Sawdust dreams coming true

[Kit B]

I've gotten so much help and guidance from the FF over the last few years, as a way of giving back I thought I'd share a little of my sawdust journey.  I apologize in advance for being long winded.

  My parents are originally from Northern Florida.  My mom's people had a small farm where I was sent every summer when I was a child.  After my grandfather passed my mom inherited the farm which she had planted in Slash pine.  The first few years she had an arrangement with a local guy who kept the rows mowed in exchange for a hunting lease.  This arrangment lapsed and the young trees went several years with no management.  Anyone familiar with pine plantatations knows this is a recipe disaster.  I started going down a few times a year to try and muck out the rows from all the hardwood that had seeded into the rows.  More time passes and as my mother grew infirm, the farm was passed to me. This was about 20 years ago.

I live in Portland, Oregon, where I work as a nurse in a Cardiac ICU. When I took over the farm I considered moving to Florida, but the wages for nurses there are less than stellar and my kids are all in the Pacific NW.  So for the last 20 odd years I have been commuting back and forth between Portland and Florida.

A few years back, one of my Florida buddies and I went halves on a very used, manual, Cooks sawmill.  Having zero sawmilling experience I decided my first sawmillint project would be to wall in one side of a 40x60 pole barn, using Sweet gum cut from trees growing in old fence rows.  Anyone familiar with growing SYP know that Sweetgum is the bane of our existence.  So I figured cutting a bunch of big ones down would be some sweet revenge, and if I screwed it up, well, they're only Sweetgum.  So I cut down a couple of big suckers canted them up and found they contained some amazing wood


Not only was I shocked at the beauty contained in that hated species of tree, I was immediately hooked on sawmilling.  All the sudden I looked at trees in a whole different way. 

I ended up milling over 120 boards for sideing on the pole barn.  In the beginning I was happy to get saw from one end of the log to the other, then I began to notice that it seemed no 2  boards were the exact same width or thickness.  As a part of my struggle to learn to mill with some accuracy I stumbled upon the Forestry forum as well as the Hobby Hardwoods youtube site.  Both have become mainstays in my efforts to improve.

At some point I realized that a manual mill was not going cut it (pun intended) but the expense of a hydraulic mill seemed to put it out of reach.  Then a little virus called Covid turned the world upside down and presented an opportunity for ICU RNs to work unlimited overtime for premium pay.  I put my head down and my PPE on, and 3 years later was ready to go shopping for a new mill.

As a part of deciding which mill to buy, I reached out to FF members who would be willing to show me their setups.  A huge thank you to Kenmac, Yellowhammer, and bushhog920 letting me visit with them.  Eventually I ended up ordering an LT40wide with pretty much all the whistles and bells they offered.  The mill was delivered in late July of this year, 6 months ahead of schedule.



I have to say, I LOVE THIS SAWMILL!! I LOVE HYDRAULICS!! I LOVE ACCUSET!!

Because of my schedule I've only got about 35 hours on it but it is everything I'd hoped it would be.  This year I've gone to part time at the hospital and will probably retire in September.  I'm not sure where my sawdust journey goes from here, but I feel like whatever I decide I have the mill to get me there.

Again, apologies for being long winded and a big thankyou to all the regular contributors who make this forum what it is.

[SawyerTed]

Great story about your beginning in the sawdust dream!  Looking forward to more updates and milestones!  

[WV Sawmiller]

    Good to hear from you. Good read. Which part of N. Fla are you in? I grew up in NW Fla in Escambia county about 40 miles from Pensacola and about 5 miles from the Ala line. We don't have sweetgum here in WV so I still have not sawed any even though I grew up with it everywhere.

    Look forward to hearing more from you in the future.

[Resonator]

Great story!
I'm still "Chasing the Sawdust Dream" myself. (Shameless mention of my thread).
I hope some day to have a new LT40 like that.

[red]

You looked at trees in a new way . . that is what member DanG always said . . that once you start running a sawmill no tree is safe 

[jpassardi]

Congrats to you! You turned Covid into something positive.

[trimguy]

Great story !

[YellowHammer]

I am glad it worked out well and the visit was productive.  Very nice looking setup. 

[Peter Drouin]

[Nebraska]

Looks like a personal "this world" heaven to me. That 

[YellowHammer]

An LT40 is a great mill, mine was about bullet proof! Loved it.  

[KenMac]

I'm really glad it has worked out for you Kit! I was pleased to show you my meager little place here. I do think you should have bought a cook's mill, though!