and forwarder so a cow was offered. I would have to get slaughtered, I could just let it graze, have a freezer that is empty.
Where to get slaughtered is the question
I normally do interior remodeling for a living. With Covid we have built a fair number of decks in the last few months. Keeps us outside and feels safer to us and the homeowner. With the high price and lack of availability, most of these decks have been done with synthetic decking. The price got to about the same as P.T. wood so why not?? My neighbor had to buy feed for his cows for the first time ever this year. He just couldnt get them processed This has been a strange year for everyone. We will have to see where this goes. Brian
Quote from: snobdds on February 03, 2021, 10:52:47 AM
I was reading a article in risk journal my work subscribes too.
It says the Fed has inflation still below 2%, which is their target, but it just redefined the allowable inflation target to 2.5%. However, they did not adjust their "basket of goods" that predicts inflation. Many of us know, the price of goods has gone up more than 2% in the last year.
The same article also said with the price of lumber where it's currently at 12/2020, it adds 18-22K to the price of an average house from the same time in 2019. Assuming a 200K house, just the lumber upcharge is adding 10% in overall cost. Then factor all the other things that go into a house build and your looking at around a 20% increase in price in just one year.
That's a lot more than the 2% they say is currently happening.
There is going to be some tough days ahead...no question about that.
theres a lot i wanna say but it all makes me sick.
sound currency has no inflation target or need for bureaucratic meddling. ours has simply become unsound. you better not be a saver these next few years. its a silent destruction that people can feel but not always articulate or understand. but everyone can see that $100 grocery cart shrinking in height, weight and quality.
It seems that this topic has struck a nerve. As well it should. Lumber is just one example of the madness. Just wait and see what happens when you have to pay someone $15 an hour to ask if you want fries with that! I'll just stop right here before I accidentally get political and get myself in trouble. 😠
Quote from: nativewolf on February 03, 2021, 08:48:34 AM
Quote from: nativewolf on February 03, 2021, 08:47:09 AM
Quote from: Southside on February 03, 2021, 08:37:09 AM
SYP 2x4 wholesale hit a new high two weeks ago, $1075 / MBF if I remember correctly, might be even higher now, it was higher than all other categories. Get ready for EVERYTHING to get a lot more expensive in a hurry. My beef processor sent out an e-mail yesterday explaining they are increasing their prices due to the cost of all their supplies going up. She detailed things like gloves, knives, etc and how much they have jumped. So guess what, my beef, chicken, and lumber prices have gone up just the same. Fuel is going up, none of us win when this happens.
What's the rate now for a whole cow? You going to NC or up to Fauquier? I was going to trade some log moving for a nice walking piece of beef, I really wanted the bull the destroyed the bed on the truck but he's not for sale/trade.
0% money for two years and the Fed handing out 3 trillion last year and now they want to do another 1 trillion, yah going to fuel some crazy stuff.
To add insult to injury no one wants to work if they are getting paid to not work. So they have money, and are doing nothing. Great, just great.
No worries! We'll just increase minimum wage to get them back to work. 🤪
It's all but impossible to find help as it is, especially anyone under 40, then with the free money that shows up, some suddenly aren't as inclined to show up to work, until that money is gone again. It's a royal mess.
I'm happy to work, just show me where the logs are. :)
What is mind boggling to me is that there are mills relatively close to me that sale syp dimensional at 56 cent per bdft...
Butcher the beef yourself it's nothing more than a big deer. Find a buddy with a meat grinder or buy one if you can fi n d one. It's winter and you can hang it outside. You can break the carcass down with a sawzall.
Quote from: snobdds on February 03, 2021, 10:52:47 AM
I was reading a article in risk journal my work subscribes too.
It says the Fed has inflation still below 2%, which is their target, but it just redefined the allowable inflation target to 2.5%. However, they did not adjust their "basket of goods" that predicts inflation. Many of us know, the price of goods has gone up more than 2% in the last year.
The same article also said with the price of lumber where it's currently at 12/2020, it adds 18-22K to the price of an average house from the same time in 2019. Assuming a 200K house, just the lumber upcharge is adding 10% in overall cost. Then factor all the other things that go into a house build and your looking at around a 20% increase in price in just one year.
That's a lot more than the 2% they say is currently happening.
There is going to be some tough days ahead...no question about that.
I agree and the "ultra low official" inflation numbers having been going on for years. I need to find out just what is in that basket.....
Quote from: Southside on February 03, 2021, 09:34:07 PM
It's all but impossible to find help as it is, especially anyone under 40, then with the free money that shows up, some suddenly aren't as inclined to show up to work, until that money is gone again. It's a royal mess.
I work for a grading and paving contractor and we basically have to hire anyone who shows up to the interview and has a pulse. Most don't realize that having a job means that you have to work. It's amazing the amount of people that we go through to find good help. And then you have to deal with baggage like no license, can't be there before 7:30 because the baby momma has to get up to watch the kids, can't work past 3:30 because baby momma needs a break, etc...
Also thinks he needs to make 70,000 a year even though he can't read a tape measure and is too lazy to use a shovel. That why most of the time I'm happy to just do it myself. Less drama. This week I've been clearing trees off a new job and started a new guy to run a chainsaw on Monday. He didn't come back on Tuesday so back to doing it myself. I just run the excavator for a while dropping trees and then get out and saw them up. Funny thing is I got more cut Tuesday before lunch than the other guy did all day Monday.
Had a guy tell me that the baby momma was "going away for a year" so that would impact when he could work. Impacted him all right, didn't get the job.
I will share one positive story about hiring help. About 4 years ago I was setting stone base on a large subdivision road to get ready for paving. Hired a 21 year old guy through a temp agency to help shovel stone around manholes and corners. Hiring through a temp agency is kinda hit and miss so I wasn't expecting much. This guy worked out great and when his contract was done with the temp service, I hired him full time. He worked on my crew for 2 more years and was eager to learn everything he could about that job. He learned to operate a skid steer and backhoe pretty well. Now he is our newest foreman over a punch list crew and has a company truck. Workers like that are rare, but there are still a few out there.
Quote from: Nebraska on February 03, 2021, 10:25:15 PM
Butcher the beef yourself it's nothing more than a big deer. Find a buddy with a meat grinder or buy one if you can fi n d one. It's winter and you can hang it outside. You can break the carcass down with a sawzall.
Man if Jim isn't cutting up his own than I am way to smart to start.
Quote's all but impossible to find help as it is, especially anyone under 40, then with the free money that shows up, some suddenly aren't as inclined to show up to work, until that money is gone again. It's a royal mess.
The millennial generation has turned out to be the worst this country has ever produced. Of course I'm speaking in general. There are exceptions. Millennials think an opportunity is starting in middle management not at the bottom and working their way up the ladder like everyone else. They don't accept the real fact that when opportunity knocks it comes dressed in overalls with a shovel.
Quote from: nativewolf on February 04, 2021, 08:12:15 AM
Quote from: Nebraska on February 03, 2021, 10:25:15 PM
Butcher the beef yourself it's nothing more than a big deer. Find a buddy with a meat grinder or buy one if you can fi n d one. It's winter and you can hang it outside. You can break the carcass down with a sawzall.
Man if Jim isn't cutting up his own than I am way to smart to start.
We market 20 or more a year, the far majority being small, retail size, delivery or wholesale to retail stores that carry our brand, so cutting our own isn't an option short of a massive investment that would never pay off. Most folks don't have freezer space for 1/8 of a beef - say 30-35 lbs - so they need to buy weekly vs getting a share.
Cutting for oneself would be fine, yes your tri-tips likely will end up as burger, but for a family you would have good eating.
Jim could but he could'nt retail the meat, he would have to have a investment in infastructure similar to Barge Monkeys Familys gas station plus some quarry equipment. It can be done I'v e seen it locally but it's big dollars, every carcass to the public must be inspected by a federal inspector on site for the processing. Lots of hoops, he has enough to fight just milking. So its a ball he doesnt have to juggle, he could do it in a pinch. That is the only way I ever do it, my local locker plant is good to us.. Slaughter your animal yourself not an issue, how you eat your cow pig chicken goat lamb is your business (so far). It takes bigger stuff to hang the carcass, makes more offal and you need more help and more good knives but it's no different than a deer. Granted it's not in your wheel house like a 30" straight clear standing white oak with 3 logs in it and a clear path to the ground. Its more down my road. I'm guessing it's would be more like me RRQS one of those big logs on my little manual mill. Can I, well I get the concept but jeez that's a lot of work. Like everything is, that beef in the freezer is worth several SGU's though.
Quote from: Nebraska on February 04, 2021, 08:49:55 AM
Jim could but he could'nt retail the meat, he would have to have a investment in infastructure similar to Barge Monkeys Familys gas station plus some quarry equipment. It can be done I'v e seen it locally but it's big dollars, every carcass to the public must be inspected by a federal inspector on site for the processing. Lots of hoops, he has enough to fight just milking. So its a ball he doesnt have to juggle, he could do it in a pinch. That is the only way I ever do it, my local locker plant is good to us.. Slaughter your animal yourself not an issue, how you eat your cow pig chicken goat lamb is your business (so far). It takes bigger stuff to hang the carcass, makes more offal and you need more help and more good knives but it's no different than a deer. Granted it's not in your wheel house like a 30" straight clear standing white oak with 3 logs in it and a clear path to the ground. Its more down my road. I'm guessing it's would be more like me RRQS one of those big logs on my little manual mill. Can I, well I get the concept but jeez that's a lot of work. Like everything is, that beef in the freezer is worth several SGU's though.
You have summed that up perfectly. Yes, give me a nice wo and I'll get someone to butcher the big bovine. Anyway, more sure than ever that I'm getting someone else to butcher it for us. We've got a free standing freezer that's empty. Right big size but even then I am not sure how much meat I can pack in there. Somewhere between a 15-20 cubic foot freezer. Don't really use it, came with the farm.
Quote from: nativewolf on February 04, 2021, 09:33:10 AM
Quote from: Nebraska on February 04, 2021, 08:49:55 AM
Jim could but he could'nt retail the meat, he would have to have a investment in infastructure similar to Barge Monkeys Familys gas station plus some quarry equipment. It can be done I'v e seen it locally but it's big dollars, every carcass to the public must be inspected by a federal inspector on site for the processing. Lots of hoops, he has enough to fight just milking. So its a ball he doesnt have to juggle, he could do it in a pinch. That is the only way I ever do it, my local locker plant is good to us.. Slaughter your animal yourself not an issue, how you eat your cow pig chicken goat lamb is your business (so far). It takes bigger stuff to hang the carcass, makes more offal and you need more help and more good knives but it's no different than a deer. Granted it's not in your wheel house like a 30" straight clear standing white oak with 3 logs in it and a clear path to the ground. Its more down my road. I'm guessing it's would be more like me RRQS one of those big logs on my little manual mill. Can I, well I get the concept but jeez that's a lot of work. Like everything is, that beef in the freezer is worth several SGU's though.
You have summed that up perfectly. Yes, give me a nice wo and I'll get someone to butcher the big bovine. Anyway, more sure than ever that I'm getting someone else to butcher it for us. We've got a free standing freezer that's empty. Right big size but even then I am not sure how much meat I can pack in there. Somewhere between a 15-20 cubic foot freezer. Don't really use it, came with the farm.
Like they said, you better call around and see what the lead times are on processing before you end up feeding that cow! It is crazy here still, we were glad to get our litters of piglets sold this fall instead of growing them out and trying to sell butcher hogs to people that realized they would have to butcher themselves or keep feeding for months before getting processed :)
Set up a processing operation here at home for ourselves and did our last two for home consumption instead of sending out. Still want to add a bandsaw and need to get something built for the coolbot+big AC that are just hanging out waiting to be put to use.
When I was a kid, my dad hired an old guy from town who knew how to butcher a beef, and the old guy shot the steer, they raised it up with the loader on the tractor, then split it open and took out the innerds, then they laid it down in the shop and cut the hide off. After that, they loaded it into the pickup and took it to the locker plant in town, where it was hung for a few days, then cut up and quick frozen and put in a locker. The locker plant is long gone, and the old guy who helped my dad is long gone. I had a problem eating the meat, as the odor from the beef when they were cutting off the skin seemed to hang on, and could smell it when it was cooking. Things you remember from your youth.
Yeah I remeber dad's hired man butchering at his office (son of a rural veterinarian here) when i was a boy it was unsettling for a while. Just was part of it though. That deep freeze will fit most of the beef, sell, give away or farm out the rest. Chest freezers are more efficient with space. Uprights are more spouse friendly. We have 3 up rights and a medium sized chest freezer. We will slowly downsize now the kids are about gone, I end up providing meat to my parents and my sister's family and sometimes its free. So anyway 3/4" plywood was at 53.00$ per sheet in town and I really need to build some cement forms this spring. >:(
A 21 cubic foot upright freezer will hold about 350 lbs of boneless beef in an organized manner, or one 1,000 lb live weight steer. I have 7 of them.... :o
Several are the new all freezer or all fridge models so we have flex space depending on the time of year.
Many a cement form was built of plank long before the word 'plywood' came to exist.
One of the WW2 era, govt built, underground rifle testing ranges i maintained had 12" thick concrete walls about 300 feet long and maybe 12ft highb formed from rough sawn plank. You could see the knots and cracks of every unique board in it. I kinda like that wall.
Well I live in a house that has a few board formed basement walls, so that was really my plan anyway. Probably should look for some Cottonwood to saw. "See honey I saved money with the sawmill " ;) It was just that plywood price fully "cemented" that reality in my brain. Felt bad for my vet tech that needed it.
Sorry for the dad humor.
Inflation is the killer of wealth and why the average working person never gets rich.
Gas was around 20 cents in 1930 2 silver dimes. Today a silver dime is worth $1.89 in sliver.
2 silver dimes is $3.78. So 2 dimes will buy a gallon of gas with money left over.
Because the price of silver sort of follows the value of a paper dollar, a silver dime today buys what a dime would buy in 1930, more or less.
This can help you get your head around that things do not cost more but money is worth less.
Of course a lot of items like a pickup truck have skyrocketed well past this,but a lot of items actually cost less then in the past.
If you enter money values like your hourly wages in inflation calculators online you will see that you might have the same buying power now at 30 a hour as you did twenty years ago at 15 an hour.
Of course lumber is driven more buy supply and demand at this time.
If you are in business never feel bad about making a good profit when you can, you need it to cover the hard times.
Well I'm 29 and not to brag but I've skinned, gutted, and processed more beef than I care to think about! My dad raised cattle growing up plus we lived next to a big commercial feedlot and it seemed like there was always a critter breaking a leg or something. There for a while we were butchering 4-5 times a year. A lot of times we'd have friends over to help process and send most of the meat home with them. My dad found a walk in freezer from an old grocery store that closed so we could hang/age the meat even in the middle of summer. It takes a bit of skill/effort to keep everything sanitary as you can ruin meat pretty quickly!
Anyways back to wood prices....I haven't raised my prices yet, but will probably do so sooner than later with the way things are heading. Talked to a commercial supplier I get stuff from and he said they've come up a little but nothing significant.
The roof boards in my house were the ones used to pour the foundation forms with, at least it appears that way since the insides of them have cement residue on them.
Years back I reused the 2" form boards from pouring my house foundation as decking on the front landing. Good coat of porch paint hid any stains from the lime in the concrete. Last fall I poured the foundation for my future shop, and I sawed all the form boards I needed from knotty Spruce. All they had to be was flat and strong enough to hold wet concrete. ;D
Quote from: richhiway on February 04, 2021, 01:23:11 PMIf you enter money values like your hourly wages in inflation calculators online you will see that you might have the same buying power now at 30 a hour as you did twenty years ago at 15 an hour.
This truly highlights the $15 minimum wage fallacy. Raise wages and prices just increase to pay them.
Well I got a surprise yesterday, I needed (I thought) some used cross ties in for drainage control around log deck Quoted $20-20.50 plus tax = $21.40 ea. ::) Holly crap.
A good time to lean on your state reps for a native lumber law.
Don - a buddy of mine happens to be the #2 of a State agency here in VA, called the other day and was telling me that he had been at the General Assembly a lot lately since they are in session - his exact words "there is no common sense, these folks have an agenda and that's all they are interested in", said he is some glad his retirement is about to happen. No way they would listen to the little guy.
I keep track of stumpage prices here in western Ma. The university of Ma. sends a list out of east of the conn river and west of. 3rd quarter w/pine stumpage west of the river was $55.mbf got the 4 quarter yesterday and it's jumped to $110. :o. Double in 3 months >:(. Hemlock is $50.
Barter system here we come.
Quote from: Ed_K on February 05, 2021, 12:51:02 PM
I keep track of stumpage prices here in western Ma. The university of Ma. sends a list out of east of the conn river and west of. 3rd quarter w/pine stumpage west of the river was $55.mbf got the 4 quarter yesterday and it's jumped to $110. :o. Double in 3 months >:(. Hemlock is $50.
Barter system here we come.
What are the mills paying for pine sawlogs? $250 here, sure doesn't leave much meat on the bone after $110 stumpage, fuel/equipment wear, time and trucking costs ::) That's wild!
Quote from: nativewolf on February 03, 2021, 11:12:26 AM
That is why he wants to trade, cash is tight but trees are in his fields and he is no spring rooster. Prob 2 days of work for us and forwarder so a cow was offered. I would have to get slaughtered, I could just let it graze, have a freezer that is empty.
Where to get slaughtered is the question
Remember a story from years ago when times were tight, young fellow thought he'd help put some food on the table, dropped a deer in the new seeded. He got the deer to the house and into the basement. Now this young fellow was only about 14 years old, his Dad wasn't pleased as the story went and told the youngster that he could take care of the processing chore alone. Being brought up on a farm, not afraid of the work but was worried about doing the slaughtering alone. Then a feeling of relief as the cellar stairs creaked as he thought his Dad was coming to the rescue. A moment later his Mother stepped into view, well ok, Mother knows how to process this critter! Help at last.. wrong she handed her son a cookbook opened to diagram of how to cut a deer up! I was told she simply said this may help you. The deer was cut, wrapped, put in the freezer and never mentioned again.
Pretty interesting article on lumber prices.
Lumber Prices Are Soaring. Why Are Tree Growers Miserable? - WSJ (https://www.wsj.com/articles/lumber-prices-are-soaring-tree-growers-miserable-11614177282)
Quote from: Southside on February 04, 2021, 01:41:08 PM
The roof boards in my house were the ones used to pour the foundation forms with, at least it appears that way since the insides of them have cement residue on them.
Lots of that around here. Maybe some of them are my boards. :D I've also shovelled gravel, carried the water and loaded the cement bags into a mixer many times, then poured a few wheel barrel loads into boarded forms in my younger years. Hand poured a 100' x 50', 30' x 25', 24' x 20', 50' x 30' .... need I say more? You bet there was more. :D :D Earned my first dollar by age 7, wasn't on a cement pour, was picking/carrying baskets of spuds, never killed me. Only way to get that new 5 speed. ;)
Quote from: snobdds on February 25, 2021, 11:49:45 PM
Pretty interesting article on lumber prices.
Lumber Prices Are Soaring. Why Are Tree Growers Miserable? - WSJ (https://www.wsj.com/articles/lumber-prices-are-soaring-tree-growers-miserable-11614177282)
I agree, concerning the price of logs, it's the same up here. The producer is always the last to see a raise. Should try growing potatoes and have the top 20% given away for free. ;D But reading the article, I was wondering who these Canadian firms are buying up mills. News to me. In Maine for instance, Irving (a NB company) owns timber land (has for a long time) and built their own mill in Ashland. It's actually part of the mill that was moved from Deersdale, New Brunswick when Gov. Lepage was handing out corporate welfare cheques. They never stopped cutting wood off public land in Deersdale though. They maintain an office on the old mill site. ;)
Was just looking at OSB 7/16" 4'x8'. Was $12 a couple years ago, now over $40 a sheet. You know where they can stick it. ::)
Lumber Price report for early 2021. Doesn't look like a good time to build. Apparently, even hard to find a lot to build on.
New Year 2021 starts off with rising lumber prices - Wood Business
(https://www.woodbusiness.ca/new-year-2021-starts-off-with-rising-lumber-prices)Recently, a neighbor just put a 100 acre farm + 60 acre woods and house and buildings up for sale. House is new, finished basement. Their asking price is way high though. Lucky to get half that, time will tell as it will be posted on governments assessment site. The family broke up the farm 4 years ago and I think there is some debt involved. They sold off some land then.
194 & 211 Royalton Road, Royalton, New Brunswick, E7K2G2 Property Details (http://remaxwoodstock.com/real-estate-properties/property-details/22829421-52/194-211-royalton-road-royalton-new-brunswick-id-nb053819)
(https://www.woodbusiness.ca/new-year-2021-starts-off-with-rising-lumber-prices)
Quote from: Ed_K on February 05, 2021, 12:51:02 PM
I keep track of stumpage prices here in western Ma. The university of Ma. sends a list out of east of the conn river and west of. 3rd quarter w/pine stumpage west of the river was $55.mbf got the 4 quarter yesterday and it's jumped to $110. :o. Double in 3 months >:(. Hemlock is $50.
Barter system here we come.
Good for landowners!
Quote from: snobdds on February 25, 2021, 11:49:45 PM
Pretty interesting article on lumber prices.
Lumber Prices Are Soaring. Why Are Tree Growers Miserable? - WSJ (https://www.wsj.com/articles/lumber-prices-are-soaring-tree-growers-miserable-11614177282)
Good that WSJ is writing about it, wsj writing about it happens because all the "investors" piled into pine. I was guilty, very briefly, of being part of that sales process but didn't have the front row seat that @wundman has had.
Yeah over production without end and as recently as a couple of years ago there were still advisors telling investors to buy pine lands because supply was going to fall well short. In VA the Dept of Forestry is finally beginning to realize they have an issue.
There are a ton of "Doomsday Announcers" on the Web, however . . .
Warning To New Home Builders, Critical Plywood Shortages In The Coming Weeks...Days, Higher Prices - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk9nyyoRBrQ)
This guy has a unique studio (his truck and fuzzy dice) and a straight forward thinking and speaking style that I like. He calls OSB 's#!t wood', up here in Canada it's affectionately called 'beaver puke', so ok, he's a kindred spirit. He also seems to know what Canada's role in lumber pricing appears to be.
What do you think of his predictions regarding supply?
My experience is as follows. Two hours East, the small town of Kenora has an LVL plant. They are busy. Their log yards are packed to the fences and there's smoke pouring out of the stacks 24/7. Kenora also had a stud mill. I say had, because it was operational two years ago. Then the softwood lumber tariffs came on at the US border, and the mill was closed and then sold. It's been mothballed while the plant has been sold a few more times to a numbered shell account and nobody knows who owns it now. The stud mill is still closed even though there's plenty of experienced mill workers and well managed Crown forests within trucking distance. Makes guy wonder why? especially when a 2x4 stud is worth 7 or 8 bucks.
If you're a deep pocket fund manager in New York, keeping mills closed would decrease supply and drive up prices, no?
I Was Mistaken Lumber Is Still Up, WTO Favors Canada On Lumber Duties Imposed By U.S., Fed Talk - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icmurpZM1yA)
This six month old video is a mea culpa (how often do you see that on YT?) and talks about inflation rates, similar to @mike_belben (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=33722) comments.
There is a generous supply of SYP logs due to the planting boom that happened when the Government paid landowners a yearly rental per acre on marginal Ag land planted to pine trees in the mid to late 1980's. The program was the Conservation Reserve Program, CRP. In Georgia alone, the state with the highest softwood lumber production in the US, hundreds of thousands of acres were planted to lob-LLoly pine. Now, 30 to 35 years later, these trees are mature and available for harvest. Therefore, there is actually an over supply of pine logs in most of the Southern US.
The lumber price run up from the pandemic is a lumber production shortage in the face of unusually high demand, not a result of tight log supplies. So, the mills do not have to pay a cent more to buy logs that they saw into lumber into a red hot lumber market artificially created by the impacts of the pandemic.
When you got your own sawmill you just sit back and smile and raise that middle finger in salute to the Gov'ment!!
Quote from: WDH on February 28, 2021, 07:00:08 PM. . . a red hot lumber market artificially created by the impacts of the pandemic.
Agreed @WDH (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=4370).
So then duration of the high demand will be as long as it takes for all renovations of "work from home" offices to be completed?
There's a bit of cash sloshing around for those reno's too. Think of the money saved by not having to meet the office dress code, the downtown parking fees, and the daily commute. Fancy restraunts and vacation trips are cancelled too. Why buy a new daily ride if it never leaves the garage and you've spent the last three weeks in sweats or pajamas? Thank goodness I'm retired, 'cause that's how I live now anyway!
😆
The forecast for US housing starts is for higher levels than in the past 5 years with a steady and slightly increasing level over the next 5 years. So demand looks to be good and stable unless something else comes up and upsets the proverbial apple cart, which will probably happen. It is likely that lumber prices will come down, but probably to a new low that is higher than the previous average.
And in the mean time landowners are pushing to have their logs sawn because the selling price is so low. I just finished a call estimating sawing ~9Mbf of framing lumber from 15 trees. That would be about $3K. Portable sawing has gone crazy.
Quote from: nativewolf on February 26, 2021, 06:54:46 AMYeah over production without end and as recently as a couple of years ago there were still advisors telling investors to buy pine lands because supply was going to fall well short. In VA the Dept of Forestry is finally beginning to realize they have an issue.
We also had an idiot in VDOF for years that claimed Virginia could not sustain another pine sawmill. With the global financial crisis of 2008, we lost approximately 60% of our sawing capacity in the southern piedmont. That loss has moderated some as the survivors upgraded facilities and increased production. Within procurement areas, mills have little to no competition so pricing has remained stagnant. Stumpage prices in this area are about 50% of areas with competition. Mills have made a killing in recent years. We have seen an influx of Canadian companies (West Fraser, Teal Jones, Canfor) as production has dropped in British Columbia. I believe the political climate in Virginia has discouraged new sawmill development as we are headed to "Little California" status.
This climate change stuff may necessitate that we go to tracked machines to harvest. We may be headed to tropical rain forest status. For the southeast, climate change pragmatist suggest that we will get warmer, wetter, and have more CO2. What do trees utilize to grow? (warm, wet, CO2). There are winners and losers in the climate change debate. As the west is locked up by the current administration and drought and wildfires ravage the West Coast these old southern yellow pines will keep on producing 10-15% biological growth. We will fill the void left by West Coast and Canadian producers. The potential fly in the ointment......Russia......if they can develop the infrastructure to mine Siberia (probably with the backing of China).
Wudman
If there is so much unemployment, who is getting the financing for housing? What do the banks know that they aren't talking about? Relying on more bank bailout money when the loans are default? Did they ever sell all those empty abandoned houses in vacant suburbs since 2008? Are the folks that were living in vans during the collapse all the sudden finding money? It seems the media must have picked a few basket cases to portray wide spread devastation in housing and jobs or I've just woke up from a bad dream. :D :D
No new houses going up here. I build the last house 3 years ago around here except for shacks. I know 3 guys who built shacks to live in the last 3 years. A shack is better than a lean to. ;D
Lumber will come down a lot in price in 2022, remember who said it. ;)
Quote from: Woodpecker52 on February 28, 2021, 07:33:08 PM
When you got your own sawmill you just sit back and smile and raise that middle finger in salute to the Gov'ment!!
Isn't it the lumber yard/ sawmill you are saluting? As a mill owner all the over supply and under production is what makes the profits. In the SE the govt isn't driving pine, it's private enterprise. Even the university tree improvement programs are all corporate financed through industry coops. The crep programs moved thousands of acres into production but the reality is that they were going to go back to forest in most cases, just poor ag soils. Out west totally different story, still way too much supply though. If the govt actually started really selling timber again I shudder to think what would happen to pine stumpage.
In addition to @wudman good point on Russia (which seems to have happened as ponsse and komatsu and jd all had mega sales to Russia for 4 years) and @wdh points on plantings in the 70s and 80s we had the mass conversion of millions of acres of native mixed species forest to genetically improved pine monoculture with sophisticated growth management. This is dumping millions and millions of extra tons of production into the supply stream. Combine all that supply with the elimination of many pulp mills and there is an supply imbalance that may last a while. Lumber pricing may come down, I dont see it really kicking off log price increases.
Also the private forest in OR and WA are also getting into high gear and you haven't seen production until @skeans1 shows you a rocking thinned DF plantation. I am very skeptical that the lumber market could actually absorb the wood the fed govt should be harvesting under even a conservative harvest plan. Any more supply into this market and stumpage here in the SE would crash. Just my $0.02. What we need is to remove 2 million acres of supply, not add more (as someone that cares about stumpage).
Part of the problem too is the harvesting capacity here in the south east. When a 5 man crew can put out 50+ loads a week, north of 1200 ton, and needs to put that out to pay the $2 million note, you have a situation where mills just smile knowing the logs will keep coming in no matter what.
So if pine mills are getting rich(and they are) why aren't people joining the party? Certainly there are no impediments such as onerous permits, regulations, insurance edicts, and workman's compensation attorneys that make it so unattractive an endeavor that even greed is an insufficient motivator?
If you built a mill could you find anyone worth hiring to work in it or has it become beneath our dignity to actually produce something besides computer code?
You don't throw millions of $$ at a business when things are at their peak, because next year sanity should resume, and you struggling to break even with high payments.
The smart guys got though the last slump in prices, and are creaming it right now, but the cycle will continue.
Predicting those cycles, or have minimal debt so you can ride out the bad times is what makes the difference.
Doing a business plan based on current prices is doomed to fail.
Yep, I have been amazed at the discipline of the mills. A few mothballed mills are coming back online but no big building plans that I have heard of. They know it is a cycle and are probably don't think they can respond fast enough to get a mill built to capture any of it.
Southside's right too of course, the production capacity is just nuts. Only mills and lumber yards are benefiting this cycle.
In the South, new mills have been recently built and others de-bottlenecked. Capacity is increasing down here.
Quote from: stavebuyer on March 02, 2021, 04:33:06 AM
So if pine mills are getting rich(and they are) why aren't people joining the party? Certainly there are no impediments such as onerous permits, regulations, insurance edicts, and workman's compensation attorneys that make it so unattractive an endeavor that even greed is an insufficient motivator?
If you built a mill could you find anyone worth hiring to work in it or has it become beneath our dignity to actually produce something besides computer code?
Bingo.......If I had the guts, I would be there. I ask myself everyday why I am selling $20 pine stumpage instead of buying $20 pine stumpage. With my luck, the world would turn upside down when the saw went into the first log. The lack of labor has kept me from pursuing a number of ventures. I still have a few ideas floating in my head that I know would work, but it is hard to step away from a steady paycheck (with insurance and benefits) when you are the sole provider for the family.
Wudman
Quote from: mike_belben on February 03, 2021, 09:16:41 AM
we've seen a lot of peaks in the last hundred years and they all have a commonality. record highs come just before crashes so don't go spending dollars you can't chance. not being political, its just statistical. when you get to the top rung of a ladder the odds of you going down are better than of going up, and the odds of going down fast are pretty good, especially if anything comes flying out of left field.
price rises right now are a correction from money printing. the goods are repricing to correct for a new lower dollar value because the goods still have the same intrinsic value but the money doesn't so the goods are worth more of the lesser money. money is just a place holder for hours of labor.
do not be fooled into thinking this is inflation from economic growth, it is absolutely not. there is rapid economic contraction hidden beneath the veneer of rising prices. when free money stops being mailed out and/or fed bond purchases is ended, it will all come crashing down. that could be next month, next election or next decade but its coming and it will wipe out everyone who plays the hand wrong.
Bingo. While nominal prices of lumber may crash as well, lumber will still have intrinsic value. Purchasing a sawmill, for instance, is a diversification play into commodities. If the dollar is weakening, you don't want to own them. Converting them into a machine that can produce real goods and service in the future seems like a good bet. If for no other purpose than to provide yourself and your community with building materials in a post dollar world, it's a valuable machine to own.
Quote from: mike_belben on February 03, 2021, 01:12:24 PM
Quote from: snobdds on February 03, 2021, 10:52:47 AM
I was reading a article in risk journal my work subscribes too.
It says the Fed has inflation still below 2%, which is their target, but it just redefined the allowable inflation target to 2.5%. However, they did not adjust their "basket of goods" that predicts inflation. Many of us know, the price of goods has gone up more than 2% in the last year.
The same article also said with the price of lumber where it's currently at 12/2020, it adds 18-22K to the price of an average house from the same time in 2019. Assuming a 200K house, just the lumber upcharge is adding 10% in overall cost. Then factor all the other things that go into a house build and your looking at around a 20% increase in price in just one year.
That's a lot more than the 2% they say is currently happening.
There is going to be some tough days ahead...no question about that.
theres a lot i wanna say but it all makes me sick.
sound currency has no inflation target or need for bureaucratic meddling. ours has simply become unsound. you better not be a saver these next few years. its a silent destruction that people can feel but not always articulate or understand. but everyone can see that $100 grocery cart shrinking in height, weight and quality.
Aside from lumber prices and general boredom, I think the currency decay and stimmies are the primary driver behind Woodmizer's 10 month back order on mills. I know, because I'm the guy who didn't want to stare at a cash account losing its buying power... and then said: "I have woods, I like sawdust, and an LT35 looks like a cool machine to own!"
Dustin
Finding help is a full time job in itself. Had an employee tell me yesterday that they "need to work less" as there are "too many life things to do". Constant govt money being passed out at every level is going to destroy the workforce as a whole.
Quote from: stavebuyer on March 02, 2021, 04:33:06 AM
So if pine mills are getting rich(and they are) why aren't people joining the party? Certainly there are no impediments such as onerous permits, regulations, insurance edicts, and workman's compensation attorneys that make it so unattractive an endeavor that even greed is an insufficient motivator?
If you built a mill could you find anyone worth hiring to work in it or has it become beneath our dignity to actually produce something besides computer code?
"If you built a mill could you find anyone worth hiring to work in it or has it become beneath our dignity to actually produce something besides computer code?"
That. Right. There.
One thing that I haven't seen mentioned here in this thread that I believe plays a large role in our current lumber prices is interest rates.... Interest rates, until recently have been insanely low(and they still are low relatively speaking)... One of my co-workers refinanced his house about 6 months ago. His bank did it, with no closing costs, no appraisal, and a 2% interest rate on a 15 year fixed loan.....
I recently read an article, and I forget where it was, that laid it all out and it made fairly good sense to me. Some of the stuff they said I couldn't be sure of, as I don't live anywhere even remotely close to a big production mill, but it made sense. The basic breakdown of the article stated this : In the last 18 months or so, lumber prices have gone through the roof because of two things.
1st- covid shutdowns affected mills, construction companies and basically everyone else in the world.... with production from mills being down, this drove prices up due to lower supplies of lumber. Looking back now, tarriffs most likely played a role in driving prices up as well.
2nd- Seeing the extreme rise in retail lumber prices, mills figured that housing starts would slow down because people wouldn't be willing to pay that extra 10-20k for lumber to build a house, so they slowed down production (this is the part I don't know how to verify because I don't live anywhere near a production mill). What they didn't account for was that interest rates have been SO LOW. People are looking at the plans for the new house, figuring in the extra cost of lumber and looking at interest rates and it doesn't bother them because with those low interest rates, their monthly payments will still be what they consider affordable.
To be honest, I find that last paragraph to be very possible, mainly because of what I see with people around where I live and their boat payments( I use the boats example because my side business is associated with the fishing industry).... It seems that folks these days just don't care about the total purchase price of a boat. As long as they can afford the monthly payments, they will buy a $120,000 Ranger boat to go catch walleye for 5 months of the year until the lakes freeze... I've seen MANY people who have no business buying a $120k boat get one because the dealerships are willing to do 20 and 30 year loans on them, so that makes the monthly payment affordable.... It's really quite crazy.
I wish I could remember where I read that article as I'm sure I'm missing something, but it all made pretty good sense to me. My wife and I are having a house built this summer, and we are having to deal with the lumber price jumps. The crazy thing is, I think we are going to see lumber prices drop pretty soon. Just in the last few months the interest rates on a 15 year loan have come up almost 1/4%... eventually it will get high enough that folks will not be comfortable with their estimated monthly payments including that extra 10-20k in lumber and things will slow down and drive the price of lumber down...
Sorry if I'm rambling... this is just what it looks like to me and I could be completely wrong.
In a capitalistic free market economy, interest is the necessary charge a lender must require to bear the risk of the borrower's default. The higher the risk the higher the interest must be. Any deviation from that simple rule will produce economic disaster in time. More risk, more charge for me to take the risk.
When the federal reserve [guaranteed repayer] pushes local lending interest rates down by manipulating the overnight and interbank interest rates, they are causing the lenders of the entire nation to mis-price local lending risks. Shaky borrowers should be paying TEN percent or more to account for their high default rates. Many borrowers should be paying loan shark rates because theyre just plain bums who manipulate the bankruptcy system over and over. They only repay those they fear will physically hurt them.
Super low rates causes everyone.. Especially the shaky borrower, to borrow cheap money. It causes the banks to be fully lent out to volatile borrowers and eventually it causes huge shakeups where many banks lose much money and govt is begged to step in ala 2008. Like ford/chevy/dodge begging for tarp funds etc. Well stop selling zero percent interest cars dummies.
Its a setup designed to fail and bring about socialism. Interest rates have been falsified continually by the fed since the greenspan put of oct 1987. It is a component of an attack strategy on america. Lenin said debauch the currency in 1919. On the 100th anniversary covid did just that. The continual crises, the drugs, the death by taxes and regs and codes, the political civil war, the everyone must be a manager culture, the televised decay and a hundred other demoralizing elements. It all adds up. Its called encirclement. Aka we are surrounded. Brezhnev said "the situation is normalized."
Normalization is the 4th and final stage of subversion and thats why "new normal" is the buzz phrase it is now.. Because we all must be convinced to peacefully accept this is how its gonna stay. I am only in better shape for this condition than others because ive been preparing a decade for it. Its gotten awfully hard to prepare now.
And we will hang our self's with our own rope.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_9429.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1617989988)
Here is a new home just being completed that was built entirely with framing lumber and timbers that I sawed in November.
There is another that the foundation slab has been poured and construction will begin soon.
Was it used green. No code ?
Thats a beautiful thing lynn.. You are definitely part of the solution.
How did the builders get around the stamp/grade/code situation?
The framing lumber was stickered and air dried. There was no stamp/grade requirement.
Several years ago when the number of homes built with my sawn framing lumber reached 20, I quit keeping a count.
Sorry Mudfarmer for not getting back to your question. The last quote I got was $240. for #1 sawlogs. I watch the price on the stock market down in N.Y. and yesterday a Thousand B.F. of spf went to $1139.40 :o. And the talkers on Blomburg are saying interest rates are going to go up soon.
Quote from: Magicman on April 09, 2021, 05:58:25 PM
The framing lumber was stickered and air dried. There was no stamp/grade requirement.
Several years ago when the number of homes built with my sawn framing lumber reached 20, I quit keeping a count.
Magician, working on a similar project with my own house up here in upstate ny. Trying not to buy anything since the dang price is so high. One of the hemlock logs I sawed I found powderpost beetles. They've been emerging this week and I'm finding them on other peices of wood. I have timbor on the way, other than that and kiln sterilizing, have you had to deal with beetles in any of your ventures?
I generally never see the lumber that I saw after I leave the site. I can only give some generalized recommendations regarding proper lumber care.
I cut out a house this winter for a family member. He helped sticking and stacking as it came off the mill. It was mostly hemlock and some pine for board and battens. The logs were free to him, his father cut them with a clark cable skidder. His quote from the local lumber company was around 20k for the framing materials. (Probably way more now) My bill to him was 2300. He was pretty happy with that price. He is still a little nervous about the price of everything else but,
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/54611/20210117_161946.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1618061692)
is gonna press on. Hes 26 and this is gonna be his 1st house. Picture is some of his nice hemlock logs in queue. Local building code currently allows for unstamped rough cut lumber. Iam sure with as many mills around now that will probably change soon.
Just some more grading and code stuff. To my knowledge no building code excludes rough sawn lumber, planing is not a requirement. Grading rules do stipulate the amount of skip, tearout, etc on lumber that is planed but again do not require planing. Bear in mind that if you go to full dimension you probably need to look at your fasteners and go up in size to get proper penetration.
It is a good idea to borate lumber even if it is kiln dried, it is just another layer of protection and cheap protection at that.