Goodwill Roadtrip/Sawing - Success

[wwsjr]

We have had beautiful weather last two days. Monday was miserable, mid 30's with drizzle all day. Never rained hard, just enough to keep everything wet. Tue low was 31°, high 50° at 3:00PM with sunshine all day. Wed was low 32°, high 51°. Today is predicted to be the same. No wood on the fire after lunch. Perfect weather for sawing. If things go well, we should finish today. 

[Chuck White]

Great job guys!  8)

[John S]

Great job and God Bless all of you there and here on the Forestry Forum.

[SawyerBrown]

Just have to say "Thank you!"  smiley_clapping one more time to all the folks that were/are/will be on the ground in Rusk, as well as those that supported the trip financially and with thoughts and prayers.

In Matthew 25:40 Jesus tells us: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."  Sobering thought.

[goose63]

May God bless the crew and watch over them with a safe trip home when the job is done  8) _grin _grin

[wwsjr]

We finished sawing about 3:00pm today. Lynn, Marty, Andy, and Bill hit the road home about 4:00PM this afternoon. I am staying one more night and leave early tomorrow morning. This old man is tired and needs rest before making a 8 1/2 hr drive. More info will follow from all I am sure.

Thanks again for all the support we have received.

Willie

[beenthere]

I can just imagine how tired you all are. Those were four big days.

Thanks to all of you for the generous effort and great accomplishment. Gives Austin a real good "leg up" when he needed one.

8) 8)

[ET]

Job well done!  Were all proud of you. Enjoy your long weekend and time to relax!

[coxy]

hope every one has a safe trip home  JOB WELL DONE 8) 8) smiley_clapping smiley_flipping

[ND rancher]

Thanks for the great job! Safe travels for the crew. Looking forward to more photos of the end result. Also hope there will be pictures of the building project.

[Bill Gaiche]

I got home about 10:20pm. It was a very good experience for me. The Black family is really assume. Was glad to meet them all. We had a great time sawing all the lumber and eating great meals provided by Stacey and her friends. Hope this gets them started back in the right direction once again. Maybe there dreams of having a home again will come true soon. Thanks to Jeff for having the Forestry Forum, for it was what made this all happen. Thanks to all the members and others for there contributions to make this happen and ease the burden that was brought upon the Black family. I have a few photos and I am sure there will be more that will be added by Magicman and Austin. Magicman done a fine job of sawing all this lumber also. Willie's eager speeded up things also. Was a pleasure to work with Willie, Magicman, Austin, Andy, Allen and Marty. bg


  

  

  

  

  

  

[Larro Darro]

Great job guys. You all did an amazing amount of work. Makes me proud to be a member of this forum.

Larro

[beenthere]

Bill
You captured some pretty special happy smiles on those faces in Austin's family. Good on you all.  8)

[Roxie]

The smiles on the children's faces is just wonderful.  Those little ones now know what real hero's look like.  You guys are awesome! 

[Andy White]

Thanks everyone on the forum for the heartfelt support you have given us in this endeavor. I have never had the feeling that I had that much support on any project I have ever done! Austin is truly one in a million. He and his family made me, and all of us feel like old friends instead of new aquaintances. If anyone ever gets the chance to work a project with Lynn, and Willie, you had better take it! The knowledge and skill is shown in every move they make all day long. Just knowing they both have been recognized in the million board foot membership made this project a very learning experience for me. Marty is a sawyers dream come true. His attention to every detail of the mills performance and setup is unbeatable. Along with pushing us aside to offbear boards, he kept the loading arms full of logs so the saw never stopped. Bill is one of the great ones for contributing all he has to the project at hand. Between every log and board, we talked about, and built every kind of gadget you could want on a sawmill! I spent just a short time with Allen, because he stayed on the tractor hauling logs to the pile. At one time we stopped and asked him if he was cutting logs off the neighbors property. Never seen that many logs at one time. This Forestry Forum is the very pattern our country was founded on, and I am the one who has to be the luckiest man on the forum for getting this opportunity to meet and work along the finest people out there. Thanks to all, and I will be looking forward to another project if the need arises.      Andy

[Nomad]

The smiles on the children's faces is just wonderful.  Those little ones now know what real hero's look like.  You guys are awesome!

     I don't believe it could be said better than this.  Good Show, fellas!

[Chuck White]

This has been a truly wonderful experience for all Forestry Forum members, especially the ones that did the sawing!

Great job fellas!

[Sixacresand]

I am proud of you guys and glad to be part of the Forum..  Merry Christmas to all.

[Corley5]

Excellent job everyone 8) 8) 8)

[dablack]

Well, I just have a minute to post but I wanted to give a heart felt thanks to Jeff, the forestry forum financial supporters, Allen, Mike, and Dennis who helped me fell and move the logs, Andy, Willie, Lynn, Marty, and Bill who helped cut and stack it all.  It has been a wild ride and I'm EXHAUSTED.  I'm glad I'm at work today so I can rest!  HA! 

My wife Stacey cried when everyone left because we love them all so much.  Such great guys. 

Stacey got better pictures than me on the last day but I can post what I have.

Here is the last pine framed by Bill and Andy.


 

Here is a pic of Lynn getting a pic of the giant slab pile. 


 

Here is the first oak.  It was very productive.  Sadly, the others were not.  The cracks just ran too deep. 


 



 

Then the last oak, looked pretty good but it was the one with metal in it.  Also, turns out about half the oaks were NOT white oaks like I thought.  They were some kind of red oak, most likely post oak.  I have lots of them on the property too. 



 

I'm hoping to post more pics later. 

I, of course will document the build here on the forum.  It will be a couple of months before we start framing.

thanks
Austin

[WDH]

Austin,

Post oak  is in the white oak group, so if your oaks are red oaks, they are not post oak.

Looks like an amazing four days and a large whack of lumber. Things work best when we work together. 

[Magicman]

I just lost my entire reply with pictures, so now I start over again.   :-\   :-\

[Magicman]

This project began with a simple question by FF member "dablack" (D. Austin Black) asking about possibly sawing his own lumber to build a home for his family.  Over 80 Forestry Forum members have volunteered their time and contributions to give this precious family a new start in their lives.   

Thanks first to Jeff who had the vision to provide a means for sawyers, loggers, foresters, woodworkers, and any one else with a wood/timber question or idea to meet together to share their interest.

It might be noted that this is also a very giving family.  It may be of interest to know that two years ago they adopted two children from Uganda.  Stacey flew to their homeland to bring this Brother and Sister Home.   


 
The family stands with the banner in front of the lumber that will become their new home.


 
The last Pine log is loaded onto the sawmill Thursday morning.


 
And becomes part of these stickered stacks consisting of about 8400bf of framing and flat lumber.


 
Another of the delicious meals provided by the ladies.  This was a meat pie topped with tater tots, and was followed by peach cobbler & ice cream.


 
We all signed the banner.  We also signed a 2X4, but I did not get a picture.


 
Last was the White Oak logs that will become flooring.


 
We did manage to get 500bf of lumber from those logs.


 
Last it was the "Owl Head" log.  We fought the log, but the log won.  We knew full well that it had metal, but we tried to get a few side boards.  Wrong !!!


 
And then we tried to "jump butt" it above the nails, but we quickly hit metal and the saw left the red line.  Junk.

Our total was 8965bf of lumber sawed with 6 blades and then 0bf sawed with 2 blades.



 
We enjoyed the fellowship and fun on this trip.  Here Willie's Logrite "mill special" tried to hitch a ride home in my truck.


 
But Willie's keen eye spotted it, and alas, it went back home with him.

Our portion of the project would not have been possible without first the Forestry Forum.  Then Wood-Mizer, Logrite, and lastly the heart of the Forestry Forum.  Your contributions and constant encouragement certainly were uplifting and provided the momentum to help make this happen.

Thanks seems like a small word to how I feel about the help that we had while sawing.  Andy White (who made a ~160 mile round trip each day), Bill Gaiche, Austin and Marty were always there to roll up another log and keep the lumber stacked.  Willie's edger kept me from having to edge on the sawmill which speeded up the entire operation. 

Hopefully Austin and his family will continue to receive contributions as well as manual help as they build their future home. 

Also, please do not fail to remember to make a contribution to the Forestry Forum, for without it, none of this would have been possible.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

What a blessing...... and I would go out on a limb to call it a miracle. 
It was good to see this endeavor start from the beginning, watch its progress along the way and yes.....come to an end. Now a home can begin to grow.
Sure looks like a mighty happy family and just in time for Christmas!

Thanks to all for your hard work and the great pictures y'all posted! 

[Bill Gaiche]

Stacey and I have become friends on Facebook. I came across this story that she has written about her and family. It touched me in a way that I thought that some of you would like to read it and come to appreciate this family even more. Its kinda long but worth the read. She gave me permission to post it and hope that its ok by Jeff. bg

Stacey Babin Black
I want to share with all of you OUR Christmas miracle! It isn't a miracle of being miraculously healed from a terminal illness, or maybe anything else that would probably move you to tears. It may not even seem terribly significant to many of you. But to our family, it is a HUGE miracle! I don't necessarily think that many of you will be "wowed" by what our family is receiving, but I want to tell you so that you will be reminded that people are still SO GOOD! People DO still help others out....even if they don't know them! I've always thought about service as it relates to helping and serving in third-world countries. I'll help out friends or family members in need. When there is a natural disaster, I think of people that have lost their homes and enthusiastically drop off donations for families that have just lost everything. I LOVE to help others and serve the Lord. What I have never even considered is that I should learn to accept the help and service of others. I am not saying that I have not ever been helped out, but that when it has happened, I have felt very awkward, almost embarrassed. I don't just accept it. I struggle with it for a long, long time. I feel guilty. I'm very uncomfortable. I am learning now. Finally. The Lord is teaching me that I need to accept the gifts He sends me without guilt. And I am trying to be a good student!

So here is what is happening.....

A lot of you know that our house burned down in July, and we've spent the last four months resettling our family and trying to accept what has happened. What a lot of you don't know, is that God has been orchestrating a HUGE blessing for our family! A miracle!! Just for us!!!

When we lost the house that we had sunk so much of our hard work, faith and hope into, we were shocked and distraught. We lost the house itself, all of the tools and equipment that enabled us to build the house, our rv, many household items (extra blankets, sheets, you name it) and childrens' toys, etc. that were already in the house and rv. In addition, we lost SO much money that we found ourselves in position that we would not be able to begin rebuilding for a LONG time...probably several years, if we were lucky! Austin (my husband) began posting on a forum that he had been a member of for a couple of years. This forum is for sawyers...men who cut lumber with portable saws. Because we have property with a LOT of trees on it, Austin thought it might be the most economical to just buy a sawmill and begin the labor of felling trees and cutting the lumber for our house ourselves.

Austin was seeking the advise of these professional and experienced sawyers and asking them about how many working hours they thought it might take him to cut all of the lumber on our "cut list." We wouldn't be able to afford a very big sawmill at all. The smaller (or cheaper) the sawmill, the longer it takes for it to cut lumber. We didn't know if it would take every weekend for 6 months or a year to cut all of the wood. It just so happened that a wonderful angel of a man...a Christian sawyer from Mississippi named Lynn Davis was on that forum, and remembered a post from the year before in which my husband was asking about some of the cedar we were installing on the porch ceiling. My dear husband had not mentioned that our home had burned. We were just trying to figure out a plan amongst ourselves to see how we could work our way back out of the predicament we now found ourselves in.

This wonderful man asked Austin what the cut list was for....weren't we completing a house? (What on earth could this cut list be for?) Austin then explained that the house we had spent over a year as a family building had been struck by lightening and burned down to the slab. Unbeknownst to us, this elderly gentleman sawyer has a passion for service. He told Austin that he wanted to drive from Mississippi with his sawmill and cut all of our lumber for our house for us for free!!! WHAT!?!!?

As we are NOT used to accepting help from anyone (or haven't been comfortable accepting help), much less, help from a stranger, we immediately started thinking of all the reasons why we absolutely could NOT accept his offer! Was this man crazy? Didn't he know we lived two states away? We aren't having to live in a shelter....we are eating, and still living somewhat comfortably. WE really aren't a charity case. Are we?

While we debated over what we should do....accept his offer of help or say no way (we aren't worthy of such a gift and all of his time and hard work; we aren't destitute enough; why us?; is he sure?; that's a lot of gas money, time, work....we can't allow this sweet man to do this...., ETC..., ETC....., ETC.!!! We were thinking of every excuse not to allow this to happen....), this determined and passionate-about-service man was already asking the other forum members who wanted to donate money to cover his travel expenses and cost to the run his mill. I don't know these men. Not one of them. I thought, "Who would want to donate? Why would they want to donate anything for us?" Well, guess what!! Apparently, A LOT OF THEM!!!!!! There have been plenty of donations from men from ALL over the country to cover Lynn's expenses and he and several (many?) other men (I don't know the exact number yet) are coming THIS WEEKEND to set up to work on Monday!!!

All of the wood we will need to begin rebuilding our home will be cut this coming week and sitting at the top of our hill for us when we are ready to start!! Did you hear that?!! ALL of the wood that we need to rebuild our home is about to be "given" to us!!!! We were in a situation that felt hopeless. We were now broke. We would have to change our lifestyle drastically. We will have to start ALL. OVER. From the ground again. We prayed. We asked God, "Why us? Why did He allow our house, the one we had been building with our own two hands constantly for over a year to burn down?" We asked for help in moving forward, for faith, for acceptance. We were confused and sad....but KNEW that God had a plan for our family. There WAS/IS a reason for our family's own personal tragedy. We don't know what the reason is, but we have been comforted by the Lord, nonetheless. We knew He would still take care of our family and still provide for us as He always has. This would just be a different kind of adventure for our family. We were up for the task.

The Lord has absolutely ALWAYS provided for us. ALWAYS. Without fail. When we were adopting our two youngest children from East Africa, and it seemed almost impossible on our budget....the Lord provided. When my husband was laid off from his job right after I returned from Uganda with our children....at Christmas time, He provided. Those are big things, but He is also in all of the little details of our lives!

So, now God gets to show off again!!! He is providing for us in a HUGE way! Exactly THE WAY that we need! He is so merciful and loving to always meet our needs!! We WILL get to rebuild our home...and SOON!!! We did not foresee that happening and never would have dreamt up the manner in which we would be able to go about it! Only God!!

I hope that this little story just gives hope to any of you that need hope right now. My prayer is that this Christmas season, we all will be reminded and remember that when we serve others, we are serving Our King. Even if you are doing something that you do all the time and you think it, "Who would need help in this manner? I'm sure there are other more amazing things that other people could do....," know that there IS someone who needs EXACTLY what you may be able to provide!! All deeds, big or small, God can use to glorify his kingdom!! And believe me...the recipient of your deeds will likely be more grateful than you can ever imagine!!

I also hope that some of you that may have lost hope with humanity will be given hope that our world is FULL of amazing people that still do so much GOOD!!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!!!