Brewer Benjamin

I'm at the eastern most edge.

Apple trees are a good start. While we have cedar-apple rust that reduces efficiency of the trees they all bore some fruit this year.  Last year a late frost froze most of the blossoms. 7/8 survived 7/7 bore fruit
Pear trees were a little harder to start and we had some fireblight damage a few; and maybe planted in an area that gets too much runoff from the roof. We did enjoy a few carmel-pear-pies from our own trees. 3/5 survived 2/3 bore fruit
Cherry trees/bushes are hit or miss.  2/4 survived (one was planted in a bad spot and was removed) 2/2 bore fruit
Fig trees grow fairly well, though the fruit needs thinning so the tree can focus it's energy.  We only have one tree and probably planted in a bad place, as it is within the garden. The winter knocks it back each year but it keeps coming back.
Red Mulberry grows like a weed and produces fruit for a month or so. Need to propagate or find some white mulberry for fodder and fruit.
Willow trees grow well (fodder).
We had a good harvest off the Black Walnut tree.
Something is killing hickory trees four dead and a fifth one failing.
Pecans were and expensive mistake; but they are where we started.  Two of four might still have something attempting to grow from the root stock, but five years in they look worse than when we planted them.

My neighbor's orchard has apple, pear, peach and plum.  But the peach trees had a bit of canker and the plum trees didn't get enough water for the fruit to fill out correctly. His pear trees were bountiful.

We are observing a gap in rainfall two months dry mid march-to mid may then a single heavy rain fall three week gap and another heavy rainfall. It seems to be forming a bit of a pattern; but weather is change.

Good luck with growing.
It is better to plant them now; than in the perfect spot tomorrow.

I have little experience, I have used homemade tools to clear the bark off of cants (soon to be railroad ties) and again on live edge slabs (to reduce bugs in the air drying stacks or posts).
I've seen some posts recently of a Japanese woodman peeling bark into sheets he was using something like a linoleum knife with a long handle to score it into four foot sheets. Not sure what species of tree.
MSL logging (YouTube) also has a video on peeling poplar bark. He uses a chainsaw to score the length of the timber and a Stanley knife to score the circumference. He is harvesting for shingles and or bark panels (siding/wallpaper). BarkHouse.com
I'm curious what other species that bark can be harvested. Chestnut (when it was more common), poplar, cedar are the ones I've come across so far.
https://bunnyvista.wordpress.com/2009/05/30/poplar-bark-shingles/
The foxfire book, circa 1972, mentions bark as well, hickory bark lashings. Hickory is native and advailible to me, so I might play with the concept.
Though I suspect that you are just clearing the bark down to the cambium layer to get rid of bugs and preserve the log.

So left rough and put up green in lieu of drywall. Might work well as lathe to plaster over as well if ripped into 1-2" strips. I'd want to add a 1/16th to 3/16th to ship lap it and get a tighter wall.

Thank you for the picture of the red cabin, first I've seen of the interior.

Getting those dimensions with the equipment I have (and have access to) is going to pose some interesting challenges. Drop the trees in the the winter when the sap has receded and the log has a lower moisture content.  Several layers will be gang straight line ripped.  The circular saw mill wanders a bit too much for a consistent depth of cut. Doable but less margin for error.  Would have preferred not to be constrained by the four inch width, and have the siding/cladding/boxing given as a surface area and thickness to minimize waste. But if I cut enough to spec maybe.

While I can cut and mill to a spec; understand it's purpose prevents it from becoming a pollutant or expensive kindling.

Thank you Mike and pardon the ramblings.

What is the purpose of the lumber sawn to the dimensions of ⅜ inch x 4 inch x 8'? I am having a conceptual failing to understand what green wood sawn to those dimensions could be used for.

Once it is milled half the thickness or more will be gone, so it will be used in a rough sawn state. Kindling (why mill it, waste of tooth life). Shakes are tapered, siding board and bat should be 0.75-1" shiplap 0.5"-0.75".
Don't think you are making homemade plywood or glue laminated chair rails.
It is almost as thin as a saw kerf. Then there is air drying how stable will ⅜ inch be?

I can come up with reasons to have wood that thick after it has seasoned to a sub 15% moisture content.
The thinnest wood that is reasonable to me seems to be 5/8" lumber; and that is limited to getting a high volume of boards for pallet wood out of junkie timber.