anyone here have some ideas for me to ship some mesquite logs from Texas to Wisconsin?

turns out my siser has acess to 80 acres of woods and can cut me a few logs. My main challenge is the most cost effective way to get them home. I really don't want to spend a fortune shipping logs I may not be able to use for anything other than in my smoker.

John, before I give you my thoughts and and that's all they are because I have no experience shipping logs, could you tell us how big are these logs are and what you'll use them for. Example, you going to turn them in slabs for lumber or chunks for turning.

Here's a picture of a mesquite table (not mine) I found on the internet. Beautiful

stuff.

My plan is to saw or have them sawn into lumber. I may even do this prior to shipping. as for the size I don't really know, that's part of my dilema. I think it's difficult to gt longer thengths of mequite do to how it grows so I'm thinking 4' or so long and up tpo 10" dia.

end use will be bowls, platters, small turnings, cutting boards, treenware, and such items.

I was thinking (as you just mentioned) to have it swan before you ship. You could find a local sawyer to do the job. I doubt a sawyer would saw up junk wood so at least you'd the wood was good before shipping. Mesquite brings a pretty good price so if you your sister and the sawyer agree you may be able to trade some Mesquite for the cost of sawing. So now, possibly, you have you Mesquite lumber processed at no cost at this point.

Now the tough part is getting to you without breaking the bank. I once had 1200 board ft of lumber delivered to my shop for 300 dollars. How? This is a long shot but I heard one of my neighbor talking about a friend of his who was bring a enclose trailer from Michigan to Anchorage. I got a hold of the guy and made a deal that I'd pay 1/2 his gas bill to bring me the wood. You might check you local new paper wants ads. Up here it's not uncommon to find ads in the paper from people leaving or coming to the state that are willing to haul "stuff'' with them for help with buying gas.

Just the other day Ralph Jones (one of our members who sell lumber) said he'd found a shipped down it that part of the world (Texas or close buy) that was considerable less costly the the others he has been using.

I don't know if this is of any help but that's what I was thinking.

John Hechel said:

My plan is to saw or have them sawn into lumber. I may even do this prior to shipping. as for the size I don't really know, that's part of my dilema. I think it's difficult to gt longer thengths of mequite do to how it grows so I'm thinking 4' or so long and up tpo 10" dia.
end use will be bowls, platters, small turnings, cutting boards, treenware, and such items.

Unless it were something I could go get my self, I would have to think like everyone else, it would be better to have it sawn into lumber and then find a way to ship. Anything that is not of good quality don't have it shipped.

John you might talk to some of the smaller trucking firms around you if they have a dead head coming that way they will most likley cut a good deal some freight is better than none.