The new year has just begun and I figured I'm way overdue for an update, so here's some info on the load that currently fills my kiln.  It's some red oak (all rift sawn/quarter sawn) from a great big 'ol log that came down from a friend's yard.

My friend Tim called to ask if I would be interested in a red oak in his yard.  It was leaning completely over his house and was big enough that it would take out most of the house if it fell.  To avoid the worry, they had decided to have the tree taken down.  Well, of course I was interested.  After some discussions with the tree service we agreed that I would pay him a delivery fee and they would drop the logs at my sawmill lot.

Rolling the logs into position was more than me and my logrite peavey could handle so some careful rolling with my winch and I was able to get the first butt log under the mill.  With a 40" diameter log and the mill carriage up above it, it was tough to swing the blade from vertical to horizontal (mostly because I'm a tad bit vertically challenged).  The log was milled into a bunch of rift sawn and quarter sawn defect-free boards.  Beautiful. The kiln was loaded back in September at 81% moisture content!  After two months it was down to around 9%.  The boards are still in the kiln because the winter temperatures have kept the drying to a minimum, but the main reason is that I don't have anywhere to store it yet.

It's not exactly information related to my solar kiln, but all that lumber has to come from somewhere.  I was recently invited to give a demo of my sawmill at the Central Virginia Woodworkers Guild annual picnic.