On or around November 13th, a tremendous windstorm hit the Pacific Northwest during the night. The following morning, Jenny (my wife) called her mother who lives literally just down the street. Apparently, a large spruce tree in my Mother-in-law's front lawn was knocked down by the wind.

LUCKY ME!

The Spruce tree fell down across Lincoln street. It hit a house and a car across the street, and yet did surprisingly little damage to either. I rushed out the door with my overalls and chainsaw and immediately got to work!

It took all day, but I managed to limb the tree, and cut it into two sections. City workers provided only minor assistance by carrying off limbs in their trucks and helping me roll the logs off the street. Altogether, I managed to get three 14' logs from this spruce tree.

With the help of two other guys, I was able to maneuver one log onto the trailer by hand. The heavier logs had to wait until the following day... I rented a forklift from a downtown equipment rental company, drove it on city streets all the way to my mother-in-law's home, and quickly loaded the remaining logs onto my trailer. I hauled the logs to Jon and Hannah's to be milled, probably into posts and joists.

Altogether it took 2 full days of work to fully deal with cutting this fallen tree into logs, loading them into my trailer, and transporting them to the mill. I can't wait to see how well this spruce will mill up.

Because of the species of tree, the spacing of the growth rings, and the abundant knots, I will get weaker timbers from the tree. Sufficient for posts and the occasional joist...

The best part of this tree, aside from its girth, is the story behind it. It will be fantastic to see posts and joists in the cabin and know the interesting story behind it...

I guess others find the story somewhat interesting. The Lewiston Tribune (local newspaper) published a picture of me dealing with the logs in their story about the windstorm and related damage.