Look! Sustainable Tree Harvesting...In Our Backyard

My family has a piece of country property riddled with old, beautiful native Texas pecan and oak trees. Many of the trees are upwards of 50, even 100, years old. Over the weekend, one of the trees was felled--on purpose--to be made into a giant table for family gatherings... and so much more. Jump below to find out what else this tree will be made into.

The largest section of this burr oak measured 16 feet tall, and two slabs were milled from it on-site. These slabs will be made into a 10-foot table and a smaller table to sit at the end (to accommodate the 20-plus family members we have sitting around it at holidays).

There's plenty more tree to go, though; the giant tree weighed in at 9,200 pounds and will make 1,200 feet of board. More of the tree will be used for wood flooring--about 900 square feet of coverage from this one tree, which will hopefully be used to redo floors in my aunts' houses. And whatever is leftover will likely be used in the fireplace to keep the family warm, or for smaller projects that my dad, who has a knack for furniture making, might take on.

I love that we were able to harvest one of our own trees to make things that our entire family will be able to use. The tree came right from our backyard, and now it will be a part of our family's traditions.

Comments (3)

Imagining what great memories your family will making at your new table...

posted by mysoultokeep on February 10th 2009 at 2:39pm
view mysoultokeep's profile

We have a fallen tree on our property and would love to use the wood like you guys are doing. Do you have any tips to go about finding a company able to mill wood on site?

posted by snowpants on February 12th 2009 at 9:19pm
view snowpants's profile

Many years ago now, a lumber company our neighbors hired "mistakenly" chopped down a couple huge ancient walnut trees that were on our side of the property line. (I say mistakenly because they probably saw those things and had dollar signs light up in their eyes, and thus carefully ignored the old barbed wire fence.)

Dad actually caught them at it, and while there wasn't enough time to save the trees, they had to give us the wood.

Fortunately my parents were able to make lemonade out of lemons - they used the walnut fill their big kitchen with gorgeous kitchen cabinets and an island, and then gave the rest of the wood to the carpenter to pay for the work.

posted by Kaete on February 16th 2009 at 10:22am
view Kaete's profile