Everything Wood

Wood and trees have always been a part of my life.  I grew up on a small dairy and crop farm just west of Chaska, Minnesota.  As a youngster I remember clearing land with my Dad.  We used a huge, heavy McColloch chain saw with a manual oiler, a Case tractor to pull the stumps, and a sledge hammer and wedges to split the wood.  Good sized logs were moved to Olander’s Saw Mill in East Union for milling.   Medium sized branches were put on a pile and on a mild winter day they were cut into stove length pieces with the buzz saw powered by the same Case tractor with a wide flat drive belt.   When I was growing up we heated the house with a wood fired boiler and always had a wood burning range in the kitchen. It was my job to keep the wood box full and the ash pan empty. 

After graduating from the University of Minnesota I returned to the land by purchasing 30 acres just south of Waconia, Minnesota.  We built our new home on this 30 acre parcel that had always been a cattle pasture.  There were some large “wolf” trees but 80% of the acreage was open.  We planted 300 Black Walnut seedlings in 1976 and allowed the “woods” to fill in the land for the next 45 years.  Today it is a dense mixed woods with some of the original “wolf” trees still remaining, along with many more Burr Oak, Ash, Sugar Maple, Black Cherry, Hickory, Butternut, and an amazing number of beautiful, tall, straight Black Walnut trees. 

In 1994 we purchased an additional 30 acres of open land and began a “Choose and Cut” Christmas Tree farm which was in operation for 25 years.  There is still one Balsam Tree left in the field for my Christmas tree in 2024.

In 2014, when I retired from Veterinary Medicine, I sold my father’s old circle saw mill and purchased a swing blade mill with a slabbing attachment and a dehumidification drying kiln.  Since then I have been milling beautiful hardwood slabs, cutting a lot of Black Walnut lumber and producing a lot of firewood.  I have a large inventory on hand and I am always willing to meet with people to discuss lumber milling and wood sales.