Landowners with woods cash in on high cost of lumber.

Publication: Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2005 Kennebec Journal

Byline: Mechele Cooper

Jun. 12--Lori Caron eyed the squared-off hemlock log stretched out on her portable mill as the teeth of the bandsaw blade sliced it into 2-by-4 lumber.

The fragrant smell of freshly cut wood permeated the air as sawdust collected on the cement slab beneath the mill.

She moved the lever to "OFF" then grabbed a "cant dog" leaning up against a pile of timber and worked a log free. While she rolled it onto a lift, her husband, Leon, stacked the rough-sawn boards to be trucked to Gerrity Industries in Leeds, a wooden pallet manufacturer.

A nearby pile of hemlock slabs -- a sawing waste product -- waited to be ground up into bark mulch for landscaping by P.R. Russell in Richmond.

Sawdust, swept into a pile next to the mill, will be used by farmers for livestock bedding.

Throughout the years, the Carons have found markets for the high- and low-grade lumber they mill in an open-air shed on their Monmouth property.

They produce as much as 2,000 board-feet of lumber per day. A board-foot is the equivalent to a board measuring...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.