Buildings were blown down and lost roofs, millions of acres of crops were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people were without power for weeks. However, without a doubt, the majority of the estimated 7.5 billion dollars in damage was caused by trees being uprooted and canopies broken. In the days immediately following the storm, most streets were not passable due to the sheer number of tree debris on the road. It took weeks to open the roads back up to get vehicles down the road. Have you ever seen a mature ash tree uprooted and take an entire section of sidewalk and road with its root system? It's impressive.
Fast forward a month, and the city was starting to get back on its feet. The city had started its first round of debris removal, and finally, there was a little room to position the sawmill and take care of these logs. One of my grandparent's houses sits on a fairly busy residential street. Before I had the first set of leveling jacks set and the Norwood unhooked from the truck, I had no less than ten people stop asking where I rented the sawmill. After explaining that she's mine, but I do portable milling and handing out a dozen or so business cards, I started to saw some logs.
I salvaged and milled two pecans, an ash, Norway maple, a very nice-figured silver maple, and a white oak log for my personal use. All of these were from my grandparents' homes and held some meaning. As an avid woodworker, I will utilize all of it. I wish I could tell you that some fantastic, earth-shattering epiphany happened during milling or that I ran into some long-lost family heirloom in the middle of one of the logs. Alas, I did neither — the milling was uneventful and yielded some nice lumber that's currently air-drying. But the number of people that stopped by asking for me to come saw for them was nagging at me.
Of course, as soon as I saw how many trees were down from this storm, I could see the opportunity to fill up weekends with sawing at a premium rate. But, the number of crews driving around, most from out of state, offering tree service and stump grinding at an inflated rate made me a little sick. However, with people approaching me and asking for my service, it seemed only appropriate to oblige their requests.
One of the common themes that I heard from my clients was that they had no plans for what I was milling. They just needed to save something out of this storm and couldn't bear seeing the tree that grew in their yard get chopped up and brought to the city dump. And, to be honest, hearing that does my heart good.
The next several weekends found me making the two-hour drive and spending sun-up to sundown milling logs at customers’ houses. One of the common themes that I heard from my clients was that they had no plans for what I was milling. They just needed to save something out of this storm and couldn't bear seeing the tree that grew in their yard get chopped up and brought to the city dump. And, to be honest, hearing that does my heart good.
It was a long summer. But, traveling to these hard-hit areas and offering my services to people who want to save a portion of their past made it worth it. Of course, doing this helped pay for my mill very quickly as well. However, cramming six to ten jobs per day led me to refine my process.
I think there are two types of people in this world: those that complain about the hand they're dealt and those that make the most out of any given situation. And, because you're reading this, I have a feeling that you're probably the latter. When it comes down to it, though, when things get tough, the best you can do is put your head down, get to work, and persevere. Of course, it's a lot more fun when you have a chainsaw and a sawmill at hand.
Logan Wittmer is a life-long woodworker and currently the Assistant Editor at Woodsmith Magazine, contributing writer for Popular Woodworking magazine, and co-host of the PBS woodworking show, The Woodsmith Shop.
