Blackberries & the Sawmill

We had a frost about six weeks back that took out most of my blackberries, I thought. I didn't realize that one of my bushes had a bunch down next to the ground that was covered in hay. I discovered them Friday afternoon and that night we had a nice Bluebell Homemade Vanilla dish of ice cream with fresh blackberries. Delicious! They are amazingly sweet (except those you see in my hat that had the red on them:-). Whew.

We'll have a nice crop of blackberries this season. We'd have had more had I known that we were going to get a frost a few weeks back. We failed to protect them and lost tons.

To fit the cedar log into Wayne's saw mill, we had to have the largest portion of the log less than 26 inches in diameter. We started with a chain saw and then realized that if we did a few kerf-cuts with a chain saw and used a broadax, that it would be quick work. I had Granddaddy's broadax in my wood shop setting on the shelf to look at. It hasn't been sharpened to my knowledge in probably 30 plus years. I used it with a small sledge and it made rapid work of the log's large end. I was impressed!

Wayne brought up the Mister Sawmill (he sells them... this unit is only $6900 and is amazingly efficient!) and we tested it to see how it would cut. I have to say, it is very impressive! We cut one large oak log and one large cedar log before lunch. There was a lot of show and tell along the way. I am shocked at how much oak we got out of that one 24 inch Oak. We cut the counter top for my workbench plus a large stack of 1-1/4" x 18" x 13 ft Oak. The counter tops are almost 2 inches thick and 12 inches wide x 13 feet. At $4.99 per board foot, they'd run about $100 each to buy in a specialty wood shop. They are inside my shop now drying.