My parents are having some trees felled on their property. A large madrone, some California bay laurel, and possibly some red oak.
The tree guys will charge considerably less to simply cut up the trees and leave them on the land. I'm wondering what size to tell them to cut up the logs. Since this is not at my own home, milling/stacking/drying large logs would be difficult, and I don't think there will be quite enough oak to get a project's worth of flooring out of - which would be my main use for a bunch of oak. Though I don't know how to estimate bdft from tree size.
On the other hand, turning blanks seems like a good use of the madrone and laurel. I was thinking 18"-24" pieces? Diameters will vary probably anywhere from 18" down to 4-6". This would probably be a lifetime's worth of turning blanks for me so can't really complain about that!
Would appreciate some thoughts - sort of an extremely unexpected (but pleasant!) supply of lumber and I need to let the tree guys know by tomorrow.
Thanks!