What to do with the trees?

   / What to do with the trees?
  • Thread Starter
#11  
Sandman, I'll check out that link. I'm reading up on the Logosol site and there are some posts from people in my situation.

Charles has a good suggestion as well. Me trying to split these big rounds will take alot of work. I think I'm on the low side to say there are 40-50 cords of wood in these trees. That is 10-14 years worth of wood for us...

My best guess t the moment is that since it looks like the one or two trees would be provide the beams and posts for the barn which would easily cover the cost of the mill, that is the direction we will go. Then see if I can figure out how to see the sawn wood....

Later,
Dan
 
   / What to do with the trees? #12  
Every area is diferent, but here in East Texas, I called over two dozen loggers to sell my timber after I took it out. They all wanted to know how much I had on the ground, how big was it, and the exact species. I told them what I knew and some were interested. Others said no thanks right off and others said they wanted it. As of today, anf five years of taking out trees, I have not had one logger show up.

I also offered to give away what anybody would come and take. I had one guy show up for some of it, but then he never showed up again. My FIL comes buy and cuts some firewood for himself, but otherwise the only way to get rid of it is to burn it.

I spent allot of time trying to sell it, heard all sorts of stories of how much it's worth, how so many people wanted to buy lumber,and how a friend of a friend is looking for wood. I can burn a hundred trees in a day pretty easily once I get a fire going. It's the only proven method that I've come up with to get rid of the trees.

Good luck,
Eddie
 
   / What to do with the trees? #13  
Here in MN the logging industry fell off a cliff. Old timers sold off & moved on. Even the Amish pallet sawmills are working part time.

One bright spot is grinding & pressing the hardwoods into wood pellets for woodstoves.
 
   / What to do with the trees? #14  
If it is really as inaccessible as it sounds, and worth as little as $400 then I'd just log it.
Saw it into rounds, and split it there with an axe. Green oak isnt bad to split with an axe.
There is very little handling involved, big rounds can be split into smaller bits without moving them.
 
   / What to do with the trees? #15  
Having some experience working on a local farm where we did some logging off the property........ i've gotta warn you. Take your best guess at what your trees will be worth to a lumber yard and knock two thirds off that price. Thats what you'll end up with. Then minus the price it will cost you to get the logs trucked to the mill (and what it cost you to get them out of the woods). By the time the mill down grades your trees for too much flare at the bottom, a knot here, or other defect there, charge YOU because they had to cut three inches off your length....... then add on the fact that construction has slowed waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down. Around here the mills have been regularly refusing loads of logs because they just can't sell the lumber. I think if you ended up with pocket change after all the headache, you'll be lucky. I think you should be prepared to end up in the negative after the expense of getting the logs to the mill. I with the guys who say you should make your own firewood out of it, even if it means buying a splitter or other equipment.
 
   / What to do with the trees? #16  
You guys reminded me of something I was told last year by a guy that I was talking to, but don't know this for a fact. He said that the lumber mills were only accepting logs with an apointment and turning away those that didn't have one. They have so much lumber that they are limiting what they will accept.

I was also told that Katrina created a surplus of lumber that was causing some of this, but I find that hard to belive. Most of what went down from Katrina was ruined for lumber. I know some guys were making a killing on the hardwoods, but even they got more then they could sell.

Framing studs at Home Depot were $2.09 yesterday. That's the cheapest that I've seen them in years. Even drywall is way down at $5.49 for a 8ft sheet. Prices seem to be droping on building materials right now, but I'm not sure if that's part of the normal winter slowdown, or the housing slowdown? It might also be from the surplus of lumber at the mills, which accounts for it being so hard to sell lumber.

Eddie
 
   / What to do with the trees? #17  
EddieWalker said:
You guys reminded me of something I was told last year by a guy that I was talking to, but don't know this for a fact. He said that the lumber mills were only accepting logs with an apointment and turning away those that didn't have one. They have so much lumber that they are limiting what they will accept.

I was also told that Katrina created a surplus of lumber that was causing some of this, but I find that hard to belive. Most of what went down from Katrina was ruined for lumber. I know some guys were making a killing on the hardwoods, but even they got more then they could sell.

Framing studs at Home Depot were $2.09 yesterday. That's the cheapest that I've seen them in years. Even drywall is way down at $5.49 for a 8ft sheet. Prices seem to be droping on building materials right now, but I'm not sure if that's part of the normal winter slowdown, or the housing slowdown? It might also be from the surplus of lumber at the mills, which accounts for it being so hard to sell lumber.

Eddie
Click to expand...

Eddie, I am about 3 hrs NW of you just up 69/75. Last week I saw some logging trucks going by, I flagged one down and asked him to have someone stop and talk to me I wanted to clear cut a small area. I knew a logging company wouldn't come for such a small area, so I thought here's my chance.

Long story short, it paid $6 per ton. I didn't do it for the money was simply tired of not acessing that area, they cut them close and I mean real close to the ground, what they left we will cut into fire wood, then pile and burn the balance.

I am thinking I will keep it sprayed this coming year and with time bermuda grass will overtake it.

I quess I got long winded, I wanted you to know its $6 a ton here.
 
   / What to do with the trees? #18  
I say goto the forestry forum, there are highly portable mills (such as the LUCAS and PETERSON) Swing mills that can make short work of logs in hard to reach areas. tere are a lot of millers there that would take the logs at a fair price. but like others said the logging industry is suffering form slow building bad now, lots of these mills are simply setting as the yard is full of already cut wood with few buyers...

Mark M
 
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