I am considering building my first strip kayak. I have a couple of large birch trees that blew down in my yard this winter. I was waiting for warmer weather to get out with my chain saw to cut them for firewood, but then thought about them as strips for the kayak. I have read in other postings on this bulletin board about people getting satisfactory results with birch plywood, but have seen no comments about solid birch. Anybody know if this is an acceptable wood? What do I need to do to the wood to make it useable? Can I just go cut strips out of my downed trees or do do I have to kiln dry larger cuts then cut finer into strips? This could be a lot more fun than cutting the birch into firewood. Thanks for your help. Roland