So I came across somebody wanting to get rid of their standing black walnut tree for free. I instantly jumped on it and just got back a few hours ago from taking a look at it. It's about 6' to the crotch and here's the rest of the details on it:

Diameter at Base - 20"
Diameter at chest level - 18"
Left Branch Diameter - 14"
Right Branch Diameter - 13-1/2"

It's approximately 50' tall. It seems pretty healthy and although it's somewhat smaller, the lady wants it gone, so I'm going to cut it down and get it milled. This will be the 1st time I've done this, so I'm really new to this whole process.

I'm going to probably figure out a way to get it taken to a local sawyer to doing the milling. Can anybody provide some good direction/suggestions on how I should go about this?

Should I slab the trunk to the crotch (~6 feet) or make it into shorter dimensional lumber? I also know that I can find a lot of good wood on this to use on my lathe, but like I said, I'm green and don't really know what I'm doing quite yet.

Also, it looks like woodpeckers have ravaged the tree, is that going to make it less desirable (I'm thinking it will allow rot/bugs in to cause damage). The lady said it's about 30-35 years old.

Appreciate all the help!