Black walnut issue

ferndaleflyer wrote:
Really? They been shipping logs overseas for a long time and for that "kiln dried" is a myth. They do ship mostly in the winter so heat don't damage logs. I am not an expert my friend is in the timber business and I also have sold some of my own timber over the years....Kiln dried maybe somewhere. Not talking about pine but oak, maple, walnut, hickory, etc.

Myth?

How about this "myth"..

My Brother living in VT had 4K bdf of prime Maple, 4k bdf of prime Oak, 8k bdf of prime pine milled.

Plan was to use the Maple to build new kitchen cabinets in his 120 yr old VT farm house. Gave me 2k bdf of beautiful prime pine to finish the trim work in my home in PA that I was remodeling at the time. The Maple, Oak and pine all came from totally 100% free "yard" trees that nobody was willing to pay for to get milled.

Brother passed away before he was able to start making the new kitchen cabinets.. Leaving all that very nice milled and carefully stickered and naturally dried milled wood for my Sister in Law to figure out what to do with..

Sister in Law wanted to have a cabinet maker make the cabinets from my Brothers wood.. None would touch it.

She eventually found one wood worker that was willing to take all of the wood "off her hands" in exchange for enough kiln dried Maple for a cabinet maker to build the new cabinets.

I have also talked to local tree services, cabinet makers and saw mills over the yrs, they have told me the same thing over and over.

The myth of Walnut being valuable does not extend to yard trees, mills only want trees that are in stands or groves in multi acre untouched lots away from homes as those trees tend to not have things like nails, screws, bolts, fence posts embedded in them.

Cost of cutting, cleaning up brush, loading and hauling makes a "one off" tree prohibitively expensive to be turned into lumber. Timber guys want to see enough logs of good enough quality and sufficient size and length to completely fill not just one log truck but multiple log trucks.

One yard tree does not fill a log truck.

For personal consumption, you can find Sawyers with portable mills, they bring a band mill to you but there is a setup fee and then they charge per bdf cut and if they hit metal, charge for a new blade on top.

25 yrs ago, my brother local to me dropped 4 huge 80 ft tall Elm trees and two 100ft tall pines on my property and brought in a portable mill. Got 1900 bdf ft.. 1900 bdf of wood wouldn't even cover the bottom of a log truck.. The Sawyer charged $250 setup and $.25 per bdf back then, didn't want the first 10ft of the tree from the base.. I am sure it isn't that cheap now days..

To buy precut, milled black walnut, sure it is going to be more expensive than Oak but then Oak is more expensive than Pine.. But keep in mind, good straight black walnut trees are a bit harder to come by and there is some "mystic" about Blackwalnut that folks go crazy over which boosts the retail prices..

Log buyers however, do not pay "retail" prices for logs and yrd logs go for much less than wholesale to as low as zero for one off yard logs.

Better off to cut for fire wood, around here easily get $200 for face cord which is nearly $400 for a cord of fire wood.. The black walnut tree in my backyard will easily net about 3-4 cords of firewood or about $1600 in firewood..

As I have mentioned, as far as OPs question, since they are not staying long and not keeping the current home makes no sense to worry about a cover for a short time. Additionally since it sounds like at least one of the trees are in a neighbors yrd tying ropes or anything in that tree(s) will require neighbors permission and one would have to use proper non damaging equipment to tie off on those tree(s)..

Even if one managed to make it happen, you would have one heck of a "sail" for the wind to play with, everything would have to be heavy duty which adds to the cost.. If it breaks free, the damage caused by a heavy duty cloth tarp will be insanely expensive to repair on the RV..

Seems to be more hassle than worth for such a short period of time.