We turn trees into beautiful lumber!

Like most good stories, this one began with a dream.  Or as we call dreams in the South,  a wild hair.  My family has passed down a cove in the Cumberland Mountains that is beyond the reach of electricity, county water and cell phone coverage.  Such isolation is a proper setting for a cabin.  While walking the property, my young sons spoke of building forts and cabins. I naively thought, how hard could it be?  With the Internet, I searched out simple plans. Why not use the trees on the property, like the original settlers?  Boy! wouldn’t that be romantic!  Working together with my sons to build a family getaway- what father doesn’t dream of that? And cheap too!

We specialize in quartersawing logs. Quartersawing yields straighter grain, with improved appearance and stability.

This small horse farm needed lean-to and a barn for its horses. Since they already felled several pines,  PD Woodbutchers skidded the logs to the milling site.  In one day PD Woodbutchers milled enough lumber for the lean tos.  Weather permitting We will soon begin felling more pine trees for the barn.  Approximately 550 board feet recovered so far.

So we started by practicing with an Alaskan sawmill. I quickly realized that we would not produce good enough lumber in a manner timely enough to build a cabin, so back to the Internet to find a quicker solution.  I learned a while ago that it is expensive to go shopping for a solution without a set of specifications.  Not formal ones, but simply what did I really need.  The property is remote, so I needed a very portable system.  I didn’t want to build a mansion, so production could be on the slighter end of capacity. No need to invest in a high production unit.  Since I do my own maintenance, it needed to be very simple. The Logosol M7 met these specifications better than anything else. I ordered over the Internet and waited for the boxes to come to my house.
 I am always a little intimidated and a little skeptical when a box of parts and several large pieces show up.  But in this case intimidation and skepticism were unneeded.  The mill went together easily and not a washer misplaced.   I simply followed the instructions, and a few hours later, I had a fully functional Logosol M7 mill.  Now I needed something to cut. Luckily for me, a tree service was across the street removing some 24” diameter Southern yellow pine.  I simply asked what they would do with the logs.  Since the downturn in the building industry, the mills are very picky, they said.  These trees were bound for the dump.  A quick negotiation, and I was soon cutting very pretty lumber.
Once the sawdust stopped flying, the entrepreneur in me started thinking. People will always need trees removed, but the market for residential trees was going away. Landfill space is at a premium, so disposal is expensive.  Lumber is grown on plantations now, so the great slow growth trees are disappearing.  My sons need to learn how to produce, instead of consuming, but no one will teach them how.  So Pee Dee Woodbutchers was born.  We take trees destined for destruction and turn them into beautiful lumber.
Here are the values that Pee Dee Woodbutchers brings to the marketplace.  We take a tree owners’ liability and turn it into an asset.  The tree that was going to fall is now lumber with which to build a treehouse.  Destined for the burn pile, the trees that the farmer cleared for a pasture will now be a barn for the animals and a fence for the pasture.  The old tree in the front yard is now a picnic table in the back yard. This is the epitome of adding value.
These are the values that Pee Dee Woodbutchers gives to me.  My sons experience how work can be fun, profitable and rewarding.  I am helping good people do good things.  In a small way, I am helping the community use what meager resources we have left.
The Logosol M7 is the tool we use to create all these values. The cabin is still a wild hair, but there is plenty to do close to home. If you want to learn more about the business visit us at sites.google.com/site/pdwoodbutchers/.  If you want to learn more about our experiences visit the blog at http://peedeewoodbutchers.wordpress.com/