The key components to Jim Birkemeier's forestry and wood flooring operation include not only the way the wood is harvested, but the way in which it is prepared for milling.
The 200 acres of woodland on the farm his parents bought in 1973 include eight miles of trails that provide access to the trees.
An all-terrain vehicle with a specialized trailer pulls the trees from the woods where they are then cut into slabs just over an inch thick.
The slabs are then stacked into one of Birkemeier's three solar-powered kilns.
The kilns resemble barns and are 12 feet wide and 44 feet long with sliding walls and solar collectors on the south-facing roofs.
Each barn has four chambers, and each chamber can dry up to 3,000 square feet of potential flooring. The slabs are stacked on spacers in the chambers with the walls open. The wood is allowed to dry to 12 percent moisture content for about three months.
In the fourth month, the walls of the chamber are closed and the wood is allowed to dry to about 6 to 7 percent moisture content, which provides stability for the wood when it is used in a piece of flooring or furniture. The temperature inside the kiln can reach 65 degrees above the outside temperature.
"These are like $20 and $50 bills," Birkemeier said while pointing to a chamber of stacked boards. "This stuff is really valuable."
The only power used by the kiln is from the two, one-third horsepower motors that help circulate the warm air through the drying chambers.
The only danger, other than a few slivers while stacking the wood, comes from the timber rattlesnakes that like to call the chambers home. Birkemeier has found up to eight snakes in a chamber.
Once the wood is dried, it is stored in a climate-controlled section of what was a hayloft of the farm's former dairy barn. The slabs are then cut into strips before being planed. Sold as flooring, the wood fetches a price several times higher than if it were turned into firewood or sold to a paper company.
"Every farm field, every dairy herd is well-managed, but our timber on private land is mismanaged," Birkemeier said. "It can be done locally and it can be done simply. This is just an incredible opportunity."Wisconsin State Journal
