We have been living on this patch of the planet for just on thirty-three years now. We started with a simple two acre wooded lot on which we built our home from the trees we harvested from the home site. While I cut most of these, they were all hauled off to a mill in the next town over where they were milled to spec and returned to be cut into the timber frame by a master framer. Looking back at it now I am impressed with my former, younger self.

Life has taken twists and turns but we are still here and what was two acres is now sixty and I find myself living a dream.

Fast forward thirty years or so – to the spring of 2017 and we set out to build the second structure on the property – a three car post and beam barn / garage type of thing. We were SO overdue this luxury. The solution we landed on was a pre-cut ‘kit’ of eastern white pine that we assembled on site. This operation took me a little over a year to complete. Apart from the day the material was delivered and the four bents raised via crane, I , with the always present never wavering support of my wife, built the structure solo.

Anyway – getting on with the main thrust of this post –

A result of clearing the site for the barn I had to fell some more large eastern white pine as well as some oak and ash. I had the help of an arborist and his equipment and they hauled out the brush and slash while leaving me with a pile of logs . I could not bear to ‘throw them away’ and convinced myself that I would develop the means of turning them into something cool.

Last spring (2019) I set about the process of researching my options for on-site milling of logs. There were two paths – A fixed mill such as a wood miser and a man portable solution such as an alaskan mill. Now, with a fixed mill – you bring the wood to the mill and with the alaskan mill you bring the mill to the wood. This is and important distinction in my situation as many of the logs I had on the ground could simply not be moved except with the most massive of equipment. Despite owning a capable little Kubota L235 – there was no way I was moving these logs. They weighed more than the tractor. The other problem with the fixed mill is that the sled the saw runs on is a fixed length. You purchase it for a max length and that’’s it. Twelve feet is a big installation and making it larger runs into even more money on an already expensive proposition. The alaskan approach allows one to cut virtually any length. As long as you can build a rail for the first reference cut you are all set. In case you can not tell – I went the alaskan approach with a STHIL MS661 with a 36” and 40” bar and ripping chains that mount into a Granberg MKIV mill.

It was fun going to the STIHL dealer and ordering this beast. After some research I was prepared for the questions. I had seen this on Youtube prior –

My interaction with the dealer was not far off from that video. Nobody stocks this rig – you have to order it and yes – as a responsible dealer he asked me if I knew WTF I was doing. I had a vague idea.

So my second season of milling is starting up and I have some experience now . I am still working the pile from clearing for the barn as well as cleaning up the semi-regular tree-fall we get around here. Two days ago I dropped what remained of a sistered pine that dropped half the tree on my power lines last year. Solid green pine except the crotch which led to the rot and demise of the tree. This old girl has already yielded quite a bit of wood and I am only halfway done.


As I do not know who might be reading this – and have no idea how you might tip the scales at the dealership – let me tell you that dropping a nearly 40” at the stump green eastern white pine is…. exciting. Holding up that 661 with the throttle wide open trying to align the cut for the drop you need all the while knowing that the saw and the tree could swat you dead in a second is a thrill to experience. There had to be four TONS of tree that came down with that cut.

There it is. All caught up on my milling adventures. I was not blogging here back when I began but will be including content as I move forward on my timber projects. This time I will be doing ALL of it my self. Felling, Milling, Designing,Joining, Raising. Good times. Fist up is an L back porch for the house followed by a wilderness cabin back on the property a bit.