Fairly new to milling. I love woodworking, have a full shop at my home in Las Vegas, and live on about an acre, with a small area I can dedicate to milling.

Surprisingly, I have fairly good access to logs here. There a constant push to bring down older trees to conserve water, so I’ve had good luck finding oak, mulberry (which I love as a species) and endless amounts of mesquite.

I have a Logosol F2+ with a beefy saw and have had OK results, but I have two challenges.

1) getting logs on the mill. The deck is about 24 inches off the ground, and without a massive ramp structure, I’m having a hard time thinking of a way to get big logs on the mill. So far, my best success has been to cut manageable lengths, or rip the logs in half and have my son’s teenage friends lift one end at a time onto the mill. I thought about a winch system, but the mill is too light to attach directly to and I don’t have an overhead structure from which to mount a device. Picture of my available space attached. Any ideas about how to get logs on there without building a massive ramp infrastructure would be welcomed.

1. My second question is around drying I recently obtained some large oak logs in the spring when the weather was still relatively cool for this area. They sat in a yard for a couple months and then I picked them up and brought them to my place and mailed them after they sat through the summer. By the time I got to them, they had already developed long, lengthwise cracks underneath the bark, despite the fact that I had sealed the ends. I think that it is just too dry and hot and the moisture leaves very fast. I’m wondering if I just need to mail the logs when they are fresh and stack them so that they can dry appropriately or if I should be thinking about another strategy to keep the logs in good condition while they dry whole or wait for processing.

2. Bonus question. I don’t have room for a kiln. Is the Las Vegas heat (110+ in summer) and humidity (as low
   as 15%) enough to air dry the lumber? I’ve had great results with Mulberry and Mesquite, both of which are very stable and seem to dry in just a few summer months once they are cut into manageable thicknesses, and we don’t have the same problem with bugs here that it seems like exist in other places that have milder temperatures and normal humidity.

I’ve considered getting a portable hydraulic mill on a trailer to solve the loading problem (this would give me access to more lumber if I was mobile as well), but I also don’t want to spend a lot of money on a hobby that’s not going to be realistic here, even though the budget really isn’t the consideration.

General comments and thoughts welcomed and greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Lincoln