Nate and I went to the sawmill yesterday to pick up some lumber that they’d cut for me.

It’s interesting to buy rough-sawn lumber.

It’s cheap….compared to the stuff that I buy at the lumberyard.

Of course, it’s always interesting to go anywhere with Nate. He can make the mundane exciting.

After we got the lumber loaded in the truck, Nate went up into the sawmill’s “control room” so he could see how the big circular blade cut through the logs.

I think that he was impressed.

Then we drove back to town….and met Jenny so we could look at a car that we were thinking about buying for my daughter.

It’s amazing how heavy a relatively small load of green oak is….the truck felt like it was really loaded down.

The car that we looked at was probably the nicest car that I’ve ever driven….and, in the end, we decided that it was a little bit too nice for what Zoe needed.

There is a difference between an old Jeep Cherokee and a really nice Mercedes.

I can see why people like Mercedes.

It was luxurious.

Jenny said that I was a sight in my dusty John Deere hat and my young and still scruffy beard driving that fancy Mercedes.

I suppose that I must have been.

Nate took the short test drive with me….so he and I really got to do some driving together yesterday.

Our friend who was selling the car was going to sell it to her mechanic if we didn’t buy it.

That’s a good sign that the car is pretty nice if your mechanic wants to buy it.

None of my mechanics have wanted any of my vehicles.

Go figure.

Anyway…back to this rough-sawn oak that I bought yesterday.

55 cents a board foot….

Cheap.

A board foot is calculated as being a board that’s an inch thick….twelve inches wide…..and a foot long….so 55 cents buys a square foot of pretty stout oak.

That is a bargain….at least, for my use value, it seems like a pretty darn good deal.

Our neighbor down the road from the new property cut down a couple of pretty good size oaks on his land, and another neighbor who has a band saw mill cut it to size for flooring.

He’s going to have another neighbor who runs a cabinet shop mill it down and turn it into tongue and groove flooring when it’s dry enough.

I’ve heard that it takes a year per inch of thickness for a board to dry enough to use….so he has it stickered and covered out close to his house.

A year seems to go by pretty fast….so he should have some nice floors in his house when he’s done.

I like going to the sawmill.

I’m glad that Nate has a chance to see something like that.

(This isn’t a picture of the sawmill that we use. The one we use is called Woodpecker Sawmill in Mills River, NC. Good, good folks. I just thought this picture was kind of nice….)

 

“slow it down” The Lumineers