“I was an emergency physician in Vermont for 33 years. Now I’m retired and I work at farming, logging, and sawing lumber with my TimberKing 2000. My wife, Rhonda, is a nurse-educator at a large Vermont hospital and my ‘right hand gal Friday!’
Grandma ran a lumber mill
I’d had some sawing experience because my family was involved in sawing generations ago. My mother’s side owned a lumber mill in Philadelphia generations ago. They made doors, sashes, cabinets, and more. After my grandfather died, my mother and grandmother ran the mill themselves! So I guess there’s wood in my blood somewhere.
In 1992, I skidded out oak logs, pine, ash, soft maple, cherry, basswood and more, and helped a friend saw them on his sawmill. That gave us 8,000 board feet of hardwood, all stickered.
Natural catastrophe was a DIY opportunity
We had major wind storms in 2009 and 2010 – winds up to 112 mph. Storms took down trees, tore down buildings, and really made a mess. On top of that, our 1700’s farmhouse needed a lot of work, too. We really had to do something to rebuild but how could we do it? Well, we had 62 acres of woodland in Vermont and another 375 in nearby New York. I figured it was time to get a sawmill. I was retired by then and bought a TimberKing 2000 sawmill in 2013 to build, repair, and replace our farm’s buildings.
We definitely wanted full hydraulics
I looked at mills and I liked TimberKing’s design with its 4-post head and full hydraulics. The design’s simple and the mill is easy to use. We aren’t sawing for income so we figured the 2000 would be big enough for our needs. And we definitely wanted its full hydraulics. We have tractors to skid logs and get them on the TimberKing’s hydraulic log loaders. After that, it’s just sawing and lifting the boards off. It’s easy and fun.
The 2000 is rated to handle logs up to 21’ but to redo our farmhouse, I needed 2, 24’ x 14” x 8” beams. The 2000 TimberKing’s hydraulic command post swings out of the way so we could just feed 24’ logs right through the mill and turn them into beautiful, 24’ hemlock beams.
We sawed out all our beams of pine, hemlock, and some oak. We make the timber frame, raised it, closed it in, and we’re now living in it. We used red oak boards from the sawing we did in 1990 as flooring. So our ceilings are cherry, beams are pine and hemlock, and floors are oak. I told my wife the project would take two years — that turned into four and it’s still partially under construction. I’ve got a very patient wife!
LedgEnd Farm – 252 acres, 400 head of deer
Together, Rhonda and I raise a herd of 350 to 400 Fallow deer on our 252 acre farm, LedgEnd Farm. These deer were native to northern Europe and Persia. They’re spotted with large antlers like a moose and they’re very tasty! This is a meat business; we sell venison mostly in Vermont, directly to restaurants, general stores, and the public. All by word of mouth.
Hank’ll never have to buy lumber again
I’m still busy sawing wood for my farm buildings. I’m concentrating on trim to finish the inside of the farmhouse. In the next couple of years, I plan to saw lumber to restore our barns and build a garage. As I said, we raise deer and they’re very hard on structures, fences, pens, and so on. They rub against them and rub their antlers on
them. I constantly have to replace boards. It’s really nice to know I can take trees – even those that are only good for firewood — and turn them into lumber I can use around the farm. And I don’t have to buy wood at the lumberyard!
I recommend TimberKing to others who’re interested in sawing. I’d encourage them to visit sawmill owners to see how they work. And they should decide if they’d saw for business or pleasure, think who their customers would be, and put together a business plan.
I’m very happy with my TimberKing. For us, it is the right size and having full hydraulics is great. If I were sawing for a living, I’d probably go bigger but for what we need this is just right. And sawing’s a lot of fun!”
— Hank Dimuzio and Rhonda Roberts, TimberKing 2000 owners, LedgEnd Farm, Middlebury, Vermont
HAVE QUESTIONS? 3 ways we can help you
• Call us 1-800-942-4406
• Email us [email protected]
• Visit us on Facebook