Growth Of The Sawmill Division

Hey!  You’re here!  So glad you came and welcome to our blog.  We are here to talk everything and anything about wood, wood products, trees, forestry, logging, sawmills, wood species, wood related tools, woodworking, and anything else wood related.  As this is our first blog post, we have nothing specific in mind today other than to tell you a little about us and our sawmill division known as “Bren Chucks Wood” (Renamed to “Make Some Dust” in 2023).  We are located at Pioneer Mountain Homestead, which is within the Appalachian Mountains of south-central Pennsylvania in James Creek, close to the Shy Beaver Boat Launch at Lake Raystown. 

“Bren Chucks Wood” conceptually started late in 2019 after Chuck and myself (Bren) decided we wanted to own a sawmill.  Actually, owning a sawmill is the easy part.  The difficulty begins when you start realizing that your sawmill needs a “home” (yes, a building).  Your sawmill needs equipment to help run it (think tractors, loaders, trailers, etc.).  Also needed is a number of small tools and equipment (cant hooks, chains, pulley blocks, winches, chainsaws, and so on).  So, our “small” initial investment ended up racking up some large capital expenditures.

Although we were very fortunate in that many of these items were already available to us, we still had to add significant tool and equipment purchases plus purchase saw logs.  But, we were diligent (and having a lot of fun) and things started to roll. 

It really is exciting to mill a log.  It’s like opening a package (a really big, heavy, package that could roll on you and crush your feet and legs if you’re not careful).  You never know what you might find.  If you get giddy seeing grain patterns in wood like we do, you obviously understand our excitement.  We found ourselves drenching boards with water to “pop” the grain.  We oohed and aahed over wood patterns, figures, knot markings, and colorations.  We were buying and selling.  “This is such a fun hobby” we thought.  Then it happened…

As we stood in a pile of sawdust with portions of the logs that were not usable for boards piling up, lumber was stacking up all around us to the point that milling was becoming difficult.  We started looking like wood hoarders.  You’ve seen the pictures of people living in a house with a small path between boxes of items.  That was us, but with piles of slatted boards all around.   

At the same time, we started having “regular” customers and milling wood for others.  Things were changing.  Almost like a light switch went on and the light was blinding.  What changed was this so called “side-line business or hobby” was turning into a small business and we were running out of room.  Let me go back here a second.  The mill was in a 2,000 square foot building.  This was supposed to be enough space for saw logs, the mill, and stacking lumber!  Wow!  Were we wrong.

We seemed to forget about waste products.  A mill generates a lot of saw dust.  More than we anticipated.  It also generates firewood from portions not usable for lumber.  We found ourselves by default in the firewood business, and since we are located near Lake Raystown, a vacation area with thousands of camping opportunities, we also found ourselves selling camp wood.   

So, we gathered our thoughts and started rethinking this side-line hobby turning into a small business.  One thing that needed to happen was a better “flow”.  We worked on logistics or product flow (and we still continue to rethink work flow patterns to streamline our operations).  We were able to utilize the pandemic shutdown to strategize.  Sometimes what seems to be a bad thing is actually a blessing in disguise.  No, we weren’t happy about the lack of money coming in and the thousands we had spent, but the ability to capture a little extra time to improve efficiencies in this emerging business we felt was critical for our future activities.     

So, fast forward through the pandemic months.  We have cleared and excavated for more storage space for the lumber with that project still in the works.  Since we know the very nice owners of this sawmill company (ha ha), we are milling our own boards with logs from the property to save money for building this storage space.  We also are currently erecting a firewood storing area.  Basically, this is a pole structure with a roof to keep the split fire wood dry.  This is also being erected with wood we milled from our logs and repurposed roofing taken from a building that was torn down.  We also now have a much better firewood processing area after clearing a space and adding a used elevator that we purchased from a kind farmer.  The mill has had extra track added to it, which allows us to saw even longer logs (currently we will do up to 17 feet).  We are also in the preliminary stages of designing and pricing out yet another building.

Looks like we are in this for the long haul.  It has been and hopefully will continue to be an enjoyable adventure.  Let us know your thoughts.  If you have a sawmill, we welcome any insight.  This is all new to us, so we can definitely use your help and ideas. 

Thanks for stopping by and hope to hear from you soon.  Please let us know what topics interest you in the wood industry.  – Bren

These are the boots that I wear the most.  They last longer than any other type of boot I’ve owned.  They are super warm and keep my feet dry. Highly recommend. – Chuck 

These overalls are one of my favorites.  Carhartt is a well known name and well worth the money.  I own many pairs of these and they hold up to days of tough work while keeping you warm.  I have several of these pairs that are now several years old.  One of the best things about overalls is you can easily add or remove top layers for those days when the weather is in between temperatures.  -Chuck    

One of my favorite hats.  It is warm and light weight.  My wife says it washes up nicely. My dogs like to steel it whenever they can. – Chuck