Family xmas and more woodshed and sawmill progress

Trip to the city

I revisited the city house with my van and loaded up a couple of new rolling tables for my woodwork projects.  Also, while I was there, i moved the canning shelves from the shed and into the house, after first adding some "siding" to make them more attractive and a bit safer (keeps the jars from falling of the sides).  Before I could move the canning shelves in, i had to move the old metal shelves out.  I loaded two sets of "garage type" shelving into the van.  The canning shelves are ready for finishing now.  I also bought a set of shelves at home depot.  These new shelves are sturdy and similar to the shelves that I use in the garage and shop up at the farm (can hold 4000lbs!).

Anyway, I stayed at the city house for New Years eve with Katherine and then we took off to the farm New Years day.

Burl/Curly/Wavy/Spalted maple milling!

I found the old maple log that had the burl!

Its plenty big and shows outward signs of having some interesting figure

Lots of Maple to mill - the figure wood will be first

about 13 and a half feet long!!

about 1.3 feet in diameter (DBH) - but the figure wood is much wider.

Very cool!

Lots of curly and even some birds eye!

And spalting too!

Amazing!

Some shots on the mill

this beast was heavy, but I man handled it

I finally got it all sawed up - favoring 6/4 cuts to preserve most of the wood so that whoever gets it can resaw or turn it - whatever.

 Woodshed progress

Using boards to find uniform level

OK - skipped lots of steps because I was working fast and hard to beat the snow/rain

Its rough, but hey - its a woodshed!

Starting to look like something

I actually purchased 6 sheets of 10x3 metal roofing so I am ready to go!  Just need to put some purlins on!

Xmas over-view

Lots of stuff - too busy to post!

here is just a bunch of pictures.

This is how I brought it home!

Its off the trailer now.  I had to put the flail mower on the tractor because the sawmill package weighed to much and threatened to tip the tractor!

Sawmill on the ground and out of the rain

Unwrapped

Sawmill head removed from packaging

Sawmill rails laid out.

Sawmill rails leveled and aligned (this took about a day and a half!)

Sawmill head placed on the rails!  Whew.  Nervewracking

First cut!

Root beer ready!  A short break

Its very fizzy, but the flavor isn't what I remember.  

Milling a long ash log (I think)

5 inch cant

Got some nice boards - 16 foot, if I recall

Can make some really thin boards on this mill!

Ahh, there's stress in this cant!  Look at how it bows!

Moving a big piece of maple to the mill.

This one is close tot he tipping point of the tractor even with the flail mower on the back!

I found this hayloft door that I think could be useful for ventilation 

Marked off my planned woodshed.

Used the auger to dig some holes for the poles for the woodshed

Here are the poles

Made some "E2"  - added water tot he elderberry pulp left from the earlier jelly making and got enough good juice to the make these 7 half-pints of "E2" jelly.  This stuff is actually pretty good!

I debarked the poles and put them up to paint them with my copper napthenate

9% copper napthenate

After "painting" with 2 coats.

Connected the 2 sides of the canning shelves.  

Ready to cut the actual shelving boards.

Poles are dry and ready to plant

The poles are aligned using the boards

Poles are backfilled.  Ready for the next step!