Cutting the trees for the wood

We had trees cut for the hemlock siding, hemlock floorboards, hardwood flooring, and other hardwood cabinetry cut out from the back of the property and hauled out with horses (skidders damage the woods too much for our liking) in the winter of 2008-09. As it turn out, some of this would go into the decking as well. The wood was dragged to a clearing that was at one time supposed to be the location of another house that never materialized.

The logs were stacked for later processing. We would saw these up into boards later in June and leave them to dry for a year in the woods.

The wood came from the back our land, where there is a stand of hemlocks, some of which are 200 years old. They tend to blow over in thunderstroms, unfortunately. This land is now given over to an ecological servitude with the Pinnacle Land Trust, which means the land will never be logged again.