Ed Clarke wrote:

any suggestions...I have minimum experience with a chainsaw. Im
looking into getting a husky 24" with a alaskan saw mill.

To use the one time. And then to store for 30 or more years while you
grow a few more specimens?

You're out of your mind! The alaskan mill we used had TWO 90cc power
heads on it. You also need special "rip" chain to get anywhere. Find
someone with a woodmizer ( call woodmizer for references ) and pay them
to do the work.

Dig a big pit and buy an antique tree saw. And find a desperately poor
man with 25 kids to feed that has had his brains removed and pay him a
lot of your hard earned to stand in the pit on the other end of the
saw.

Actually you could get hold of a length of blade that has been thrown
out of a saw-mill and use that as a rip saw if you were so inclined.
You'd have to rig up some sort of an offset frame for it and use it as
bow-saw as it is too fexible.

But if you have a saw-mill near by, you might as well arrange for them
to do the job for you.

Remember that cutting it too thin will waste most of the tree when it
has warped in the stack. If you are going to use if for cabinet work,
have it quarter sawn. Paint the end grain.