A guy I work with tells me one day: "I'm ready to get that @#$@% maple out of my backyard."
"OK, great. Can I have the trunk? Maybe it'll save you a couple of bucks from the tree service", says I.
"I guess so. Why?"
"I'll have it milled into lumber."
"Really? You can do that?"
"Sure. Let me come and take a look."
So I come 'round to his place and lay eyes on a big 'ol silver maple with ~20 ft of clear, straight trunk and about 20" across.
"Yeah, we should be able to get some lumber outta that."
"It's yours if you can get it out of here."
"'K"
A quick phone call to the local Urban Sawyer confirms that we have enough access for him to be able to get to the logs and get them onto his flatbed. "Oh, by the way, I have a kiln now." says Sawyer Man.
"Can you do 8/4?" asks I with stars in my eyes.
"Sure, it'll just take longer."
Sweeeet. So the sawyer gets the logs (now 2 7' lengths as I figured that's about all I could afford) and away he goes to do his thing.
Nearly the whole baseball season goes by when I get the call. "It's ready, Joe. Come 'n get it."
Upon arrival I'm greeted by a pile of clear, long, wide silver maple. 7' long, 10" - 15" wide. Half 4/4, half 8/4. About 250bf. $225 to mill and dry. About 25bf to the guy that had the tree. The rest is in my shop.
And, oh, BTW, he has a bunch of 8/4 qswo in the kiln now that's nearly ready to go. I have about 50bf spoken for at $5.15bf. Life is good.