Hi Jim,
I've been away, but it looks like a lot of good information has come through already! For the most part I agree with what's been said, and with the numbers, but would caution your friend on a few details. Most of this falls in the "learn from your own mistakes" catagory.
Caution #1. Logging is difficult and dangerous. I've been felling trees for nearly 25 years and have more respect for good felling now than ever. Rather than telling war stories, I will say if your friend hasn't done much felling, get help from someone who has, and WEAR SAFETY EQUIPMENT!
Caution #2. Logging is difficult and dangerous. I'm not trying to be funny. This time I'm talking about the timber. Logs can be seriously damaged by improper felling, and so can the surrounding woodlot. A quality harvest, in my opinion, leaves a healthy and clean woodlot and produces timber that isn't damaged by felling shake and whiplash.
Caution #3. Not every tree makes good timber. Ten acres isn't a lot of trees. A good managed harvest will require a lot of thoughtful cruising and selection parameters will be different than cruising for grade. Spiral grain can usually be spotted on the stump, and should be avoided. Diseased, infested and wind damaged trees also can produce low quallity timber. Many softwoods that are fast grown in a second or third growth environment can alo produce very poor timber. Trees that lean significantly, or have bowed to find light are also likely to contain reaction wood. Again, experienced help would be recommended.
Having said all that, I do have to say that harvesting and using your own timber to build your own frame can be very rewarding. Our floor deck in our house was from a selective harvest from our twenty acre woodlot. We still ended up buying about a dozen logs. We have our own backhoe for skidding, our own mill and all the equipment, but we aren't in the logging business so it took many ours and lots of cookouts and beer for our friends who helped. And nobody got hurt.
Hope this helped.
Rudy
