Mike's Mill

Wow. A pretty incredible morning. Perhaps you all recall that we had to fell a spruce tree in order to build our house. We loved that tree. It was the one we put the ladder against and dreamed and planned where we could position our house and capitalize on the view. We must have climbed that tree a thousand times over six years.

The day we cut it we were both sad, but made a promise to ourselves that we would mill the tree so we could use some of the boards in a special way in the new house. Today was the day we had the log milled. But it was more than that. Don met a new neighbor, Mike, who is another really nice person - really really nice. Mike was a pro with his "backyard saw mill." The photos tell it all. Here I was, on a farm in bow, on a beautiful spring morning, milling our tree and making an assortment of boards and beams that we plan to use for our staircase post, railing posts for our stairway railings, our trim board for the loft, and maybe for a sitting bench! Way more than we thought. Mike made it easy. He advised me on what he could do with the tree, and away we went. It was great and a great part of building our house! Mike was born in the Bow area and is a great resource on the history of the area - like so many of our neighbors.

Tomorrow Deb and I pick up the boards, beams, and scraps and bring it to the house to store it till we are ready to use it. Can't wait! Note: the "stairstep" photo of our log was taken when we were cutting true 4x4 inch posts for our stairway railings....