November 9: My Lumber Mill Adventure

When I went out to get into the truck for my mill adventure, I found a present on the seat.  On the lathe, Kevin turned a mallet for me to use for my carving classes and beyond.  It is made out of maple with a velvet oil bee's wax finish and was a class project.

As we drove to the mill, we found the sky to be quite intriguing again.  Wish I could somehow show you just how amazing some of the clouds were.  At one point the sun looked like it was on the other side of a black hole and the other clouds seemed to be being pulled toward the opening.  I could not really capture that, but here are a couple of shots that I really do like.



As always during this Vermont adventure, we chatted and enjoyed the views from the truck as we drove to Bristol, VT, and the Lathrops Maple Supply, aka the lumber mill.  I asked Kevin to caption the photos since he knows more about these things, at least at this point.



Here we are at Lathrops mill



Some of the many piles of logs at the mill waiting to be made into
lumber.   Lathrops specialize in local Vermont woods.

Here are some of the bins of rough lumber.  Anything
 from 12/4 (three inch thick) to 4/4 (one inch thick) in 6' to 10' lengths.

This is the second floor of more lumber bins.  Everything from maple,
 cherry, walnut, pine, poplar, hickory and many more types as well a
s special cuts such as curly cherry and birdseye or tiger maple.



Here is our wood selection.  Some 8/4 hard maple (legs for tables), 4/4 sap maple (aprons or sides for tables), 4/4 tap hole maple (from maple trees that had taps for maple sugar put in them at one time and left some great color strips in the wood), some 6/4 cherry for panels for a blanket chest which is in progress) a board of poplar for internal wood in blanket chest and a small butternut board for Robin to use in her upcoming carving lessons.



Buying rough cut wood is different than going to the big box stores.  Kevin will have to do a little work rough cutting the pieces to the required sizes, but I will do my project based on exactly what Terre would have provided if we purchased the wood at the school.  We also purchased other wood for Kevin to use for class.  Spent a lot less on the wood, but Kevin will have to do the grunt work to get it ready.

On the way back, we tried to capture a little of the country side.   The mountains were still trying to hold on to the color, but the sun was shining brightly and seemed to help fade the mountain color more than what we were seeing.



By the time we got back to the school to put up the lumber, it was dark.  The moon was something else to see.  My little camera did take one special photo.