Invest in your future, then invest in your world.^TM

We built a house using first thinnings of teak grown near our first plantation. The posts and ceiling beams below are teak; the ceiling itself is laurel (Cordia alliodora), a tropical hardwood that's not as heavy as some, so it's very good for paneling ceilings and walls.

We used a portable swingblade sawmill to ecologically harvest a fallen ojoche tree on one of our farms. The saw goes right to the log, so no damage to the terrain results. Here is the story in pictures.

Prep with chain saw	Rolling the log section	Positioning the section
Rails in position	Moving mill onto rails	Sawmill in postion
Large diameter ojoche	Cutting 2 x 6 beams	Moving the saw
Early cuts	Later cuts	Ojoche beams
Ojoche colors, grain	End of a long afternoon

Below left, the lumber stacked to dry is laurel, and so is the board.

		Left to right, mahogany, yema de huevo*, and laurel drying together make an attractive color combination.
		This big log is Tabebuia guayacan(corteza, of the ipe group), a very strong tropical hardwood often used for decks.
Tropical hardwood cabinet doors in progress

This tropical hardwood is *Chimarrhis parviflora, called yema de huevo (egg yolk) in Costa Rica. That is its natural color.