re: Early planning

Brian, you don’t say where in Upstate the farm is located, but I guess maybe the central Finger Lakes area. In any event, unless you really want to cut a living tree from the family farm, you could buy your stock from a local sawyer. There are quite a few in that area. Here is one. This would save you all the time and trouble you listed. Also, if there happened to be any hardware embedded in the tree, you will pay for the blade(s). It will also have to be properly stacked and stored while it is drying. That table appears to be from 12/4 stock which will require a long time to dry unless you care to make a small kiln. It can all be done if you want to dedicate your time and effort to the project. HTH

—Art