Summer 2002 Newsletter

Welcome…

… to the latest newsletter. Sales are up since last time, which is probably just as well as we have been forking out a bit on repairs to The Kiln and enlarging the woodsheds. An average sale is around £50 and a good one is double that. I have just done my smallest sale. I had a request through website for a bit of Oak 2.5 “ x 2.5 “ x 1.25 “. The cost of cutting a bit to size, planing it up and popping it in the envelope far outweighed the value of the wood so I charged the lady who was doing something with earrings a fiver. Postage was 72p first class as opposed to 50 second so I threw caution to the wind and sent it first. Another 999 sales like that and we will be doing well.

The downside with selling more wood is that we have to work harder! More sales brings occasional extra aggravation with bounced cheques and parcels going astray but getting more customers suited to our business means that we can turn away potential customers whose needs we know will be better met elsewhere. I’ll leave you to work that out. Through e mail I can screen requests that we can’t manage without hours on the phone or trotting down to the post box. A good example is from outside the UK where the website is picked up and people are attracted by our amazing low prices (they don’t know about the amazing low service).

Basically…

… the cost of delivery outside the UK is prohibitive. For example sending 10 kg of Holly worth £10 cost £34.99 to send to Norway. I have got round it by people having it sent to a UK address and collecting it on a visit and for Southern Ireland delivering to the North. I have had quite a few enquiries from EIRE

And having discovered it is £1 a kilo to send it there have passed the news on with the result that they go elsewhere as it doubles cost of the wood. In February I had an email from a chap called Steve from Dublin. He really wanted a bit of lime to carve as he was surrounded by Pine trees. I replied that the cost was prohibitive but if he wanted to come to Twickenham that Saturday and watch England hammer Ireland I would give him some. He responded that he was coming to London for a family party so we arranged to meet in Hammersmith where I was working that Saturday. Sure enough he rings from Hammersmith tube station and we exchanged £10 for a lump of lime over coffee in MacDonald’s. No I’ll be wearing a red rose, just look out for the bloke carrying the big lump of wood, marvelous.

I have…

… always thought that the two most useful assets the wood business have are the Land Rover and Brian, not necessarily in that order. They are both getting on a bit and rather battered looking but I am hoping will still give me many years good service. In November the annual figures once again confirmed what we knew that the Land Rover is very thirsty with it’s V8 petrol engine. My brother, the accountant half suspects that we are touring the country on jollies. Truth is that dragging tons of wood around on local journeys uses a lot of petrol. We decided to bite the bullet and get it converted to LPG, the gas substitute which at 37p a litre is a tempting prospect.

The chap who does the conversions a Land Rover enthusiast called Paul sensibly suggested a steam clean to remove all the crap underneath and a thorough examination of overall condition. In his words it wasn’t good news. In fact that was an understatement very blooming expensive to put it mildly. We flirted with the idea of binning it and getting a newer, perhaps diesel one but in the end economics dictated a complete refurbish. No chance of a profit next year now but it should last for a good while. Now if I can only do something about the annoying whine Brian makes when we work too hard………..

If you …

… are sad enough to read all the newsletters you will notice a recurring theme where I praise Brian and moan about Parcel Force. One of the first jobs three years ago was ground work outside the Kiln where Gordon Barnes, mentioned elsewhere dug out in front with his JCB to create a parking area. Brian had the blacksmith’s tractor and took away a few trailer loads of earth to a nearby field. As he expertly reversed the tractor and trailer into a tight gap Gordon remarked “ He’s good at that but don’t tell him , you’ll have to pay him more “. So I try not to let him know how useful he is but sometimes it is unavoidable. The latest example is where Brian spotted a local advert offering next day deliveries through UK for 20 kg for £10.00. Up to now we have been using Parcel Force who charge £10.10 for anything from 15kg up to a maximum of 30 kg.

We happily moved to this firm, as deliveries were much quicker and slightly cheaper. Typically in April they upped the price to £10 for first 10kg instead of 20kg putting price of small parcels more expensive than Parcel Force. They have also brought in some length restrictions, although we can send longer than the 59” P.F allow. The bottom line is that for the 30kg parcels of blanks Parcel Force are cheaper but slower, we will probably use a mixture of the two depending on the delivery requirements. Ideally come and see us, I know it isn’t possible for everyone.

When the old man …

… ran the business I didn’t get involved. This was partly due to other interests but also having been lumbered in 1985 with planting 1200 Oak and Beech trees I was keen to avoid further back ache. It had crossed my mind that one day someone, probably me will have to do something with the business. I took the precaution of asking the old chap one day when he was fairly sober who to seek help/advice from should he not be around. Without hesitation he said Gordon Barnes. Gordon is a heavy plant driver (JCB’s and that) and they first met in 1978 when the old man was building Quarry House and Gordon dug out the drains and other bits.

That began 20 years of Gordon helping out with the old boy’s current projects. Gordon tells me that my dad overpaid him for the first job and proceeded to under pay him for every one that followed – shrewd old sod. I try and follow the family tradition and get Gordon to help for less than the going rate and occasionally succeed. Our latest deal is the bulk purchase of 14 trees Gordon has been picking up here and there over the year. We moved them from his yard to the woods during Christmas week. With these plus a couple of Beech from our woods and a big tree from Brian’s mate Francis we have wood all over the place. All we need now is to plank and slab it.

We slabbed the first of Gordon’s four Beech trees straight away. Oak can lie around in stick for years but Beech will deteriorate if left too long. There was already fungus growing out of the ends indicating some spalting and this proved to be the case with some very interesting turning slabs cut at 4 and 5” thickness. On the same day we slabbed the last of the big load of sycamore we obtained a couple of years ago. We have sold well over a 100 cubic foot of this and everyone who have used it comments on the great colour and how well it turns. We have about another 30 cu ft left but once it is all gone it won’t be easy getting more.

Having been washed out …

… for a good deal of last winter, certainly up until Christmas we were exceptionally lucky with the weather plodding around in unseasonable sunshine and even when it was frosty it was dry. It does make life easier not sliding around in the mud. The rains came eventually followed by Brian’ annual dose of flu and me getting it so progress slowed a bit. Having sold so much wood stocks are a bit depleted and we need to get stuck into the trunks lying around. However I am determined this year to reorganize the wood sheds to keep all the fresh cut together rather than fill in the gaps as we have been inclined to do. This means more space and extending the wood sheds. We had been waiting months for the Blacksmith to get one half done and finally we managed to get it to the woods and in position.

Sensible Sid …

… the big brother has been on about my doing a chainsaw course. This has been put off over and over but I asked my brother in law the farmer to arrange one through his NFU links. Result a two day course in Alton on the last two days in February. He did warn me that my protective helmet for using the brushcutter and my standard steel top cap boots would not be sufficient and offered to take me to the kitting out place to get the right stuff. New helmet, Gloves, trousers, Boots and came to just under £300 the course was £80 a day plus £15 registration. A sum total of not much less than £500, it must be cheaper to lose the odd finger or toe. Actually the course was excellent and I learnt a lot. Mostly that I needed to spend yet more money on bringing the chainsaws up to scratch but also how to cut wood more economically.

By next newsletter we should have an all new website, courtesy of Chris West one of our woodturning customers who also designs websites. I’ll have news of a big Ash purchase and what will be on special offer. Hopefully by then we will have another Walnut tree back at the woods, with a Yew and for the first time since I have been around two good Elm trees. I have had to bid twice what I normally do to secure these from near Romsey so price may be a bit more than usual.

For lovers of Cherry, Gordon tells me he is about to fell a 30’ specimen that he reckons is a cracker, I’ll let you know.

Regards

Paul Goulden.

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