TIMBER HARVESTING

For many years I have been against having our timber cut on the back of our property. With so many trees being blown down during the recent storms I reconsidered my options. Many of the trees are also dying. I decided to contact a friend that I ran around with during my high school days. Wayne came by and we walked the back acres where he said the timber should have been cut 20 years ago. The woods had several species of old trees. Wayne told me that timber was at an all time high in price. Our deal was for him to cut and ship the timber to a sawmill located about 35 miles from the sight. We agreed to a 50 / 50 split on the timber sales. The sawmill would provide a computer list of every log sold. This would include the length of log, the diameter, grade and price.
The woods featured red oak, white oak, poplar and some hickory trees. Only the market timber would be cut. Wayne used a bull dozier to pull the down logs to a clear area to be stacked. A huge piece of equipment with forks would load the logs onto a log truck to transport them to the sawmill. That first week Wayne cut and shipped 275 logs to the sawmill. Wayne is 69 years old and small in statue and man can he cut down the trees and fall them just where they need to fall. He gave his Stidl chainsaw a good workout that week. Nine loads were shipped. On Friday afternoon Wayne rang my doorbell and said I have your first check. I sure wasn't expecting a check till he completed the job. With the check was the computer list of all the log data. Wow!!!! I had no idea my check would be this much. The woods with all the tree tops left was indeed discouraging but that check made it not such an eye sore.
The next week he completed the job with two more big loads going to the sawmill. He was saving the MONEY LOGS which were the big White Oaks to be sold to a friend that makes barrel staves to be shipped to France and used in the wine industry. Indeed these logs brought top dollar. The red oak lumber will be used for hardwood flooring, railroad cross ties, cabinets and furniture. Hickory is used for flooring, paneling, smoking meats chips and made into handles for hammers, shovels, picks and etc. Poplar used for furniture, wood pulp and paper production. A total of 377 logs were cut and only two were culled by the grader at the sawmill.
All the tree tops left on the ground will be cut into firewood by friends of mine that burn wood. Oh, yeah, I'll be cutting wood for the next 20 years??????