Second Guessing

[Rhodemont]

I have been busy sawing the timbers I will need for the next round of my post and beam build.  A ways back I decided two things:  First- 18 to 20 inch oak trees are my optimum, bigger are too tough to cut, skid and handle, likely have ants and rot, and I can saw two or three 20 inchers with better results in the time it takes to do a big one; Second- When sawing beams the beam is the primary goal, getting nice clear boxed pith big beams is not easy and it is not worth trying to squeeze out a couple jacket boards time and handling wise.

Well, yesterday I second guessed both of those decisions and lost twice.  I dropped a 26 incher which was along trail and not too far from the mill so skidding would not be too destructive in the wet ground.  Thought I would get two logs for 8x8 x 14ft beams with a third for a 8x8 x 10ft and some 4x6 from each.  Well, I lost 5 feet off the base to rot which left me  10, 14, 10 ft.   Sawed the first two yielding a nice 8x8 each and some 4x6 (which added a lot of extra handling).  On the second 10 it looked like I had plenty of room to take a board off each side. The sap wood on one side took a dip toward the center which would have cleaned up if I moved the pith 3/4 inch off center from the start.  I should have followed my decision and sawed a 9"+ cant to flip and clean up as needed.   Had to down grade to a 6x8. Was hoping to be done felling but will have to drop another to get that last 8x8 x 14 ft that I need.  Picked out an 18 incher per plan.                                                                                                                         

[Digger Don]

That looks like a terribly neat pile of slab wood. Do you cut them short to sell for firewood? My slab pile looks horrible, compared to yours.

[SwampDonkey]

I call my stacking of firewood, 'rough', nothing is equal length and rarely square. 

[jpassardi]

Looking good. If it's any consolation: I feel your pain. We recently finished felling/milling the oak framing material for my barn. Building the trusses now. All the pine for board & batten has been stickered for over a year. Just milled shingles for the gable end siding so we can pre-fab the end trusses with overhang, siding and stain before booming them up.
I find that 18" - 24" is the sweet spot for log diameter. I also process hardwood slabs into firewood. It takes a lot of steps and time to go from trees to a building if you do it all yourself.

[Rhodemont]

I cut and stack some of the slabs to sell or burn myself.  The balance get stacked at length to be sold.  Seldom do I saw more than 3 logs in a day. If I do not clean up after each log things get out of hand fast.  Slabs get pushed onto the lift arms, boards get slid forward onto the FEL forks, if a beam or fence posts get left raised up on the toe roller/levelers providing plenty of clearance for the forks.  Boards get moved off to sticker and stack. If a beam it then gets lifted off the mill and stacked, then the slabs get lifted off the arms, moved to be cut to length with chainsaw right off the forks and stacked or piled at length.  Load another log and start over.  Three good size oaks and I am tired.