Got wood?

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It's been a long time since I posted on Travelblogs but we haven't been doing any traveling. We had a rather different adventure today so I thought I'd post it here.

We went with a carpenter friend to look at wood he wanted to purchase. In Costa Rica carpenters don't run to Home Depot or Lowe's to buy wood to make projects. They go out and buy a tree trunk.

Lumber yards are different here. You can actually watch them bring in the trees direct from the forest and pick the tree you want. We watched as a worker unloaded trunks that had been brought in from the Guanacaste area. At the lumber yard we saw cedar, pine, laurel, eucalyptus trucks as well as the guanacaste that were being unloaded.

Our friend gave us lessons on how to pick a good truck over a bad one, how to measure it and finally purchase a prime trunk. The price of wood is less than half when you buy it direct from tree farmers by the trunk instead of in hardware stores. Who knew?

Once you purchase a trunk you can have it sliced according to your needs. For example, two inch widths for doors, 1/2 inch widths for drawers in a hutch or whatever your needs are. Once the wood is cut it's then set out to dry. Drying time depends on the type of wood and thickness of the cut.

It was quite a learning experience for both of us. Bill was very impressed with the maneuvering skills of the tractor driver.

To keep up with our reality in Costa Rica be sure and check out our website www.anewlifeincostarica.com or click here .

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Photos

Different types of available trunks
We saw cedar, pine, eucalyptus, laurel and guanacaste.

Measuring trunks
Edgar explaining to Bill & I how to measure tree trunks for purchase.

Some good... others not so good
Bill and I can now tell which of these guanacaste trunks would be good to purchase and which wouldn't.

Unloading the truck
This guy used a chain around another tree to unload the trailer single handed.

Work in progress
A handmade cedar closet door.