If you are building your own house with wood from the land, and that is it, you might try to find a mobile mill guy. The trick to getting good value for the money, from a mobile mill, is to get him or her to cut your logs into slices. One pass, one slice. Then, you square up your own wood with a table saw, later. Otherwise, you are doing three slices for every stick, and at 50 bucks an hour, that gets expensive, quickly. So just get all of your stick wood milled as slices by a mobile mill operation, operating at a fixed piece work or hourly rate, and then table saw and finish everything yourself at leisure. This is usually cheaper than getting your own mill. You can then build a house with a bicycle wheel cart, a chainsaw, an angle grinder with a lancelot (florida made) attachment, a table saw, hammer and nails, a bucket and a trowel, some masonry bags and windows. Three months later, you have a house.

Also, re, using trees from the land. When you cut your trees, retain the canopy. Canopy retention is crucial to the health of regrowth. All sustainable logging operations avoid clear cuts. Clear cuts encourage erosion, and diminishment of next generation regrowth. Canopy retention will encourage natural reseeding, shade, wind protection, and renewable tree ecology. My 5 acres in BC Canada looks, essentially, unchanged, except for a big house sitting in the middle of a bunch of trees. Labour intensive, hand operations are best. A good tree faller will take the necessary trees, and leave the rest. You can pull many or most of the trees out with steel cables and a pickup truck, without damaging the land. Also, think building without square. Hexagonal and octagonal shapes encourage smaller log length, these logs can be moved around a lot with a simple bicycle wheel cart and a hoist. Milling costs money and time. I do it for internal wood, and usually use logs for load bearing walls. Short log walls go up much faster than long ones, where the logs are very heavy. Still, I have built with 35 ft birch logs, weighing a ton or more, and green. I let them dry as an unfinished building, with a nice roof, and it all worked out well. The building should last over a hundred years, and a modern frame building is looking pretty tired after a hundred years.

Some other points to remember. Wood building is very healthy. Keep it healthy by avoiding treatment of your logs or wood with modern chemicals. The health risk is not worth the supposed extension of wood longevity. Many log or wood treatment chemicals are unhealthy, and stimulate allergies, or even, cancer. Large, protruding roof overhangs (my last house has a 4 foot overhang) will save your logs, even cottonwood, from the weather, even in a wet belt. Landscaping and drainage from the house are crucially important. The key to success with wood, is 'keep it dry.' KID. Dry lasts, wet rots and invites bug penetration. That is the essence of wood building. And for personal and interior air quality health, avoid chemicals. Use masonry products as substitutes for chinking, sills, etc, where modern chemical products have become standard. Masonry is inert, long lasting, and typically, non-allergenic. Any one building from the land is welcome to ask me any questions. My family has been building for hundreds of years. Pioneer Construction, Canada, family from Europe.
John

RE Using your own trees, and cottonwoods. You can use any wood to build with, including cottonwoods. Poplar is even better. There are winter cut poplar fences (no sap, peeled in 30 below zero, and consequently freeze dried) in Manitoba Canada that are 150 years old. I have built a 2100 ft square home out of birch, in the wet belt of central western british columbia. Everyone said the birch would rot. It is dry, hard and perfect. There are a few tricks, a few guild secrets that are essential to successful building with 'junk' wood. Regarding grading and code requirements, many code requirements are efforts to control people and make money for companies. They often have little to do with building. Email me if you need info.

THE EXPERTS SAID IT WAS ALRIGHT TO USE THE WOOD OFF YOUR LAND.BUT I`D CAUTION YOU THAT IF YOU MILL A GREEN LEFTHANDED SPIRAL GRAINED LOG AND USED IT IN YOUR TIMBER FRAMED STRUCTURE IT COULD TWIST LIKE A BARBER POLE AND
KNOCK OFF ALL ATTACHMENTS...NOT A GOOD IDEA.

CORDWOODGUY

I`D BACK UP JIM JOHNSONS COMMENT ABOUT SOME AREAS, CODE REQUIRES THE WOOD BE GRADED.I`VE ALSO READ ON MILLING BOARDS THAT THE HOME LUMBER MILL END PRODUCT IS NOT UPTO COMMERCIAL STANDARDS.

CORDWOODGUY
PS: I HAVE A VISUAL PROBLEM THUS THE UPPER CASE LETTERS

i agree with using your own trees for lumber. i currently own a norwood band mill, the lumbermate 2000. i have been cutting and using my own trees for about 5 years now. usually i just air dry, but am building a kiln now to dry my wood. i can show you pictures of a house a just finished for my sister. it is board and betten. i cut the 1x12 from a 110 year old long leaf pine that was 30 inch diameter and 60 feet tall..

I would "imagine" (means I have no authoritative voice) you could us most trees to build a temporary structure to serve as home as you build a more permanant structure. It has money saving benefits and is sturdier and has more protection than a tent. They built log cabins in our early years as a nation; I do not see them waiting for lunber to dry or cure. They could dry and cure in position, I would think. I would sure try it. Sounds like freedom to me. Plant fruit trees and plants that give food year after year where-ever you go; get a goat and some chickens and you can begin your garden paradise, the goal in life is not employment.

What preparation is needed prior to using fresh cut trees as "lumber" for one's timber-frame home? What is the required drying time? Is there a place on the web to find more "do it yourself" timber frame basics?
Thank you,
Hope

Don't know if this is now a national law or a state law here in WI, also don't know if it would pertain to timber frame construction, as I understand it you now cannot use ungraded lumber in stick built homes, and this will be checked during building inspections, IE. lumber cut from your own trees, on your property by a portable mill, with out it being graded by a independent inspector

I have a mill that I used to produce material for our home before this went in to law, What I saved in material cost more then paid for the mill, I still have the mill and use it to cut lumber for use in my wood shop.

So please take the time to check this out before you commit your self and your resources

Harbor Freight tools has recently gotten into the Sawmill business with a gas engine powered bandsawmill selling for about $2000.00. Might be worth looking into to get you into a small business.

Ron

I can't believe how many trees I see just going to waste,
what a shame more of it doesn't get turned into lumber.
I hope more people get involved in personal sawmills and start using some of this wood.
I saw them clear a ton of nice hardwood for a new home site then just pile all the trees they took down and burn them.
It's hard to believe they couldn't find some one who would want this lumber.

I have been considering the construction of a Timber frame garage/utility building for some time. I was wondering how good a quality timbers one gets from cottonwood trees? Also if they created any unusual problems if used. I have heard rumors that they have an odor or that they are especially suseptable to termite damage.
Cottonwood would be a perfect choice in Ks as it is plentiful and almost considered a weed tree here even though it is the State Tree. One could also plant them just for this project as their fast growth to a 12-14" diameter makes them quick to grow initially or as a replacement if harvested.

You may want to compare the purchase price from the lumber yard against what your Forester will bill you to harvest and mill. If you’re planning to do this yourself compare it to the equipment costs that you will accrue on this project. I agree with the others, this is not a novice undertaking.

Another expense is equipment to move the timber from the cut site to the mill which could include the cost of a tractor with a clamp jaw bucket to move the downed timber or other methods (a team of horses or a healthy 4x4) and depending on your land the timber may not be truck accessible.

One more thing, you don't really get as much lumber out of a tree as you may expect estimate your board feet and then get an idea of how many trees you’ll need to harvest.

We live in a multi-level redwood home that was built from lumber downed and milled on the site my advice is to have a good plan.

I did that for my Rob Roy style earth shelter. Love the 10 inch post & beams & 4x8 rafters with 2x6 planks. Get a book on green lumber construction so you can build as you cut and allow for shrinkage. I used a circular Belsaw, but I think a bandsaw type would be easier for a novice. Rob's new book on earth shelter houses will answer most of your questions. Go to cordwoodmasonry.com.

Grate idea I have found many good trees, at construction sites, on land slides sometimes across the road, where power companies and gas line installation have removed, and most land owners with mature timber will have trees that have fell before they are ready to sell the timber. Also in some states their is many undesirables like the sycamore which has little value. The equipment that may help: a heavy trailer, good chainsaw, chains (5/16 grade 70 or better), and a winch. A gas winch is handy if you try to remove a single from a forest and check out the ATV log skid Arch and holder from northern tool. Harbor freight has a sawmill for less than $2000.00.

This could be the most dangerous project you can undertake don't work by your self or with unexperienced helpers.