Winds of Change

[Konrad in Lincoln]

I knew the day would come someday, but didn't know when. This past weekend, my parents approached us and said they'd been offered a large amount of money for the 30-odd acres of farm/scrub land that surrounds their acreage. They've been approached by developers numerous times over the years, but this time... it's time.

This is a hard thing to accept, but like I said, I've seen this day coming for the last decade or so. The creeping urban sprawl has slowly laid waste to farm after farm, and it has gradually reached my parent's land. You can now actually see paved streets and street lamps through the trees behind their house. It's never really "dark" anymore at night out there. Never mind that I haven't lived in that house for over ten years. It's where we grew up, and my dad built the house himself when I was about 2 years old.

My childhood was spent wandering in these fields, trees, and shallow valleys. Endless adventurs. Each tree is familiar to me in some way. Only someone who grew up in the country will understand what I'm talking about.

I do take heart that this is a blessing to my parents: Their health insurance costs are rising, the house needs repairs, and the family business has taken its share of hits from the slow economy as well. The amount of money they've been offered is indeed handsome, almost rediculous, and will leave them set for the rest of their lives. For this, I am gratefull. I may be sad, but I'm not ignorant.

On to my question: There are quite a number of mature cedar trees growing on several acres of this land that will be paved over in the next few years. I know nothing about harvesting trees. All of my boatbuilding lumber has always come from the local woodworking shops. I would like reap some sort of modest benefit from their destruction. They will simply be dozed over, burned, and paved over.

If anyone can offer some input as to cutting, storing, anything... it would be appreciated. Perhaps a canoe in the future? That would be a noble second life for them, don't you think?

Any help is appreciated, thanks for reading.

[cs]

Konrad, all I can do is offer my sympathies. The urbanzation of America, although a neccesity, is sad.

Bob Smashler would be the one to give you the best advice.

Chad

[Ian McColgin]

Gawd. Do you even have timber people up there on the windy plains?

Certainly cedar is great for fence posts as well as boats so maybe you can find someone to share (or even do all of) the work for some share of the wood.

G'luck

[Alan D. Hyde]

Sorry, Konrad.

Look for someone near you on this link:

www.woodmizer.com

Give him a call, and see what you can work out. Good luck.

Alan

[htom]

Uffda. Planking would be a fine second life for such trees. As would garden furniture.

[landlocked sailor]

Alan said it best, find a Woodmizer operator. He or she can come to your site, mill the logs with very little waste, custom cut to your specs, and leave nothing but sawdust (and the lumber, of course). My friend here in central PA charges $0.20/BF regardless of the species, including set up and travel. Rick

[TimothyB]

Originally posted by cs:
Konrad, all I can do is offer my sympathies. The urbanzation of America, although a neccesity, is sad.
Chad

I promise not to try to hijack the thread, but I just had to say it...

The Urbanization of America is -not- necessary. In fact, populations are starting to move back to rural and semi rural areas because they are loking for a 'more natural life'. There is enough land in America to give everyone a ranch and farmland enough to feed them and their families.

It is a trend developers are trying to take advantage of with semi rural devos, but they dont get the point and end up making sprawling lawns and acres of decks, when all people want is some trees and enough land to walk about.

--T

[Paul Scheuer]

Planking would be a fine second life for such trees.

Or maybe a continued life -

The boat made from the lumber from the trees at the farm. - Sounds like a noble thing.

Much more to my liking than the chipper.

[seayou77]

Konrad, I am in a similar position, I own the family farm. The pine trees were hit with a blight, a beetle, took a lot of the smaller pines. I want to harvest the remaining pines before this beetle returns in a five year cycle.
I am getting involved with foresters in the area thru the cooperative extension service. I find there is a lot of support for someone trying to do the right thing. But I don't like the look of the land once the ground is scarred by logging.
I find that the loggers take half the value. That is a lot to give up when you consider there were five generations, over a hundred years of growth.
I found the old vine I would swing on as a kid rotted but still hanging with a fresh one nearby.
Can't wait to get a kid swinging on that one; gonna borrow my friends kids for that as I have not managed my own...
So, be careful I think I am gonna choose to bulldoze the trees and be done with the stumps at once. Drag the timber into a field and call the logger or the sawyer to give a price on the pile or keep the wood for my own use; a barn, flooring and such. That is unless some fourumite hears of my situ. and demands that the long leaf yellow pine go to plank the latest project at Mystics' Seaport.
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[Konrad in Lincoln]

Not that it matters much, but it's the family agcreage - not a farm. But the sentiments are entirely the same.

The papers get signed next month, and then they probably have 18 months or so to be out.

Would it be better to fell the trees, strip the branches, and let the logs sit as they are for a while? Or saw it up soon after bringing the trees down? Does it matter?

[NormMessinger]

Hey Konrad. You lost? I assume you cedar trees are Eastern Redcedar Juniperus virginianus. How big are they? Do the branches go pretty much all the way to the ground? It would be very unusual for lumber from that species to yeald anything but very knotty lumber. Aromatic cedar is another word for the lumber. It is highly rot resistant and is used for cedar chests, closet linings and the like. The boat wood the dudes back east or out west call cedar is quite different.

[seayou77]

Above all else, Be Careful! Any doubt check the thread on shop phones! There is an art to this that is why Home Despot is where most hobbiest end up! [img]smile.gif[/img]