First Milling of the Fall Season

 Had some friends come to visit and we did a day of milling down at the beach. It was a Saturday and a holiday weekend, with decent weather to boot.

 Logs before the millingfest

I only had one of my mills operating, but it worked very well, other than a broken chain at one point. My friend brought his Alaska mill along and we had both going for four or five hours with probably 15 or more people taking turns running the mills. I didn't do a final count, but I am guessing that we finished with close to 20 slabs. We milled 6 different logs: Two Port Orford cedar, cherry, western red cedar, elm, and catalpa.

Afterwards- the debris

 Part of what we milled up

Afterwards everyone came over to my place and helped me by taking wood from my garage! Don't think I will be doing as much milling this winter, as I have very little storage space left. It's official, the neighbour sold his house, I need to be out by early January.

Still plenty of time between now and then though, so I loaded up the kiln with probably the biggest load I have run so far! It took me the better part of two days to load this baby up!

Arbutus, maple, cherry, locust, deodar, lots of different species in there. I was smart this time and trimmed off all the knots, cracks, etc BEFORE the wood went in the kiln. It is not recommended to mix species in the kiln, as they dry (and crack) at different rates, but I have found that since I air dry them for two years first, that it seems to work OK.