Wood By Post Newsletter

Welcome...

... to the latest newsletter. It was going to be the Autumn one and I had most if it finished by the end of September but I decided to wait a month and call it the Winter one so I wouldn’t have to do another until late spring.

We now have the newsletters on ‘The Net’ so will now have to bear in mind that most readers won’t know about the history of the wood business, which is currently non profit making – but things may change! This means that I will start by repeating who is who and will have to be even more careful about who I whinge about. I am grateful to Alan who has suggested a six monthly diary sheet instead of a newsletter and may well adapt that format in the future.

Briefly this family owned business was run by my father O.A. (Tony) GOULDEN also known as OAG. It was basically a one-man show helped by Harold and for his last year Brian and occasionally another much younger local man Adrian. OAG would sit around whilst the above did all the work and he repaid them by writing about them with large poetic licence in his newsletters until his death in late 1998.

Nowadays Brian runs the show helped by Harold, back from retirement and now in his eightieth year. Adrian has disappeared and I now write the newsletters being a little more charitable mainly because without Brian the business would have folded a couple of years ago. On my weekly visits I try to follow family tradition by standing around and letting Brian do everything. He prefers this as it prevents me breaking anything.

I hate it...

... when customers die, its v upsetting and bad for business. Last year I met a chap called Gerry who had written to my father in Autumn 1998 asking for a large lump of Oak to make a blacksmiths anvil from which he was going to recreate a gun carriage using all traditional material including for example Elm for the brakes.

I wasn’t sure whether he had had a reply to his request and got round to writing to him during 1999. By this time Gerry was spending a month in St Thomas’ hospital having treatment for a blood disorder. He was however full of plans. I wrote to him suggesting he send me all his money and I would sort out some Oak on his escape. He wrote back pointing out that he didn’t want all our wood so we couldn’t have all his money. I liked his style and send a photo of some Oak logs for his bedside. He ordered his Oak and we arranged to meet in the woods in the September to collect it. We met a couple of more times and the project was starting to progress when his treatment began to fail. Whilst realizing that his health was deteriorating he pressed on with his project but sadly died in May before completing it. I don’t know if there is a point to this story other than to say I’m glad we met and wish he had been able to finish his work.

I had another customer called Gerry who was a very long-standing customer. He ordered 4 or 5 boxes a year, often sent a bit extra money and some stamps and was the sort of regular every business needs. Gerry also died this summer and will be much missed. Wanted ... more Gerries.

On a happier note I’ve met plenty of new customers who continue to enjoy good and occasionally ill health and have made all sorts of interesting and useful things. Photos of finished products are always welcome. One of these days I will get a page on the website and display some of them.

The great big Beech tree...

... from the land adjoining my brother in laws farm has been rescued and lovers of Beech should contact Brian as it is glorious having the benefit or being down for some years. I wasn’t at all sure how we were going to extricate it from the Wood, as it was 30 foot long and six foot in circumference. Brian seemed optimistic enough talking of chains and winches and there was always my brother in law Martin and Colin who managed the woods to help. At Colin’s request we went overthere on a Saturday morning in May. I was met at the farm by Colin who relieved me of the cash we agreed for the tree and said: Good luck, he was off and try not to make too much mess. He did helpfully warn us to watch out for the numerous snakes in the woods. (We all tucked our trousers into our socks).

Still there was always Martin who I found drinking coffee in the farm kitchen. He happily showed me his plastered hand that he had apparently broken the day before hitting a cow (his story) and returned to his paper. I know some women who could do with a man or two and help came in the form of Martin’s Manitou. This is a French farm forklift that happily was no problem for Brian to drive as he drove big boys JCB’s for 27 years.

We could really do with one of these machines, as the pulling and lifting power is awesome dragging the whole tree to the edge of the woods and effortlessly dropping the huge lumps of Beech on both trailers. I think the noise of the diesel engine frightened off the snakes. Much to my surprise the job was done by lunchtime and the first trailer load on its way to the woods. There are some interesting timbers in this wood including very big Scots Pines and several hundred year old Oak trees but I will have to do some hard bargaining with Colin who upped the price we wanted to pay and would happily cut up very saleable hardwoods for logs as it is just wood to him.

Brian likes the postal blanks...

... box customers as he can do them when it suits him and he likes putting different packs together. Don’t forget to specify each time what you want as he won’t remember from the time before. I like customers coming to the woods as I can jaw with them whilst Brian does all the work. I have now found the perfect customer in Jon who paid us a visit in early summer. He had indicated in his first E-mail that he wanted 10 or so cu ft of a hardwood for a project but also some blanks.

He made a trip from Pinner for an initial rummage and bought a fair amount of odds and ends and allowed us to persuade him that Sycamore from the other farm would be just the job for his main order. So he ordered it in the stick with a view to me delivering it three weeks later. This really suits us as Brian can plank it with Harold and we don’t run down our planked stocks. Obviously we can only do this with the dry sycamore and Beech logs but is an experience we would like to repeat.

I have avoided delivering up to now as I live in the suburbs of London but as it happened Jon lived only 15 miles from me and I was planning to bring an empty trailer home so that I could get some kitchen units back to Hampshire for Chris Seeber. The whole job went well. I think with orders over 10 cu ft I will consider delivering to a reasonable distance as the postal or transport costs do eat into any profit.

I did take a trailer of wood to the other side of Cardiff. The trip cost me £60 in petrol as the Land Rover is a thirsty beast and six hours of the noise and vibration from the trailer was quite enough so I can’t see me doing a UK tour.

Those that have read...

... all the newsletters will know that whilst I’ll admit to Brian being the brains of the organization I don’t praise him often. This is not because it embarrasses him (it does) but in case we have to pay him more. As mentioned last time he surprised me last month. The Land Rover had been leaking power steering fluid for some time and we realized that it wouldn’t pass the MOT. Brian found out that a replacement reconditioned steering box including labour was over £250 so over a couple of rainy days he took it to bits bought some bearing seals from a local company and reconditioned the thing himself. Not only does it not drip any more but the steering is a lot less wallowy than it used to be. The other thing the clever old sod thought of was to attach the tractor battery which we keep in the Land Rover for security to a jump lead thing that is plumbed in to the back of the Land Rover so that it can be charged up as we go along.

Harold entered his eightieth year...

... by deciding to buy himself a new car as his Reliant Robin having given him a dozen years of good service was on its way out. He found that a new one was £8500 so he has bought this French thing for two thousand less that I’ve never heard of which looks a little like the Fiat Cinquethingy. It is a four door with a wait for it 500cc diesel engine and does 80 miles to the gallon. Harold reckons that it does 60 mph but I reckon that’s down Stoke Hill with the wind behind him. He was allowed two extras in the price so he went for a wing mirror and a radio!! He’s hoping it will last him 20 years.

A recurring theme...

... from this newsletter is me trying to persuade people to visit. Whilst Jon, mentioned earlier was happy to jump the car for an eighty mile journey and get back in time for a late shift at work most of us, myself included often think that a journey of more than a couple of hours is really too far and posting or road transport the only way. I had an e-mail from a chap called Dave around March asking about cherry. I never have a clue where people are from but mailed him back that we had only a little cherry and as it was a bit dodgy quality wise he should see it first. It emerged that he and his mate were just getting into wood working after becoming a bit old and round for pot holing. They live in Warrington about four hours away but were happy to come one weekend stay the night at a local B&B and check the organization out.

We eventually sorted out a Saturday in mid July and Dave his mate Martin and missus Glenda rolled up on the dot of the agreed time. Dave had already explained to Glenda that if they bought some tasty wood she would be spending the return journey on the roof rack. With priorities sorted we all piled into the Land Rover where first stop was the saw mill to get back the first slabs of the Beech from next door to my brother in laws farm. Once that was loaded on to old Harold we set off for the woods stopping occasionally at local pubs only to find that only The Coronation had a room and only one at that. As they couldn’t decide who, would have the beech and who would .... They decided to sort out accommodation later. A hour or so later they had found some sycamore and beech they liked the look of and set off in search of beer and beds arranging to return to The Kiln the next morning to load up for the journey home.

Apparently the hotel they ended up in could have been Fawlty Towers, even the waitress was called Manuela (honest). The experience hasn’t put them off, in fact Dave is now looking at woodlands with a view to buying his own bit England.

As I learn more about wood...

... I have come to realize that our blanks are not what you would call posh ones. I have now seen posh ones which are rounded and have wax around the edges. I dare say we could round them a bit and slap some wax on somehow but this will obviously up the price. What do you think? Are you willing to pay more and more to the point, how much more?

We are coming up to our annual stock take. It seems to me that we sell the old stuff as quickly as we can plank through the year. It will be interesting to see how our stock levels compare to this time last year. There is no doubt that some planks get picked over and either due to cracks or an uneven cut they remain unsold. We do have a clear out from time to time and let them go very cheaply or chuck them in free with bigger orders. If there is support for the idea I might have a pile of seconds at £10 a cube or cheaper if that doesn’t do the trick. As always advice and suggestions listened to and then rejected!

My late father liked to rant...

... in his newsletters about the Post Office and how they charged too much and lost boxes of blanks. My experience is that whilst they take 25% of the cost of a box they usually get there in not too long. We drop them off at a village post office a mile from the Kiln and although Bill the postmaster is unimpressed by us filling his room he realizes that the £500 we spend in postage a year is useful to him. Up until recently there had been no problems but the main office in Andover are getting snotty about us sending parcels up to 4 kg over the maximum allowed weight of 30kg. Over the year we send about one a week. Of course some weeks we send none and some two or three and it is when we send more than one that they weigh them and obviously the set of bathroom scales they use are less generous than ours. I don’t want you thinking that we run our business with just a set of bathroom scales, oh no sir. We have two sets of bathroom scales. Personally I prefer the white ones to the brown ones as they make me just over 15 stone whereas the other ones push me too close to 16 stone. The bottom line is that they have threatened us with fines, blacklisting and death so we are having to err on the side of caution and ensure they are under 30kg. Sorry but blame the baskets at Andover Parcel Force.

I should stop going on about the people I meet...

... After all we meet new customers every month and if I don’t mention you, you might think you are not worthy of a mention -- which of course you’re not, but...

In South Wales is a chap called George Tuppen who I had never spoken to as Brian always dealt with him. I knew he bought a lot of wood but didn’t realize that he had gone in to business selling turning blanks and other bits. Brian who is not renown for commenting on customers 90% of whom he thinks are ok and 10% a pain held him in high regard. When I met him whilst delivering wood in August I could see why. He is most knowledgeable and helpful. He imports Hardwoods from places like Australia and if you are after something a bit different he is the man for you. You can ring him on 01443 228176. If George hasn’t got it he can probably get it or tell you where to go. I know that woodworkers like to have several sources to get their wood from.

Our projects for the next few months...

... are to get on with the Summerhouse, which is going to be a Spring house at the earliest. To cull a couple of big Beech trees from the woods and at least one medium sized Oak. To get back from the sawmill a couple of large Oak trees that I am about to shell out cash for. We also have some major repairs to do to the two drying sheds and a stack of other maintenance. This should keep us busy until the spring.

Paul GOULDEN

Download a copy of the newsletter in Microsoft Word

Back to newsletters page.

See our page of interesting things produced by our customers from our wood.
All suggestions to improve the site welcome.