Jason Beavers From Tree To Table with Beavers Hardwood

Most people think “seasoned firewood” just means a log has been sitting around for a while. We learned the hard way that it’s not that simple. Joe Longo talks with Jason Beavers of Beavers Hardwood LLC about what actually makes firewood burn clean and hot, why bark can trap moisture for years, and how splitting plus real airflow changes everything. If you heat with wood, shop for firewood locally, or just want fewer smoky fires and more heat, this one is packed with practical, easy-to-use guidance.

We also get into the work that happens after a tree comes down. Jason explains how he handles the full journey from tree to product, including property cleanup, custom sawmilling, solar kiln drying, and those hypnotic live edge slabs people love watching online. He shares why every slab cut feels like a reveal, with grain patterns and colors you can’t predict until the saw opens it up, and how that turns “just a tree” into a bar top, tabletop, or keepsake project.

Then we go deep on stumps. Pulling a stump can leave a huge hole and a long landscaping headache, while stump grinding often keeps your yard simpler to restore with less settling and backfill. Jason also talks about building a local, relationship-driven business and why the best projects often start with neighbors swapping stories and trees.

If you enjoy local business stories, woodworking, tree services, firewood tips, and practical homeowner advice, hit subscribe, share this with a friend who burns wood, and leave a quick review so more neighbors can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Beavers Hardwood

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Joe Longo.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast Live. Are you in need of some wood? Hardwood, softwood, firewood, decorative wood. We've got you covered here today. And today, I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Jason Beavers of Beavers Hardwood. Thank you so much for being here today. How are you doing? Great, Joe. Appreciate you having me. Yeah, I'm so happy you can join us today. Could you tell

Services From Trees To Slabs

SPEAKER_02 0:35

us a little bit about Beavers Hardwood?

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Absolutely. Uh, here at Beavers Hardwood, we deal with all local hardwood and softwood at times. Uh property service, uh, need something cleaned up. Uh, we can pretty much get trees down, clean stumps up, stumps up, uh, do a little gravel gravel service and resurfacing here and there with some of my equipment. Um, we specialize in everything from seasoned firewood to campground firewood again. Live edge slabs, I'm big on that. Uh, custom sawmilling. We do have a solar kiln right now for drying wood out and some equipment. I mean, I've got an excavator, small backhoe, and there's always plenty of equipment to buy out there or rent.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

So, pretty much anything along the lines of taking the tree and bringing it down to either burn or or create with

From Military To Wood Business

SPEAKER_02 1:25

it. Um how did you get into this type of work?

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Um, to me, pretty much just always wanting to be outdoors. I'm a big outdoors guy. Anything just to keep me outside and keep me active. I love being hands-on. Uh, it's kind of runs in the family. Uh last name Beavers, we've all done something with wood out there. My father's worked in the woods, my uncles worked in the woods, my grandfather worked in the woods, all my cousins work in the woods. I've just always wanted to do it. Um, uh, ever since I got out of the military and moved back home, I've just been dabbling here and there, making furniture, making things. Then I realized uh I just had to take the leap and I started buying equipment. Once you buy one piece of equipment, I think five other pieces of equipment just kind of follow you home.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Yeah, yes. I'm also a photographer, so I kind of know how that goes. You buy one camera and then you need another lens, and then another, and another, and then the next thing you know, you've got a whole bunch of toys on on your on your hands. I'm curious

What Seasoned Firewood Really Means

SPEAKER_02 2:24

before we record it, you uh said something about seasoned firewood and non-season. I've always wondered what does that what does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

So a lot of people go out and especially in the wintertime, they're looking for seasoned firewood. Um, if you're not buying from somebody that actually dries it correctly and just puts it in one big heap, the air can't get to it and it can't dry the wood out. Wood dries in log form, it'll dry from the end or from the bark side in, but it can't because the bark protects it. Um, it's gonna hold the moisture in the center. It needs to be split down. The smaller you split it, the more it'll dry, the more airflow you have to it, the more it'll dry also down to a certain point. Um, I everything I have here, I have it in uh ventilated log right bags where the air flows through and it dries within a few months. It is ready to burn, it's not gonna get any drier. So when I hear people say, I bought logs off a guy, the logs have been down for two years, they're good and dry. I get logs like that off people when I'm putting them through my firewood processor, they're crushing water out the end of them. They're they're not dry. Well, people see that they can't believe they're like, Oh, this should have been seasoned. It's not seasoned truly until it's air-dried.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

Interesting, interesting.

Stump Grinding Versus Pulling Stumps

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Um I've also fallen down a rabbit hole on the Instagram and TikTok of stump grinders. And I think you said you do you do some of that as well. Yes. I was gonna say, is that something new? Uh, the the the the grinding of the stump as opposed to trying to remove the stump and take the stump out?

SPEAKER_01 4:02

It isn't. Um, usually what happens if you remove a stump, the roots either go down or like in a soft with like a pine, the tree roots spread out across the top of the ground. So if you pull it out with the machine, what you end up with is a giant hole. Um, a lot of people don't want to do that because then you've got to come in and backfill it, and then it sinks, and you got to backfill it again, and you're putting seed on it and hay, you know. If you just grind it down, uh you can rent a grinder right here locally, you know, ace hardware or something, and back in and grind it down into the earth and just put a little dirt over it, you're good to go.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Interesting. And it's always interesting how social media will do that. You watch one video, and the next thing you know, it's like every every stump grinding video shows up, shows up on my cooler and cooler and more expensive by the minute. Right, right, exactly. So,

Finding Customers And Growing Local

SPEAKER_02 4:49

who are your typical target customers and how are you attracting them?

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Uh, I think anyone local. Um I'm kind of learning as I go. I'm still a growing business. Uh, I had stopped the business for a while, and now I'm trying to get back into it. Uh, I would love to do it full time as my my end game here. Um, I've worked uh my whole career with uh in the in the government, whether it be military or when I got out, I work for uh the DOD currently. Uh I'd like to retire there, keep going with it. Local people, uh I love meeting local people. Some for some reason, whenever I talk to someone and try to sell them wood, they end up offering wood back to me in tree form that they would like to get something out of. So if I can support Lebel and they support me, great. That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Uh

Live Edge Slabs And Grain Reveal

SPEAKER_02 5:38

have you ever thought about having a podcast talking about trees and wood and all of these things?

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Yes. Um, actually, there's a guy out there, Shaver Equipment, that I I deal with and get a lot of my equipment through, uh, supplies and that currently. Uh great guy, can answer any question out there. And he has some podcasts. Uh, he does the videos and everything, like the uh I'm not even sure what social media, I'm terrible with it, but the one who's always put posting videos and everything on it. To me, it's it's it's great to know, it's good knowledge. Um, he tests all this equipment out. I'd love to be able to do that. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Yeah, it's it and again, I I find myself getting sucked into the rabbit hole of the stump grinding or just I guess the and I don't even know what it called what it's called. Pardon my my lack of knowledge, but when you just like cut the slabs, you know, like they get a big tree and big saw, and I'll just sit there and watch. And I'm like, I don't even know why I'm watching them cut this tree in slabs, but there's something so so wonderful about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

I make videos of myself cutting slabs, live edge slabs like that. I bought a mill that's wide enough to do 36-inch wide slabs for bar tops and that. And like every one of them, I can't I don't know how to describe it. It's almost like someone going pearl diving and they open every oyster, they don't know what's going to be inside. Every time you cut a slab, every slice you take off of it and slide it off, the grain is different, the color is different, the design is different. And as soon as you go and scrape that dust off, it it's just amazing. I feel like I could put a video off for every single time I do that, but I doubt anyone watch.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

It really is amazing. Um, seeing the beauty that is inside the tree like that, like the artwork of just nature itself. Um, so outside of working in this space, and I have a feeling I know the answer to this, what are you doing for fun?

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Nothing. Uh for me, fun isn't that stuff. What was just a hobby has turned into more and more like work. But like they say, when you're doing something you love, it's it doesn't, it's not work anymore. I just I love being around the equipment, I love designing things or building things, making things. And when someone calls me with uh something they they can't find, you know, I love to be able to provide that to them.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Yeah, I had a feeling that's probably what was where the answer was gonna go. Doing exactly what you're doing, and and that's beautiful again. That that to have that kind of life of like I love this, even when I'm not working, I'm going to be out there doing something with it. So that that that's wonderful. Um,

Furniture That Lasts For Generations

SPEAKER_02 8:18

could you tell all of our listeners one thing that they should remember about Beaver's hardwood?

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Um, I think uh basically when it when it comes down to wood, there isn't much we can't do here with it. Um, I I know people even even this property, I've been on it. My family's been on it for over a hundred years. If we have uh we had some large pine that had to come down, you can take that pine and make it into a memorable memorable piece of furniture or something for your house. That isn't something you just buy at the store, wait till the glue wears out and you throw it away. It's gonna last generations and it's something you can pass down and it'll have a story behind it.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yeah, that's wonderful.

Where To Find Beavers Hardwood

SPEAKER_02 9:00

And how can our listeners learn more about you and your company?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Uh, right now, Facebook is the best way, Beavers Hardwood LLC. Um, just hit me up on there and I can accept you as a friend, I guess, if I'm saying that lingo right. And I'll be continue to post things as I make new things and uh start new projects.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

That's wonderful. Well, Jason, thank you so much for taking the time for sharing some of your knowledge with us and from everybody at the Good Neighbor Podcast. We wish you all of the success moving forward.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

All right, I really appreciate you having me on here.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GMPNEPA.com. That's gmpnpa.com or call 570 908.