Well here I am cuttin away on some poor little cedar tree. In the area I live these things not only grow like weeds but they also are nto indigionous to the area. When the hardwoods were over logged in the last century, these moved up here from further south and started taking over and choaking out trees.

So cutting these is hardly an environmental problem. In fact it's actually seen as restoration. Still, it is doubtfull these will ever get eradicated since they just grow and spread so fast. Luckily for me, this means lots of free building materials.

In much of the country there are similar materials which can be had for free. Standing dead, large branches needing trimming. A little inginuity goes a long way. The home I am building will use less then a 1/4 of the amount of logs that a traditional log cabin would. A lot less material and waste than a traditional 2x4 and dimensional lumber house would and none of the trash components of "manufactured" (read as trailer) housing.

This small tree will get peeled and then used as a piece of the furniture or the roof structure. I am especially fond of curved pieces like this. The curve here is the result of an ice storm and other materials having fallen on it. I have cut away the dead trash and am now removing the small limbs and getting ready to cut the actual tree to load it up onto my truck.

If you look at the bed of my truck you can see it's wet from a recent rain. This is a perfect time to harvest trees which will get peeled since the tree has just soaked up all sorts of water and is storing much of it between the wood and bark. When peeled on the same day it is cut the water will literaly drip out as the bark is easily removed.

As the tree dries the bark will become increasingly difficult to remove and will evenatually require a draw knife or wire brush on a grinder. Some people use pressure washers as well. None of these meathods will look as good as a fresh hand peel though since the fresh hand peel will leave a beautiful woodgrain visible.