Life has been busy over the last year, but in addition to finishing the shop cabinets I found time to source some wood for chair making. The local commercial suppliers were pretty much a bust, though Scott Wunder of Wunderwoods does have some options for sourcing green wood.

But I recently rejoined the St. Louis Woodworker’s Guild and met Les. Les lives about an hour west and north of me, and as we were chatting it turned out he had some white oak trees on his acreage that needed to be cleared out. So one early Saturday morning at the beginning of February I drove out to see what was up.

The most promising tree was a white oak that was still alive last Fall, though it had fallen in a wind storm. Harvesting some log sections was complicated by the fact that the tree had fallen across the edge of Les' pond (unfortunately, this blurry picture is the only one I have showing it well)

Fallen white oak along the edge of the pond


Fallen white oak along the edge of the pond

We spent a couple of hours with come-alongs hauling the tree toward shore enough support it so Les could cut the top of the tree loose.

Preparing to cut the top loose


Preparing to cut the top loose

We then hauled the trunk all the way onto land.

Trunk on land ready to section


Trunk on land ready to section

After sectioning the trunk, I sealed the ends with green wood sealer, to help reduce checking and splitting. Then Les brought down a riding mower with a small trailer for us to haul sections up to his driveway.

Preparing to haul log sections


Preparing to haul log sections

We loaded three sections into my Subaru, strapping them together to stabilize them.

Log sections in the Subaru


Log sections in the Subaru

We then loaded the remaining sections onto a pallet, and after I left Les covered them with a tarp to keep until I could go back to get them.

Remaining sections on a pallet to keep them off the ground


Remaining sections on a pallet to keep them off the ground

Remaining sections wrapped with a tarp


Remaining sections wrapped with a tarp

Once I got them home, I unloaded the sections and stored them in the garage.

Two sections ready to be stored


Two sections ready to be stored

Sections stored


Sections stored

I went back a couple of weeks later and retrieved the remaining sections, which are stored on one of my firewood wood racks, covered with a tarp.