How Far to Take Natural Building?

Hello Permies

I posted a while ago about getting onto my heavily wooded property in coastal Maine. It has been amazing here so far and just being on the land has been a huge blessing that we are very thankful for.
We have a ton of trees here in what is a pretty unhealthy, unmanaged forest which we are working on currently.

These trees have brought me into my current state of confusion of how to proceed with building structures or even building anything in general. It feels incredibly wrong to go to the store to buy lumber when there are hundreds of trees here which are perfectly usable and just rotting otherwise. We aren't really able to bring heavy equipment here, and we don't really want to either, but just the process of milling these boards with a chainsaw takes a long time and doesn't seem like the best way to do things.

I would ideally like to use round wood for most things, but it is hard to find good information of how to work the logs in round form. I am a trained carpenter and my mind kind of blanks out when looking at something circular instead of rectangular.

Does anyone have any advice or faced a similar experience before? Recommendations for how to process logs into usable materials with minimal machinery? Some helpful tools I may not be aware of?

Thanks for any advice in advance.

I added this thread to our roundwood and timber framing forum, hopefully someone who knows more than me will have wisdom for you.  :D

I don't know trees well enough to know what sort of wood I'm looking at (and it makes a big difference depending on what you want to build with it, although "lots of it" can make up for "rather weak")

However, a fellow permie posted this thread about portable mills: https://permies.com/t/143224/day-mill He's on an Island in BC, Canada and harvests wood to cut.
My neighbor has either the same or similar machine and uses it a *lot*. He says they were designed to be moved into the bush by 3 guys - they'd process the wood on site, and leave the scraps to decompose and feed the forest. He uses his a *lot* and recently built his wife a small pottery studio using all salvaged trees from our area.

Do you know how to fell a tree? to me, that is the first consideration.

2nd would be to select the trees you want to cut.

Do you have a place to store the wood while it is still green?

Here is the solar electric sawmill at Wheaton Labs:

https://permies.com/t/28678/solar-electric-sawmill

Vincent,

If you have a lot of trees and want to use them I would recommend buying a mill. Milling with a bandsaw mill is already a laborious and rather slow task and I can not imagine doing it with a chainsaw type mills in any efficient manner.
I have not used the lumber I milled myself yet, but I'm stacking it and when it's dry I will have a lot of material for various projects. For heavy timber construction you would use green anyway.

I am in a similar situation in NW California. Going in on a mobile sawmill or one in a central location for members is a consideration for our Wild Rivers Permaculture Guild. We have gone in on a wood splitter and biochar kiln so far, and these have been pretty solid and manageable to share. I’d be interested in learning here about what others have done and where to look for such equipment.

I would advise a swing blade mill if you want to DIY. They are a lot more user-friendly than a bandsaw when it comes to sharpening and blade life. You lose a little more of your log to the kerf, but in all honesty by the looks of that woodlot you are not hurting for inputs.

I always put in a plug for Peterson portable mills ever since I spent a day with a crew that uses one. These are simply brilliant and the blade design means you can replace the teeth when they do eventually wear out.

Swing-blade mills are much more expensive. I don't like the fact that most online vendors hide their prices (call for quote) like they know they have to bait the potential customer and convince hard on the phone. I don't know if it's justified for an occasional user to overspend on the mill. I use my mill once per year for two weeks. Saw bands made to size can be purchased with carbide tipped teeth for around $70 and resharpened for $20. I have one - I did not try it yet, but expect to get at least 20 hours of cutting time. From a regular band I get 3-4 hours cutting green or semi-dry red gum eucalyptus.

Can you offer them to someone who has a small mill? We have a similar situation and the guy said that for a small fee, he could cut the ones we have and give us processed wood that's already dried and ready. We would have to pay, but not nearly as much as buying them outright. Definitely not big box price.

Looks like mostly balsam fir and spruce mix in that picture.  Similar to my own land.
A lot of people will say that fir is a no good garbage wood (which has given me doubts) but I'v had some good luck. It is a little weaker than spruce for long spans, and It will rot quicker if exposed to the elements. Seems great for interior stuff though; studs, paneling, shelves, window silds, roundwood members?
Perhaps a Ben Law style roundwood timber frame with a chip and slip (light clay woodchip or straw) infill system? This is something I look forward to experimenting with.
Some basic tools aught to do.

Ask around. I would bet that there is a neighbour not far away that has a portable mill you could hire for a day or two once you have a pile of logs. Probably a small sawmill with cheap woodchips not terribly far away either.
Look around for rock piles in the woods. There are so many overgrown old homesteads where they were piling up rocks for pasture. That's a lot of labour already done for you if you want to incorporate natiral stone that is.
Find some clay. Dig some holes, check ditches along roads, talk to local contractors...
The bark peals off the logs really easy in the spring to mid summer. After that it becomes more laborious.

Axe, machete, string, hammer, draw knife, chisels, plumb bob, hose with water? (For a level), shovel, wheel barrow.... The list goes on but you can do it with the basics.

Cheers from New Brunswick

Hi Vincent,
I have to second your feeling about round wood. I too would like to use it more, but my mind goes blank when I think about how to make it work.

As to the natural building, I don't think cutting wood to rectangular and square shapes makes it any less natural, and it can certainly make parts of building easier, but it takes more time to create than roundwood.

I think realistically the question you need to ask is whether you have more time or more money right now for this project. If you have lots of time, I would suggest doing it yourself for the learning experience. If you don't have much time, but you have some money to put towards it, then I would hire someone.

A portable mill has already been suggested. Another option would be to find a small logging company to come in and cut down what you want cut, and use the money to buy ready cut lumber. Sort of a shortcut. Just keep in mind, the quantity and quality of lumber will effect how much or if you make money logging it.