The upturning of two driveways of two neighbors along the American River in Sacramento, CA caused them to move forward with the sad removal of their beloved shade tree, a large native walnut. Nineteen years previous we had removed another large walnut from their back yard and had milled it with a chainsaw mill, lugging the heavy, wide, long planks out one at a time. The most recent logs were larger and required delicate work by an experienced arborist and crane operator in order to safely take down the tree and load them onto our truck and trailer.

We milled one of the upper logs early this summer and will slab the bole of the tree this fall after we prepare the drying room for the careful air-curing required for the first year of the boards on stickers. Our long-time friend and partner and skilled tree climber, Robert Beauchamp, will oversee the milling and drying of this precious log.

The log is 22 feet long, 54″ in diameter and weighed 22,000 pounds when cut. The live-edge slabs will be milled with a Woodmizer 1000, a bandmill that conserves wood with its thin kerf.