So, I found this big ol' tree out back.

[mecreature]

You could get board out of those limbs....

No you couldn't. You wouldn't get a single usable board outta a limb from a White Cedar tree. Lots of great kindling though.

Your 6x6's were costly, I don't doubt it but they also had touched probably 4 sets of hands before they got to yours, Each set of hands taking a bit of profit and adding cost to the final product..
Is there alot of 6x6's in that tree, sure, no doubt about it but does the OP have the equipment/time/labor/mil/knowledge to turn those logs into lumber.

It was the kind of statement that I hope no one should really take literally. "I can see your house from here"...

Btw I would not cut that tree either.

 

[mainstation]

You could get board out of those limbs....

No you couldn't. You wouldn't get a single usable board outta a limb from a White Cedar tree. Lots of great kindling though.

Your 6x6's were costly, I don't doubt it but they also had touched probably 4 sets of hands before they got to yours, Each set of hands taking a bit of profit and adding cost to the final product..
Is there alot of 6x6's in that tree, sure, no doubt about it but does the OP have the equipment/time/labor/mil/knowledge to turn those logs into lumber.

.....ONE NICE TREE TO DREAM ABOUT!

You got that right, Agreed.

 

[Kenster]

I went back out there this afternoon and had a hard time finding that tree again! I was beginning to think it was a "Brigadoon" tree and would not be visible for another 100 years. Even with a forest denuded by very high winds and recent temps in the teens and low 20s, it is hard to find. It would be impossible to spot it once everything is leafed out again.

I did spot a hickory top on the forest floor that is nice and solid. The main trunk, a quite large one, is just about choked in vines and will be a real bugger to clear out so I can take the tree down. Plus, it's a good haul through a lot of brush and vines to get to the path. Still... it's hickory and it's very good hickory. I need to get after that.

My Bride told me that I am blessed by too much wood.

 

[Calentarse]

Beautiful cedar. Leave it and watch it like a hawk!

 

[Kenster]

bc, I have no plans whatsoever of doing harm to that tree.

 

[snowleopard]

I know that if my kids'd be trying to climb that about as soon as they laid eyes on it. I bet you could see forever from up there. . .

I've got 3.5 acres as well, but most of mine is poplar. I'm looking forward to cleaning it up a little more each year, but only of the standing dead or doomed ones. Nothing like your abundance. Glad to read that Brigadoon is under good stewardship.

 

[smokinj]

here is a log scale to give you an idea how they measure Softwood logs for milling value.
(broken link removed to http://www.ont-woodlot-assoc.org/sw_ontlogrule.html)

I used to do quite a bit of White Cedar cutting in my 20's and I personally would take it if it was in a block of trees to be harvested. There is probably about 250'-300' bf in that tree. These days Cedar logs in the yard are worth $400./per thousand. So you have after all your labour and trucking about $150.00 worth of marketable tree. But from your pic, the tree appears to be sorta solitary and remote. Also I would be willing to bet that the heart in that big old tree is black and rotting, so you are losing a lot of trunk log and bf' there. Cedar dies/rots from the inside out, thats the bad thing, the good thing is it takes along time. That big old boy looks plenty healthy and as has been stated, it probably still seeding out. So I would leave it.
I saw a tri axle load last fall of big Cedar logs like that in a local Logyard. They had come from Manitoulin Island. The Logyard owner was just going to mulch the whole triaxle load!! Can you imagine that. More money in Mulch per bag for your flower garden than in usable lumber after all the time and labour/equipment were factored in.
Leave it, and enjoy it.

I would est that tree well over 1000bf That tree is way off that chart! Big 3 inch slabs all day long (ok 2 days) 25 foot long. Belly up to that Bar. Wow That would be worth 1000.00 a board.

You need a market for your product. Do the math according to that scale. I might have off on the 300bf, but there is no way that tree has over a 1,000bf in it. Not anyday.
If you can get $1,000. per board for White Cedar I'll eat my Husqvarna hat, we're not talking Birdseye Maple after all.

lol 1000.00 board foot....over 1000bf in that tree have no clue what it brings. Running a chainssaw mill and packing by hand would not be worth anything to me unless I had some I wanted to build and that tree fit the bill. That tree will go 20-25 ft tall and 36 in round probally bigger.

 

[Thistle]

[quote author="smokinjay" date="129865389 Running a chainssaw mill and packing by hand would not be worth anything to me unless I had some I wanted to build and that tree fit the bill. That tree will go 20-25 ft tall and 36 in round probally bigger.[/quote]

I hear ya.No fun packing out long distances unless its something pretty special.