Makin lumber is a good thing. Ole Jeep sometimes drags logs to his bandmill and starts the process. His Woodmizer is purty well a one man operation, with all the hydrolics offered, but the off bearing is something that he needs help with. I try to help'm when he saws. Slabs can get fairly heavy as he "slabs" off those sometimes BIG, rough nobby barked strips of the outer log. It can be thin on one end but towards the stump cut really thick and heavy. Sometimes it takes both of us to handle it. Once he gets the log "squared up" it's then a "walk in tha park". I think of all the logs I liked the best were/are the red cedar. Real nobby, bent, crooked and generally just kinda ugly because of the lack of smoothness--turns out the most beautiful lumber. It also smells real good too. I build seveal "old fashioned" floor model radios a few years ago. Made mostly from white oak I then started using different woods-that I "bummed" from his stash. I patterned'm after the old time radios of the 40's and 50's but with new electronice/speakers etc. The lumber was not the flimsy veneer they used back then but full cut boards ole jeep saw'd. Anyhow, after building a few, each one a little different, I used red cedar on one. It was just too much cedar! I finally broke it up with some white oak speaker guards and fancy scrollwork thingys I bought. Sis got it and it really looked good. I think we'll start build'n'm again for sale as many have inquired about'm. If it hadn't been for ole Jeep and hisn' sawmill, I doubt if I'd built more than one---MINE! Matt. 24:44

-- old hoot gibson (hoot@pcinetwork.com), January 23, 2001

Answers

I love to hear you type! Oh...I just looked up the reference that you always put at the end.....Lookin' forward to it!!!!!and we don't even have to pack!!!See ya' there...could be today!!!!!!!!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), January 23, 2001.

hooooot,why don't ya submit some photos and an article about the radios and sawmill to the magazine? would make some good readin'!!

-- fred in wi (sixuvusmeyers@aol.com), January 24, 2001.

The cedar Hoot used for my radio came from a tree that was blown down in a tornado. This tree was in Decker cemetery where our Grampa and Gramma Gibson are buried. The cemetery came out of the original Gibson farm. The radio is BEAUTIFUL and has almost too much sound. He doesn't do things half-way!

-- hoot's sis ruth in s.e.Illinois (bobtravous@email.com), January 24, 2001.