Building a Home with a Wood-Mizer

Dream home built by Nathan Shewchuk and his Wood-Mizer LT40 Hydraulic

It’s one thing to dream about building your own home, but it’s another to accomplish this endeavor. Working as an electrician in Oregon for more than a decade, Nathan Shewchuk came to the realization one day that there must be more to life. With determination on his side, Nathan decided to ditch city living for greener pastures. “I was tired of the city and wanted nothing more than to move into a remote part of Canada and build a house, so I did,” said Nathan. With eight years of focus and hard work, along with a few helpers and a Wood-Mizer sawmill, Nathan was able to accomplish his lifelong dream of building a home.

Nathan and his Wood-Mizer LT40HD

After moving from the Pacific Northwest to British Columbia in 2007, Nathan began preparing his land for his dream home. While looking for a supply of lumber, Nathan found that he had a few options to choose from. He could either buy lumber and transport it to his remote location or produce the lumber himself utilizing local resources from his land. Call it coincidence or fate, while driving up the coast one day Nathan ran into someone using a Wood-Mizer portable sawmill. “I thought that this was the only way to go, what a handy tool,” he said. “I looked into a few different sawmills but found nothing compared to the Wood-Mizer.” Shortly after, Nathan purchased an LT40 Hydraulic and was set to continue his new life chapter. Believe it or not, Nathan didn’t have any previous sawmill experience before buying his Wood-Mizer. “I just went in headfirst and figured it out,” he said. “I spent basically my whole life in the trades, framing, and Finish carpentry, so [building and woodworking] wasn’t anything new to me.” Nathan did receive a week long training from “one of the best sawyers,” he said, but with sure determination and a Wood-Mizer sawmill, the foundation was built for big things to come.

 Constructing the 1,500 square foot woodworking shop        

After setting up necessary utilities such as roads, power, and water supply, Nathan shifted his focus to his home. He wanted 100% of the wood used in his home to be sawed on his Wood-Mizer, so that meant lots of trips to the kiln and many years of drying lumber. “It took eight years, that’s from clearing the property to the last nail,” he said. Nathan used half of the timber from his own property and sourced the other half from a friend who owns a nearby woodlot. With mostly cedar and birch on his property, Nathan needed a supply of douglas fir from his neighbor for framing and beams.  With winter setting in around November and the snow sticking through April, Nathan said he had to work efficiently with the seasons in mind. The first year of construction, he completed the roof and milled all the cedar materials needed for the windows and doors of his home. Nathan’s short-term goal was to live in his new home in the Fall of the second year of construction. With help from his neighbor and master Finish carpenter, Kit, the windows and doors were completed and Nathan was able to move into his home for the first time that Fall. “The Wood-Mizer was a wonderful tool, it was perfect for the job," he said.

The windows and doors were  built by
Nathan's neighbor - a Finish carpenter

Over the next few years, Nathan milled birch and douglas fir needed for the rest of the interior of his home and worked on all the finishing woodwork needed for the windows. He also built a rock fireplace and shower and milled all the tongue and groove wood for the walls and ceiling. When it was all said and done, eight years of hard work and sawing 100% of the 22,000 board feet of douglas fir, larch, birch and cedar on his LT40HD, Nathan had finally finished his dream home and woodworking shop. With help from many friends and neighbors, Nathan completed his home from the ground up, inside and out just how he had dreamed. “My neighbor, Kit did all the cabinets, doors and Finish carpentry and my friend Doug was there hand-in-hand for carpentry work and many brainstorming nights,” said Nathan. “Many people helped along the way, there is no way to count them all really, but I think this project was inspiring to many and I am very fortunate to have a lot of good friends and co-workers.”

Beautiful master bedroom built from douglas fir, larch, birch and cedar

The living quarters are estimated at 1,200 square feet, while the shop is 1,500 square feet and the deck is 500 square feet. Nathan estimates he saved between $70,000 and $80,000 by sawing his own lumber for his home. “I get an overwhelming response to my home, but I am not sure that the average person really understands the amount of work it takes to build something like this,” said Nathan. “All in all, I had the time of my life building my home and owe many people for their knowledge and skills,” said Nathan. “This would not have happened without that.”

As for the future, Nathan is looking forward to what’s next and there’s no rest in sight. “Eight years is a long time to build a house and it takes a lot of discipline along the way,” said Nathan. “It kind of became a full-time job for me and it was very enjoyable to figure it out along the way. I think I’m just very happy it’s done and can’t wait to get onto the next project.”

100% of the 22,000 board feet needed for Nathan's dream home and woodworking shop were sawed on his LT40HD

Salvaging Urban Wood with a Wood-Mizer Sawmill

As Wood-Mizer owners utilize the benefits of their portable, thin-kerf sawmills, they are discovering economically and environmentally effective solutions to salvage fallen and diseased city trees that would’ve otherwise gone to waste. Learn how Megan Offner and her social enterprise, New York Heartwoods, is paving the way as a model for future businesses interested in becoming a part of the growing urban wood industry.

Logs recovered after Hurricane Sandy 

The Emerging Economy of Urban Wood

By Megan Offner

New York Heartwoods (NYH) began in 2010, with the help of Dave and Steve Washburn, Hugh Herrera, myself, and a Wood-Mizer LT40 Hydraulic. Our plan to manage and harvest trees ourselves was scratched when we realized how many were falling over, dying and being removed by arborists. Multiple severe storms and several invasive insect epidemics have led to unprecedented challenges to our forests and communities while budgets of municipalities and landowners are stretched with the reoccurring removals of downed or dying trees. Landfills across the country are struggling to keep up with the amount of wood waste that is being generated and at the same time, people need jobs and communities are evolving to become more resilient. By processing urban wood, we participate in creating solutions: reducing wood disposal expenses, redirecting material from our waste stream, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, fueling the demand for local wood products, and growing an exciting new economy.

Working with a local tree service to lower a maple log onto NYH's
flatbed trailer. (Photo by Megan Offner)

Community relationships are the key to both supply and demand. Due to annual weather events like Hurricanes Irene and Sandy along with the arrival of pests such as the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), we have access to more logs than we are equipped to process. Harvesting logs ourselves is labor intensive and therefore, in most cases, cost-prohibitive at our scale. By working with tree services we can have waste logs delivered for free or, at most, for the cost of gas and the driver’s time. Beyond the tree services that provide logs and clients to buy wood, are landowners, institutions, land trusts, the Department of Transportation, utility companies, municipal land managers and local officials. We have found the latter is an especially fruitful connection as they control what the contracted arborist does with city trees. As most towns and cities are burdened with increasing costs for citywide services, decreasing revenues, rising landfill costs, and decreasing landfill space, redirecting logs creates waste management solutions and reduces storm clean up expenses, which can generate wood for park benches, picnic tables, fencing, flooring and cabinets for city buildings. The ability to ameliorate local issues while creating valuable lumber may lead to municipal contracts and resources that will support both log supply and the demand for products.

Megan milling a white ash log. (Photo by Rose Kallal)

Portable band sawmills have a great advantage over large circular sawmills when working with urban trees. Their ability to travel to sites can eliminate logistical challenges and expenses of transporting or disposing of logs. For example, after Hurricane Sandy landfills were at full capacity so many cities and towns across New York State designated parking lots for the staging of logs. Local sawyers were invited to come mill what they wanted for free, and even still, it took months for many of those piles to diminish. The possibility of hitting metal, common in urban trees, is too expensive a risk for commercial circular sawmills. Metal can dull blades and slow down band saw production, but since the narrow band blades are inexpensive and easy to sharpen, that value can be recouped with proper marketing of the tree’s story and the wood’s character.

Urban trees generally have lower branches and contain metal or other foreign objects, creating dramatic knots, colors, and grain. These unique characteristics, along with the tree’s history, are desirable to artisans, fabricators, interior designers and architects for the creation of furniture, flooring and other custom products. Documenting the tree’s story and providing pictures of its transformation into finished products adds value by making it more meaningful to the buyer. Every industry uses wood in some capacity, which leads to a multitude of niche market possibilities. By reaching out to my previous networks to see how I could create solutions to their problems, I was able to build most of my business on personal contacts and word-of-mouth.

On display at Eileen Fisher, 5th Ave. in New York City

As my access to urban markets is one of NYH’s strengths, I am increasingly brokering wood for other local sawyers with a similar ethos. I see that in the same way that marketing and distribution hubs are being created to assist the success of small farmers, and local wood being the next “local food”, there is needed support for the growing number of independent sawyers. The Illinois Urban Wood Utilization team and Urbanwood in Michigan are two wonderful non-profit models of networks that facilitate the wood use chain from arborists, sawyers, woodworkers, distributors to buyers. As our population grows, so does the amount of urban land in the United States. According to the Journal of Forestry, by 2050 the amount of urbanized areas is projected to increase from 3.1% in 2000 to 8.1%, a total of 392,400 km, which is larger than the state of Montana. With this, the production and sale of urban wood will also grow, and there will be more integration into municipal management systems. For now, innovation is happening on the ground- one mill at a time.

About the Author: Megan Offner co-founded New York Heartwoods, a woman-owned social enterprise in Warwick, NY in 2010. Her mission is to regenerate forest vitality and local economies by building systems and relationships that maximize the value of "waste" trees. Connect with New York Heartwoods on Facebook or at www.newyorkheartwoods.com.

Building a Successful Business with a Portable Sawmill

While there are a lot of elements in every successful business, two Wood-Mizer sawmill owners agree that their sawmill is the cornerstone of their business and offers them versatility, creativity, and the ability to meet the diverse needs of their customers. Through both strong and tough economic times, their Wood-Mizer sawmill has provided them with a competitive advantage and the ability to make dreams come true for their customers.

David Yasenchack Timber Framing & Design, Kingsville, Ohio

One-of-a-kind timber frame pool structure designed and constructed by David Yasenchack.

Utilizing a unique natural bend in a log

For more than 15 years, the self-motivated entrepreneur, David Yasenchack, has been building one-of-a-kind timber frame homes, studios and garden structures for his small Kingsville, Ohio business. David Yasenchack Timber Framing and Design operates with a Wood-Mizer sawmill in order to create unique lumber from their own forestland, but it was David’s determination that enabled him to follow his dreams and establish his own timber framing business.

While working for the Forest Service and managing a commercial apple orchard in the early 1990s, David was inspired to pursue a new and challenging project, so he began building his first timber frame structure. It was during this project that reshaped David’s life and his career. “In the process of gathering materials for my first timber frame project, I purchased timber and lumber from numerous local sawmills,” said David. “I became intrigued by the sawing process, particularly with the accuracy of the band sawmills.” By the end of this project, and after seeing his neighbor mill a very large oak tree with his portable band sawmill, David envisioned the investment of a portable sawmill as the stepping stone to building custom timber frame structures for a living.

David's Wood-Mizer sawmill enables him to saw logs with
 unique bends and curves for building timber frame structures

Shortly after, David purchased his first Wood-Mizer, an LT40 Manual sawmill, to serve as an affordable entry into self-employment. “The mill helped me to find my calling in the timber framing trade,” he said. “I am proud of my Wood-Mizer. From the outset, it shaped my living, but it went on to shape the path of my career.” Today, David operates with his Wood-Mizer LT40 Hydraulic sawmill and constructs custom timber frame buildings using select trees from his own forestland and from client’s own trees.

The business saws a wide variety of hardwoods on their sawmill, but mainly oak, cherry and walnut to create the necessary building materials for his customers. David also uses his mill to saw conventional lumber and wide, live-edge flitches for use in furniture projects as well as for other woodworkers needing customized material. “I’ve told many people over the years that an investment smaller than the purchase of a new pickup truck put me on the path of not just personal fulfillment, but a fair measure of financial security and independence,” David said. “It’s an ever evolving tool that gives me the ability to shape one of the world’s most common and abundant resources.

A custom timber frame structure

”David says his Wood-Mizer is a main component of his entrepreneurial success. “It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the Wood-Mizer in my business,” he said. “It gives us creative control by allowing us to create just the right live-edge timbers from the particular logs we choose.” David also touts the design of his Wood-Mizer which gives him a distinct advantage for his specialty sawing projects. “The cantilevered head is an advantage in many ways, but mostly because it allows us to saw highly curved logs in a practical and accurate way,” he said.

David Yasenchack, owner of David
Yasenchack Timber Framing & Design

By utilizing the features of his Wood-Mizer sawmill, David says his timber work is crafted to the highest level. The mill enables David and his team to revise and develop a custom design in response to special and unique logs harvested from his or a client’s woodlot. By keeping a unique bend or curve in a tree for his lumber, David can maintain the wood’s natural shape and characteristics in his finished timber frame structures. “In short, the mill makes us more adaptable and creative,” David said. “Those are both huge competitive advantages in our field.”

Northern Log and Timber, Kelowna, British Columbia

Northern Log and Timber constructs custom log homes with lumber milled on their Wood-Mizer sawmills

Family operated for more than 60 years, Northern Log and Timber offers a variety of services and products available both locally and around the world. From lumber to log home packages and more, the company operates with two Wood-Mizer LT40 Hydraulic sawmills and an LT40 Super Hydraulic sawmill, which have positioned them for global success in the lumber industry.

Construction of a custom log home

Founded in 1952 by John Morgan Sr., the company supplied lumber to northern Yukon and Alaska until they relocated to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia in 1972. In the 1980s, Northern Log and Timber expanded into global markets by exporting lumber to Asia, Europe, and South America and has since built log homes, barns, schools for clients from Japan to Mexico. Today, the family business is operated by John’s son and daughter, John Jr. and Julie. John is a builder and runs the sawmills, while Julie designs homes for clients and handles sales.

Beams and flooring milled on a Wood-Mizer portable sawmill

Typically, Northern Log and Timber saws lumber for log home packages but they also produce beams, joists, decking, posts, flooring, trim, v-joints, timber trusses, and custom siding. Julie attributes the company’s diverse offering of products and services to be crucial to their success over the years. “Because we have a wide variety of products, and a large variation in our customer base, we have continued to grow,” she said. Head sawyer, John Jr., said their Wood-Mizer sawmills are another one of the reasons for their company’s success. “The support system at Wood-Mizer is the best. It’s the best mill on the market,” said John Jr. “Downtime is minimal and usually short, it produces the volume needed. This success translates into higher wages and profits.”

Interior bedroom of a Northern Log and Timber custom home

Locally, the Morgan family supplies building material stores, contractors, and landscapers with lumber as well as design and build log homes onsite with their own profiled timbers. Due to the volume of orders, the majority of their business comes from building supply stores. However, Julie adds, “The most satisfying customers are the ones you help to accomplish their dreams. My father always said that it was great to build the high-end, impressive projects, but the most satisfying was the look on a customer’s face when their home was completed – the simple home for the working man.”

Trusses sawed on a
Wood-Mizer sawmill

By utilizing the versatility of their Wood-Mizer sawmills, Northern Log and Timber has continued to grow and succeed in the global lumber market. “The Wood- Mizer mills have allowed us to expand our product line,” said Julie. “The mills are the backbone of our business. Without them, we wouldn’t have survived in this economy.”

Milling the Homestead Necessities

By Anneli Carter

Anneli Carter, author and co-owner of Deer Isle Hostel

A few years ago a major piece of our homesteading puzzle fell into place when we bought a Wood-Mizer portable sawmill. Up to that point we'd been dependent on the lumber yard and its supply, as well as friends and acquaintances with occasional stacks of lumber for us to rifle through or logs to mill somewhere else. Because we don't have any heavy equipment to transport logs with, anything cut on our land had to be moved by someone else, first to a mill and then back here.

Now, on every first day of a new building project we start where all building projects ought to start: in the woods. We select the trees that fit our intended purpose, fell them, haul them with our people-powered log hauler and turn them into lumber right here in our yard. Last year we built a timber-framed hut from a red oak that started to shade the garden; that entire frame didn't travel more than 300 feet from the stump to the mill to the site.

Building at Deer Isle Hostel

But not all logs have to come to our yard. The mill isn't so big or heavy that it can't be loaded onto our trailer and hauled behind our Subaru. This week we have the Wood-Mizer set up a couple of miles down the road at a friend's place. He's a tree feller and has stacked up a pile of cedar, black locust and spruce – really nice red spruce – that's all ours as a trade for milling the hardwood for him. We get the perfect lumber for our next projects and he gets the perfectly matched lumber for the sauna he'll build at his place.

Anneli operating her Wood-Mizer LT15 sawmill

We bought the portable mill to provide our own building material and to make use of the trees that need to come down around our yard. The gasoline it takes to run the machine is a tradeoff, but for us the gains are so many that the emission footprint still is much smaller than it would have been if we had to go somewhere to buy what we now can produce. In addition, the by-products have turned out to be just as valuable to us as the lumber. 

Slabs from the LT15 sawmill

For one thing, the sawmill gives us slabs (the off cuts with bark on one side). Tons of slabs and for anyone cooking on a small wood stove, there's nothing better to get your tea water boiling than some dry spruce slabs. We get enough for ourselves, and then more. We give slabs to neighbors and friends and in return we get something else, like warm spaces to start tomato seedlings in or help to look after our chickens if we go away somewhere.

Sawdust can be used for many
homesteading applications

Then there's the sawdust. It might not sound like much compared with the $1,000 pieces of locust we cut this morning, but I don't know what we would do without the sawdust the milling provides us. I don't know what we did before we had the mill as we use the sawdust in our outhouses, to pack the root crops in for storage and in our chicken house. We go through perhaps 60 feed sacks of it every year, a resource we would have to go somewhere to get if it weren't for our mill. 

To say the sawmill is a piece in the homesteading puzzle might be a slight understatement as in some ways it's a key factor. It enables us to progress with our building projects without necessarily having the money it otherwise would take, it ties us to our community with labor- and resource trades, and it makes it easier for us to store food, keep our chicken house clean and have nice outhouses for the Hostel guests. Some of the essence of homesteading right there: providing for yourself and your community using your own resources and making the most of what's around you. Who would ever have thought that a Wood-Mizer would to the trick?

Visit www.deerislehostel.com for more information on homesteading or to order Anneli's new book. 

Wood-Mizer Announces New Dealer in Florida

Pro Sawyer Dealer Chad Cordwin (left) with Wood-Mizer National Sales Manager Dave Mann.

Wood-Mizer is pleased to announce the opening of a new sales center for small mills located in Reddick, Florida. Cordwin Custom Sawmill, owned by Chad Cordwin, will join Wood-Mizer’s growing distribution network as the 22^nd sales center located within the United States and Canada.

A Wood-Mizer owner for nearly two decades, Chad Cordwin will become the company’s first Pro Sawyer Dealer. Chad became a member of Wood-Mizer’s elite group of approved sawyers, the Pro Sawyer Network, which enabled him to list his business on Wood-Mizer’s online custom sawyer directory – a resource for those looking for a sawyer to saw their own lumber. 

Cordwin Custom Sawmill in Reddick, FL

During the application process, Cordwin Custom Sawmill’s success made Wood-Mizer take notice. This, along with an appealing Florida location, enabled Wood-Mizer to begin a partnership with Cordwin Custom Sawmill and establish the first ever Pro Sawyer Dealer.

Cordwin Custom Sawmill will offer Wood-Mizer LT10 and LT15 sawmills, blades, and provide demonstrations of Chad’s Wood-Mizer LT70 Hydraulic sawmill and EG200 twin blade edger. 

“Chad’s sawing experience and knowledge of Wood-Mizer products factored in the decision to add Cordwin Custom Sawmill as a new sales center in Florida,” said Wood-Mizer National Sales Manager Dave Mann. “We are looking forward to his contributions to the company and I’d like to welcome him to Wood-Mizer’s growing network of dealers.” 

Wood-Mizer will host the Grand Opening for the Florida Pro Sawyer Dealer on Saturday, April 26th, 2014 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Cordwin Custom Sawmill located at 7900 W. Highway 316 in Reddick, Florida. The four hour event will include sawmill demonstrations of Wood-Mizer’s LT40 Hydraulic, LT35 and LT15 sawmills and give those who attend the opportunity to speak with Chad and expert sawmill consultants.

Welcome to the team Chad!

For more information on Cordwin Custom Sawmill, call Chad at 352.591.3642 or email at ccsinc7900@yahoo.com. 

Sawing in the Alaskan Wilderness

The Talaheim Lodge

Mark Miller is the founder and owner of the Talaheim Lodge located 80 miles west of Anchorage, Alaska. After purchasing his Wood-Mizer LT10 in 2006, Mark has built five buildings and added flooring and furniture to the existing buildings on the property. Read Mark’s story below, in his own words.

Sawing in the Alaskan Wilderness

By Mark Miller

Aerial view of The Talaheim Lodge

In 1976, my youthful dream started to unfold as I began building my remote fishing and hunting lodge (The Talaheim Lodge) in the wilderness of Alaska. Most of the state can’t be reached by road, so many Alaskan fishing lodges, like mine, have to be reached by either helicopter or plane. Everything from a toothpick to a gallon of gasoline has to be flown in to our site.

During those younger days we built stockade log construction by utilizing local timbers. Large cargo, single engine aircrafts on skis are expensive to charter, so most of my lumber was cut on-site with a chainsaw mill. That first crude building was built from logs and chainsaw cut lumber and went up like a kid building a tree fort. For the next 30 years, I used a chainsaw to cut as much lumber as possible in order to keep costs down when building miles away from roads. We only averaged about a board an hour but most of our lumber didn’t have to be flown in, saving us money.

Skidding logs by snowmobile

All our logs are skidded to our site by snowmobile in March and April when the snow is deep and settled. Everything out here comes by air except our snow machines that we drive out in the winter (a 50-mile journey from the nearest road system). In 2006, I purchased a very large wide-tracked snowmobile, which was capable of pulling in much larger logs than I was able to in the past. Glaring at my log deck of about 100, 12’ long and 16” diameter logs, I suddenly started to tense up thinking about all that back breaking chainsaw milling I would have to do.

Log deck, sorted by length

Cutting timber with chainsaws is slow, tedious and a backbreaking chore from being bent over for long periods of time. Not to mention chainsaws burn up gallons of fuel and oil, and the 3/8” wide kerf produce piles of sawdust that could be used as lumber. There had to be a better way.

Shortly after, I found a Wood-Mizer LT10 sawmill featured in a local outdoor magazine. It caught my eye as it was light and could easily fit onto a ski plane. The local Wood-Mizer dealer (100 miles away) had one on display that I could try. Seeing the mill in action secured the sale.

Mark and his Wood-Mizer LT10

After the snow left, we had a running Wood-Mizer mill in one day and a friend and I cut those 100 logs into lumber in about five days. With my LT10 and a small tractor rigged with a forklift attachment, we weren’t just in the fishing business, we were also in the lumber business.

My mill paid for itself in the first season with savings on lumber cut on site instead of flying it in. Most of our timbers are cut and used “green” with the exception of our hardwood cuts.  We cut primarily slow growth spruce for building and “house dry” birch for flooring.

Mark sawing on his LT10

I highly recommend the Wood-Mizer LT10 or LT15 for remote fly in sites like mine.  Both these mills will cut large amounts of lumber for large construction jobs. Four years into milling, I upgraded from a 7 HP to a 10 HP engine for my LT10 which made great lumber even quicker. Now I can cut a 10’ long, 8” wide board in 17 seconds!

Since having the LT10, I’ve built five new buildings from three-sided logs and timbers cut from our mill and cut in excess of 40,000 board foot. The mill has saved me thousands of dollars on lumber and has allowed me to cut huge beautiful beams that would be impossible to fly out. I’ve had great factory and local Wood-Mizer support from Anchorage, Alaska and with about all my buildings completed for my lifetime, I am now focusing on the fun stuff like birch flooring and birch and spruce furniture!

Mark's home built with lumber all cut on his LT10

Fishing guide's shack made from lumber cut on
Mark's LT10

I still love living in the wilderness and building with materials I’ve gathered locally. Today I manage with my Wood-Mizer LT10 sawmill, a tractor with a front-end lift, and snow machines capable of bringing in large logs over the snow. Not only do I save money, but also I enjoy working the land. Robert Service once wrote, “that it’s not the gold we seek, but the seeking of it”. For the past 38 years, my fishing lodge has given me the opportunity of “living off the land” in the Alaskan wilderness.

Good Fishing,

Mark Miller

Inside of the fishing guide's shack

A Day in the Life of a Bush Sawmill

It’s around 6 am and the bug’s chirping and the bat wing flapping give way to the singing of birds in the dense foliage above us. When an adult-sized bat flaps its 4-6’ wingspan in the middle of the night, you hear it. Trust me on that!

Yesterday had been a long day for the six members of the sawmill crew. We had loaded the various pieces of the Wood-Mizer LT15 sawmill into our 50’ dugout canoe. The 40hp outboard motor had run well with no mechanical issues. However, the trip had been eventful because of a tree that was hanging low across one particular spot in the river. The mast of the sawmill just would not make it under the low-hanging limb. Fortunately we had a chain hoist and a chainsaw that allowed us to cut and pull the tree out of the way.

So after five hours on the river, we arrived at the pre-determined location of this milling trip’s timber stand. The mill is carried in sections back to the site, after the chainsaw operators had felled two of the trees. We have found that felling is crucial before you set up the mill in the jungle.

No one wants to carry the mill once it’s together, especially if it’s in the way of an oncoming tree!!

A day in the life of a bush sawmill

The next morning, two of the crew begin boiling water and cooking in the fire pit to start the morning breakfast meal.

It was good that the log owners built the hut the day before while we were felling the trees and carrying the LT15 to the site, otherwise we would not have had someplace to sleep off of the ground during the night. Poisonous snakes make poor bunkmates. They live on the ground, so all the huts are built on stilts. It just makes sense.

The rest of us begin assembling the sawmill. We selected the site last night and spent the last hours of the day using axes and machetes to clear the site. This makes setup a lot easier. Experience has also taught us to carry four boards with us to put the feet of the stands on. When you work in the swamp and rainforest, the "feet" sometimes find a soft spot. We have four particular boards that we lay down for the tracks to sit on. These boards have been augured out to the exact spacing and diameter of the "feet." We mill hardwoods, namely ironwood or Kwila (to the locals), so the better anchored the mill is the better. We drive two stakes at the very ends of the track to keep it from moving when we begin to roll the logs on.

The sawmill and crew travel upriver in a 50

The LT15 is now level and ready to go. Check the oil in the engine! We are in the middle of nowhere, literally! So any damage to equipment, especially from negligence, is very bad. Any damage to that engine, and the whole trip will have to be abandoned. We normally let it idle for five minutes while we roll the log on the mill.

The agreement we always have with the landowners/tree owners is always a one-to-one exchange. One tree milled for us to mill for our projects, and one tree milled for their use allows for both sides to benefit equally. Part of the agreement is that they are there to help with the moving of the logs (no forklifts here) and the positioning of the logs on the mill. They also help with timber stacking.

While the mill is warming up after the log is clamped and ready to go, it’s time to talk safety. We lay out the safety rules of working around the mill. Where and when you should approach the mill are just a couple of the topics we discuss. OK, the engine has idled way past five minutes now, but that’s alright. Someone had to take the water container back to the river to fill it so the blade would be washed and cooled properly.
We had checked the blade before we cut the first piece, but after the first time through it’s time to make sure that everything is in order. We’re good to go!

The operator starts to mill up the first section of log. It’s the job of the operator and the "water boy" to mill the log, and give the directions to the local guys working with the sawmill crew. The rest of us go back to the hut for a little meal. We’re going to be working all day in the heat. It’s important to stay hydrated and fed.

Portability is valued as the sawmill can be taken apart, transported by hand, and reassembled where ever required

The guys in the crew have specific roles. Three of the guys have been trained to operate the sawmill. They are the only ones that can accurately read a tape measure, consistently. Two other guys operate the chainsaw.

The calm of the jungle for a few short weeks is replaced by the whine of a chainsaw, the noise of a diesel engine, and the yells of the men as they shout directions at each other. There is a brief lull though. One of the bearings in the blade guide has gone bad. We take about 30 minutes to replace it. Fortunately for us we always have an ample supply of what I call consumable parts on standby! Wherever the LT15 goes, so does the large box of spare parts. No local hardware, or Wood-Mizer outlet nearby here!

We’re off and running again! A few hours later the pile of finished lumber has steadily grown larger. Everyone is grinning from ear to ear, while the sawmill just keeps on cutting away. Scraps are claimed for someone to whittle out an oar for paddling on the river. No one goes home empty handed, that’s for sure. Another lull in the action, a 15 minute rain shower passes. We are in the jungle and they don’t call it the rainforest for nothing!

Days start early, around 6am, because that is when the first light starts to show. We keep busy until 6pm, when the sun starts to set. That leaves us with about 30 minutes to bathe in the river, and prepare supper. No indoor plumbing here, and swimming after dark might lead to an encounter with a crocodile!

The arrival of the sawmill is a big event, and will mean a new schoolhouse, clinic, or homes for the village

The day is beginning to wind down. The spring in our step just isn’t quite the same at the end of the day when it has been 90F with very high humidity. Heat index says it felt like 114F. I would say that an estimate like that is not to far off judging by the way I feel.

We light the kerosene lamp before we head off to the river. We won’t get back from our "bath" till after dark. So having a light helps with preparation of supper, and finding your way back. Things are quiet again. It’s a nice "cool" evening. The bugs start the chirping again.

The guys laugh and joke about the day’s work. It always amazes me how exhausted people can be so happy. We know that we are a few steps closer to finishing up, and look forward to the day we wrap it up here and head back to our home in Samban, a small village in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. It’s good to sit and rest after being on our feet and working all day. A bat shrieks nearby very near to the ground by our hut. One of the guys grins as he grabs his spear. I guess bat is on the menu tonight!

Buying trees under a mutually beneficial agreement with the landowner, the village only cuts what it needs

Jungle Milling ToolTips:

1. Keep the chainsaw handy when transporting your sawmill upriver.

2. Build the hut before you start sawing, and make sure your sleeping bunks are off the ground.

3. Stay hydrated and fed.

4. Bring spare parts for everything.

5. A large bat will make a tasty dinner.

By Jesse Pryor

Missionary to Papua New Guinea

About the Author:

Born and raised in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, Jesse Pryor returned as a missionary with his wife Karie and three children to continue the work begun by Jesse’s parents John and Bonita Pryor. They are working within the church to strengthen discipleship and Sunday School programs. With the help of the locals and the sawmill crew, Jesse has put his experience in the construction field to good use, and they have completed churches, schools, and medical facilities in the remote jungle.

Meadowlark Log Homes - Using Wood-Mizer Sawmills since 1987

Meadowlark Log Homes has a rich history of building log structures. At a young age, Ora Miller began “riding the ridge beam” at the Amish barn raisings which was extremely scary and dangerous but necessary as dozens of men pulled up the end wall of the barn. His courage and willingness to take risks eventually lead him to start his business running a circular mill while his three sons build log cabins.

During the early years, Ora’s sawmill produced railroad ties but experienced a major set back when his operation burned. Without falter, though, Ora pushed ahead. By 1978, he and his sons had built several cabins and introduced a unique approach to log home construction which featured a “flat on flat, hand-peeled” log. With this design, the flat surfaces of the logs are pinned, screwed, and glued together, forming a very strong and stable wall while giving the interior and exterior a rounded log look.

With a reputation for building beautiful log homes, Ora once again purchased a sawmill and went into business full time. That was in 1980; they have been building log homes ever since.

As each year passed, Meadowlark’s business grew and they were introduced to Wood-Mizer sawmills. In 1987, they purchased their first Wood-Mizer and found it was “superior to the old circular sawmill and a whole lot safer.” Since that time, every log that goes into their unique homes is processed on a Wood-Mizer. Remarkably, the company is on their sixth Wood-Mizer: an LT70 with multiple bed extension. According to Joas Miller, son of Ora, the Wood-Mizer sawmills “have allowed us to do what would have been nearly impossible to accomplish: become a successful log home company that builds and ships homes nationally and internationally.”

Meadowlark builds, on average, 35 log home masterpieces each year. They have established dealers in Wisconsin and North Carolina who have been instrumental in introducing these log homes to new communities. When Wood-Mizer talked to them last, Meadowlark was finalizing plans with yet another person to help facilitate sales. In addition to their U.S. expansion, the company has shipped their structures to Canada, Japan, and South Africa. This is possible because Meadowlark Log Homes joined the Log Homes Council (LHC) log grading program and has every log inspected, structurally graded, and grade stamped. After a log passes grading standards, it is approved for use in the log home. The LHC grade stamped log home is structurally approved for virtually every country in the world.

Meadowlark’s goal is to be recognized as the best log home company in the world. “With all the different components that are required to become that, our Wood-Mizer plays a vital part in helping us provide the greatest log home masterpieces available,” comments Joas. He also recognizes the mill for its ease of use, functionality, and efficiency. “In today’s economy, it (LT70) has also helped us produce at the highest proficiency while maintaining low overhead cost,” explains Joas.

While board foot production is difficult to determine in this specialized application, Meadowlark runs their LT70 high production sawmill 7-8 hours a day and finds it easy to train sawyers to operate this integral piece of equipment.

Joas is proud to be working in the family business which includes his two brothers and one sister. Even his nephews have taken up the drawknife and have started to learn the family business.  “It has been a pleasure serving our amazing clients and providing them the home of their dreams, thanks in part to our Wood-Mizer,” says Joas.