Snowy Walnut

One of my tree guys called yesterday to say he had a black walnut if I wanted it. Yes, of course, even though it was going to be single digits this AM. The tree was 30 ft off the road in 20" of settled snow, where he felled it yesterday. No way I was pulling it out with my Outback. He said it would be no problem with his 9000 lb pickup truck. I had no clue they weighed that much. So we put a chain on the first log and, sure enough, he pulled it out to the road without slipping at all on the partially snow-covered road. Same thing with the second one. I was impressed. I also was getting cold by then. I loaded the first one onto my trailer with frozen fingers with the log arch, took, it home, pulled it off, and repeated the process for the second. I warmed up during the drive each way so it wasn't like sitting on a deer stand for 10 hours with my teeth rattling.

These logs have what I call character to the Fixer Upper client. 20 to 24" diameter. They'll make nice slabs. In the Spring. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my nice warm shop.

John


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Ah- to be living in the vicinity of North American hardwoods. A luxury to a mid-westerner like myself, where gooey, Ponderosa Pine, gnarly Cottonwood and hollow scrub oaks are the majority of offerings. Even the Aspens and Birch are too spindly to drag to the sawmill. Enjoy your good fortune!

That’s a good looking log. We had a big wind event here last week so far all is see is a bunch pine and eucalyptus.
Hardly worth the trouble and lots are leaners with the root balls attached.

Nice. I’ve had little luck finding nice walnut in the usual stores these days. Most seem very light in color and/or lots of sap wood. Hope those logs hold a lot of nice pieces for you.

Is that a white pine in the front yard? I know many aren’t keen to them, but they are one of my favorites here in Michigan. I’ve never seen one with so many multi branches at the base. Very nice.

It must have been tough loading logs that size by hand, even with an arch.

Yes, that's the strangest shaped white pine I think I've ever seen. It had a little more normal shaped brother about 40 ft away until a big wind storm broke it about 10 years ago. I keep expecting this one to get toppled one of these days but it's still standing.

There is some nice walnut at my local lumber supplier. I think it was $12/bf for 4.4 and over $16/bf for 8/4.

John

The arch makes it a pretty simple one-man operation. Here's a much larger walnut log I loaded last Fall. It took about 10 minutes, working alone.


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That was a big one. I got some amazing clear lumber out of that one.

John

That's a very well-designed setup. I was thinking of an arch on wheels, and imagining you rolling the arch up onto the trailer by yourself.