Lemonade.  Some say that if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.   In that vein, we thought “if extreme drought gives you dead oak trees, make hardwood flooring!”

One summer morning in 2011 while drinking our coffee, we noted the difference in the woods due to the drought. We pondered how many oak trees would ultimately die due to the drought and how many we would cut down to prevent a hazard.  How were we going to dispose of such large quantities of wood?   We already had more firewood than we needed and chopping all of the dead trees into firewood, even with a hydraulic splitter, was more work than we wanted to contemplate.  Ronnie starting talking about buying a portable sawmill and making the trees into lumber.  At some point he mentioned that a friend of his knew of a mill in Huntsville next door to a facility that makes hardwood flooring. 

From there we had a eureka! moment.  Was it possible to harvest the dead water oak, have the mill cut the logs into lumber, dry the lumber in the mill’s kiln, and then take the lumber to the hardwood floor plant  to make hardwood flooring for the future Dogwood ranch house?  We began to get excited at the prospect of turning a tragic situation caused by the drought into something positive.  We would not have to waste all of those trees!  Flooring made from wood from the property would be unique and enjoyed for many years in the ranch house.

After hours of research, the plan was official.  We took an inventory of the dead trees, classified them by type (water oak, red oak, American elm and cedar elm), measured the trunk circumference and estimated the number of eight-foot trunk lengths we thought we get out of each dead tree.  We marked them with an orange ribbon and spray paint.  Our survey only included trees that were easy to get to and not those deep in the woods.  We ran calculations of how many board-feet the trees would yield and how many board-feet we need for hardwood flooring in the house.



Evan helping Ronnie paint the ends of logs

Water oak, a type of red oak, is commonly used for hardwood floors.  We took the dead trees down, cut the trunks into 10, 8 or 6 foot lengths and sealed the ends with a protective paint.  For dead trees near infrastructure, we hired professionals (“tree monkeys” as they all themselves) from Rodger’s Tree Service in Brenham.  As expected, Roger’s team did an efficient and professional job at a reasonable price.



Ronnie loading logs onto Frank's trailer

To haul the logs to the mill, we hooked-up with Frank Belt from Huntsville who was doing construction work in Brenham.  Frank was driving a large flat-bed trailer back and forth between Huntsville and Brenham every day so we hired him to pick-up the logs at Dogwood and drop them off at M&G Sawmill. http://www.mgsawmill.com/



Logs ready for Frank to Haul to M&G Sawmill in Huntsville, Texas

Unfortunately, the guys at the mill say some of the wood is not suitable for flooring because the logs are too soft in the middle, a common problem with large water oak. They will cut as much lumber as possible and dry it in their kiln for several weeks.  That’s where the wood is now.  We hope to get at least enough flooring for the living room. 

We also have logs from two red oak trees we plan to use for lumber to build the front door for the house.  Those logs will be included in the second batch we take to the mill.