What I did on my two week vacation?

[CrealBilly]

I spent a lot of time in the woods playing lumber jack and just as much time running the sawmill in southern IL. Made a bunch of new contacts, established a great paying market for fresh off the log lumber and got 4 tracts of forest land lined up to harvest

 

[FredP]

I wondered bout you!:gar-Bi congrats on the contacts.:icon_thum:icon_thum stop in next time ur this way.:wink_smil

 

[ehpoole]

Wow! All I did was setup a new wall-mounted 42" LCD HDTV with a Wii system for my parents (and install a new cable run for the TV). When we remodelled the house I installed ~22 cable outlets (and 104 network ports) throughout the house and my father had to choose one of the few walls/rooms without a cable outlet for his new TV!

And for myself, I've spent the past few weeks getting the crap kicked out of me while playing Halo: Reach on my new (and first) XBox 360 (a gift to myself) by a bunch of online teenagers! (For those in need of a distraction to take their mind off a chronic illness and severe pain, an XBox does a very good job of focusing the mind elsewhere. )

I'd have rather spent the time in my shop, but my health hasn't allowed me (hence the XBox :wink_smil) to spend much time out there for the past couple months. Hopefully that will change soon because its torture to have projects I want to finish and others I want to start and not be able to do so!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas/Winter break and enjoyed their time with family, friends, and hobbies! Hopefully some good New Year's resolutions to spend more time in the shop (and post some photos) as well.

 

[cskipper]

Sounds like a great way to spend a few weeks - congrats on the contacts and the trees.

 

[LeftyTom]

Aha! A busman's holiday, I see.

 

[JimmyC]

Wow! All I did was setup a new wall-mounted 42" LCD HDTV with a Wii system for my parents (and install a new cable run for the TV). When we remodelled the house I installed ~22 cable outlets (and 104 network ports) throughout the house and my father had to choose one of the few walls/rooms without a cable outlet for his new TV! QUOTE]

:rotflm::rotflm::rotflm: Isn't that always the way it happens ?

 

[cptully]

And, I was happy to finally finish a simple rack to hold more of my boxes of screws so that they are all visible and easier to grab, than when piled on a shelf...

Glad you had a good time and made good contacts.

Chris

 

[CrealBilly]

Well my sons and father-in-law have officially been running Mills Custom Sawing a little over 5 days in southern IL. With all the political wheeling and dealing and what not, I'm feeling like I might need to take a long shower. Things are running well so far, just way different than here in NC...

I did find out something cool today. The area is one of the best there is for ash. Afterall Louisville Slugger ball bats are made in Louisville KY which is not more than an hour from where the sawmill is. Ash ball bat blanks or billets as they call them are 3"x3"x40". I never knew there was such a thing as a ball bat billet grade, till today...

Ya'll go and run out and buy a Louisville Slugger ball bat for your son, so we can get some ball bat billet orders - thanks

 

[Jeff]

Jeff,

Sounds like you're back in the saddle again! Congrats and good luck. Ash is neat wood that's a pleasure to work with. :icon_cheers

 

[ScottM]

Well my sons and father-in-law have officially been running Mills Custom Sawing a little over 5 days in southern IL. With all the political wheeling and dealing and what not, I'm feeling like I might need to take a long shower. Things are running well so far, just way different than here in NC...

I did find out something cool today. The area is one of the best there is for ash. Afterall Louisville Slugger ball bats are made in Louisville KY which is not more than an hour from where the sawmill is. Ash ball bat blanks or billets as they call them are 3"x3"x40". I never knew there was such a thing as a ball bat billet grade, till today...

Ya'll go and run out and buy a Louisville Slugger ball bat for your son, so we can get some ball bat billet orders - thanks

So does this mean we could have an ash run in the future?

 

[CrealBilly]

So does this mean we could have an ash run in the future?

Actually till they can get an established market for wood workers, they are sawing for the only concentration yard in the area. The concentration yard actually pays pretty good for some species, other species surprised me how little they will pay. They are also sawing tree tops and big limbs into pallet cants for the closest pallet company. They have also been trying to chase down a few of the mine bosses for a few of the local coal mines to see about selling them wedges and jack timber. RR Ties are paying pretty well also, but they haven't cut any of those (blank) busters yet.

It's a lot different market than what I'm used around here in NC.

So indirectly if you buy Ash from your local lumber yard, who knows Mills Custom Sawing might have drug the tree out of the woods and sawed it into lumber. :gar-La;