I received my Christmas and birthday presents for at least five years this winter. It may sound strange, but I got a used wood chipper and a new saw mill. Whenever we are driving down the road, I feel really sad when I see a pile of trees ready to burn. I know how generous farmers are in our area and I’m hoping that once people hear that we have this, maybe they will let us take some of that wood and turn it into something useful. We also plan to do some milling for other people. We are still working out the details, but so far we are thinking  that we will have a share or paid option. The share option will be where we mill for free and take a percentage of the wood. The paid option will be where we mill and charge an hourly rate. We still have some practicing to do before we do it for others, but my husband and son seem pretty excited about it so far. We plan to use the wood to build moveable shelters and other farm projects that we can’t afford to do at this time because of the price of wood.

As we work on our farm and our rented ground we often encounter a lot of tree clean up. We have always burned the wood we clean up in our wood stove, but there are often branches that we have to pile and burn. At times we will pile some in areas for wildlife, but you can only make so many of those piles when you have a small farm and a desire to keep things neat and orderly. With our new to us wood chipper, we can chip up all those sticks and twigs and add them to our wood chip garden or orchards to help keep the weeds down, add a little fertility, and decrease our watering needs. My husband isn’t real sure about these investments, but I really believe the Lord will provide the wood we need to mill and considering we can’t find free wood chips, the wood chipper may pay for itself. If you or anyone you know is looking to get rid of some cedar, oak, pine, or other decent wood for milling please keep us in mind!