Lonnie Green has loved the outdoors all his life. Coming from a small island in the San Juan Islands called Waldron, in the Pacific North West of the USA, Lonnie started logging as soon as he was old enough at 18. He loves to be in the woods, and is happy to be covered in sawdust whether in hail, rain or shine.
Lonnie loves just about everything to do with sawmilling, finding nothing more satisfying that starting with a standing tree in the woods, and turning it into beautiful lumber. Hard honest work makes it all worthwhile for him at the end of a back-crunching day, when he sits down to his evening pot of coffee.
“The smell, the texture of different woods, cranking on the business end of a peavey – everything about milling has a certain romance to me. It’s all about wood!” Lonnie explains.
Initially out milling with an Alaskan chainsaw mill, Lonnie soon moved up to running a band mill for a mate of his. “But things just never cut straight,” Lonnie comments.
Finally he was able to purchase his own dream mill to go along with his logging business though – an 8in. 24hp Peterson Winch Production Frame portable sawmill. Lonnie has been running the mill for over two years and is thrilled with his purchase – but it almost didn’t happen.
“Truth be told, I was actually looking at a Lucas mill, having never heard of Peterson’s,” Lonnie says. “Just in the nick of time though, a neighbour asked if I had looked into the Peterson mills. I went to the internet and did just that, and never looked back at any other mill!”
Lonnie typically mills Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedar, as well as Grand Fir and a few hardwoods. Using just the mill, his chainsaw, peaveys and a few trucks – his operation consists mainly of custom milling, taking his WPF from site to site.
“If I had to choose one favorite feature it would definitely be the portability. It was much better than I expected – I still can’t believe how easy she is to break down and move and set up again in no time flat.”
Lonnie also appreciates the time he saves on blade maintenance, compared to when he was running the band mill. “The ease of blade sharpening is a godsend – the saved downtime on that alone makes a lot of extra cash!”
“It’s such a well-designed machine in every aspect. I get nothing but good comments on it at every job site!”
