I have recently felled about 70 or so drought killed white pines. They had mostly died about four years ago. They were ugly as hell and rotten looking on the outside, but the heartwood is still looking beautiful on the inside. I am poor and hate to not recycle these into something of use. Sure they could used for firewood if dried thoroughly or left to the earth to compost but after seeing what nice heartwood that had been stored inside, I would like to use them my frame somehow. It seems that most people were convincing me not use dead standing white pine for timbers in a frame, but what about having it milled and at least use it for (all heartwood)siding for a tf barn I am building?? If anyone has any insight into this it would be great. I have someone right down the road with a nice portable mill that could bring it up to my site. tb

It's no real rot resisant but it is what I'm siding my house with, bug holes and all... We will be dipping the lapped siding in semitransparant stain and staining the soffit and corner boards in a solid stain to match our window trim.

I have several stacks stickered and drying and more logs waiting to be milled when things thaw.

If you have the pine cut and collected and the hearts are sound, milling it will be cheaper than buying it. As you are sawing it, you and the sawyer will see which logs are the best for making timbers, if any. What is the average diameter of the logs?

thanks guys for your input. Average diameter is about 18 inches so they are not massive logs but big enough to make me want to frame with them if at all possible. I just find it so amazing that I can fell a pine that died ten years ago and looks completely horrible and rotten, but have this beautiful heartwood within . Even some logs that have long since already been felled and rotting on the earth, I have taken a hack into for curiosity sake and found such preservation in its fibers. I have heard of guys wandering in to woods and finding trees that have fallen many years and used them to frame with. Anyway at the very least it seems there are some people out there that find it perfectly ok to use them for siding ang boarding, even with the imperfections(bug damage).By the way Raphael , I am curious as to the product you have chosen to stain with and your technique for "dipping" the boards?? Thanks again Mark and Raphael. It is always a pleasure to hear your input on these matters. I have learned a lot from both of you in the past year or so. tb

We're planning on using a Cabot semitransparent exterior stain, mainly because it's what the lumberyard carries (I have an account and 10% discount there).

The plan is to create two troughs (or a gutter and a trough), the gutter will either be a simple open ended V created by nailing two planks together or it will be cast off rain gutter.

The trough will have sloped sides, solid ends and a flat bottom ~1" wider than the siding boards. I'll line line it with heavy poly, set it level and fill it with a few inches of stain, I'll set a couple of cords across it to facilitate removing the boards.

The gutter will sit below and slightly off line to a length of clothes line strung between two trees. It will be elevated to slope down slightly to a bucket which will catch run off stain.

The idea is to drop the boards (gently) one at a time into the trough and submerge them in the stain for roughly a minute so they soak up as much stain as possible (treat them to rejection). Lift them out at an angle so they shed excess stain and then stand them on end in the gutter leaning (back side or belly) against the clothes line until they have ceased to drip. I'll string additional lines about that they can lean against to finish drying before stacking.

Rubber gloves and ratty old clothing will be the uniform of the day.

I was in a stand of pine not to long ago where the (chosen)trees had been topped and delimbed for the purpose of building a frame. If I come across someone involved in that project I'll ask how long the trees were left standing like that.