This is a photo of Day 2 of what will be 4 days of log milling here on our Farm. This winter/spring project is intended to provide the materials for several fencing jobs this coming season.
A local builder with a portable Woodmizer saw mill, Jeff Peister, has come to the farm to saw up some trees we have logged. Locust was logged for use as posts because of its longevtiy and toughness, and Oak was logged for the planks.
After the log is lifted (with the help of our tractor) onto the cutting platform, the bark is removed with the first cuts.
After each cut the log is rolled and cut again. The resulting wood is called slab wood, we think it could make a nice fence for our pig pen.....Connely, who just turned 6, will undoubtedly dream up all sorts of great building projects for these rejected slabs.
After the bark is removed the locust posts are cut...depending upon the size of the heartwood, we get 2, 4, or more 3 x 3 inch posts.
We plan on using these posts to fence in our 25 acre pasture up on route 217. The pasture will be for the cows as well as the horses.
Below you can see the pile of posts growing...in front of the 3 x 3 posts are 1 x 1 oak "stickers". The stickers are used to space out the posts so that they dry evenly and do not warp.
The next milling session will be to create more of the oak boards that you can see below. They will be the top line of the fence.
We have cut 375 locust posts, they will support about 3/4's of a mile of fencing around the open portions of the field. The remaining fence line will be high tensile going through tree lines surrounding the field.
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