It's cedar time...

When I bought this property, our philosophy was to balance spending with "do no harm".  So, we didn't want to needlessly spend money on every little thing, because there have been, and continue to be little things that need tending.  The harm would have been to my budget.  Instead, we focused on things that needed to be addressed immediately.  There were two cedar trees pushing against the fence line, right next to electrical wires, and within the range of my neighbor's house, (an elderly couple).  Those needed to come down immediately.  My brother had the idea of cutting the trunk into 8' lengths, with an eye to making something out of them in the future.  We hired a professional to do this.

These were cut down last April, and we finally got them to a saw mill to be cut into planks.  We left them to dry, stacked on the lawn for over a year.  The cut areas were painted with latex to keep the cracking at a minimum.  The theory, is that it slows evaporation of the sap.  We have 1" and 1 1/4" planks.  The 1" will be used for closet shelves, and the 1 1/4" will be used for a dining room table top.

We did learn a few things, the saw mill operator offered to run them through a planer, which smooths out the surface, so less sanding when we polish them.  Unfortunately, his planer was very narrow, and he had to cut the planks narrower than I would have liked, but we know for next time.

We also had two short stumps which are now coffee tables on my patio, it's rustic, but perfect for the area.

Next the cedar beam project...