It’s been a busy
…old winter. What began as a monsoon autumn when I thought we’d never get any of the winter objectives done, became a hectic spring where we nearly sold out of Oak and sales generally have exceeded stock building .We have been frantically looking for new stock and trying to get as much in to dry through the summer as possible. Not easy when there is only me, part time with a lot of help from my friends.

Brian is now officially retired,
…though thankfully comes and helps just as much for the fun of it. I certainly will be up a certain creek minus the paddle when he does bow out. We held a retirement do for him in the village telephone box. There was plenty of room as it is a double one with next door one for phone cards or something. I think he appreciated the gesture.

We’ve had a wide variety
…of helpers, in addition to Gordon and Mike the tree mentioned elsewhere we’ve had significant help shedwise from two Johns, one Irish and the other not. Izzy the blacksmith’s daughter on a gap year before college and bored enough to come and help the old farts and a number of other willing suckers, I mean helpers keen for a bit of country air. Nephew Nick has been back for a while giving some muscle so we are doing ok.

Back in the summer
… I had an email from a chap called Andre who could only be and was something creative. It transpired he was opening a new restaurant with amongst other delights fish cooked over an Oak BBQ. He wanted Oak off cuts to burn- what a waste, I thought. But, over the years you build up quite a few off cuts that are too good to throw away but don’t sell. We have been delighted to send him these by the pallet. An invite to the opening in December was even more welcome. Bodeans BBQ, Poland Street ( In Soho so you can kill two birds with one stone, or look at two birds and have one meal ) food is great, waiters very friendly and the Oak of course top quality!

I’ve heard Julie Andrews
…in The Sound of Music warbling on about rain drops on roses and other tripe. I have to tell you there is nothing better than doing a bit of sawing in the woods on a frosty winters day. On the good days not only does the sun shine and the saw cut perfectly, Brian seems quite cheerful… trying to create an illusion of rural bliss so skip over the days it pours, a hidden nail takes four teeth off a brand new blade, the tractor won’t start and Brian’s lost the keys again.

As promised last time
…a bit more about Gordon Barnes, my occasional bit on friends of the firm. Gordon is one of the oldest members of this club. Not age wise, he’s just a pup in his fifties, Harold and Dick the Tree have decades on him. Gordon qualifies through helping the old man build Quarry House in the late 1970’s and then through the 1980’s when the aged parent got more and more into the wood business, Gordon would come and bail him out from time to time. Gordon is useful because not only does he have vast knowledge of just about everything and doesn’t charge (much) for advice, but really because he has some great toys. A bigger tractor, trailer and chainsaw than us for starters. His JCB is more useful than an OBE. Plus he has a proper forestry trailer that can take more trees than Brian and I can cut up in a year. I think he wants to sell them to me really cheaply one day, though I could have dreamt that bit.

I can’t get too jealous
…of his toys, as he does share like a good boy. Not only that our Land Rover has a first gear! Anyway Gordon has been helping with the shed rebuilding. As usual nothing is straight forward. The sheds, little more than shacks were built by my dad nearly 20 years ago and even then he couldn’t see much. Being a fully paid up member of the 6” nail club he couldn’t understand why anyone would waste time with a screw. To be fair they have more or less lasted but it makes renovation v. tricky. Another of his cunning plans to have stability was to include a reasonable sized Beech tree as one of the supports. To rebuild involved taking this tree down, which as half the roof was hanging off it was easier said than done

The plan was to
…use winches to get it to fall the right way. Dick the Tree being 80 this year is more or less retired so we have been using Big Mike for the trickier tree jobs. Mike, although in his late sixties is a bit of a man mountain. At 6’ 3” he is a similar height to me but to give you an idea of his build. He told me when younger and not a scrap of fat on him he weighed 20 stone. So we generally do what he says. He wanted a vehicle with a decent winch and whilst Gordon’s doesn’t have 1st gear, a good winch he does have. (I’m going to swipe it when he isn’t looking) With the right tools and people it turned out to be easy. It was felled to within an inch of where we wanted in less than half an hour, without taking a bit of the rest of the roof with it. I even had time to catch it on video.

Our shed rebuilding
…finally got under way. Gordon was pencilled in for a bit of graft as was Mark from the sawmill and anyone else who couldn’t hide from me including John a new customer recruit and Martin my farmer brother-in-law who is endlessly entertained by an incompetent townie like me playing with the woods.

A couple of decent cash sales
…persuaded me to buy new roofing sheets which made life a lot easier. It also meant we could reuse the battered old ones for a bit of patching here and there. I’d originally planned to get stuck into the sheds in January and that slipped to February. Amazing how long it takes getting organised. We’d felled a biggish larch and used that to get some decent sized boards. Brian managed to get some old telegraph poles off a local farmer.

On a lovely sunny day
… in March we cracked the job, led in the end by the other John – The chippie, an Ulsterman who looks scarily like Dennis Taylor the snooker man and had us all running round in fear. Gordon and Brian spent a lot of the day up on the roof. Brian who was recovering from a nasty virus looked completely knackered and apparently felt it, mind you we all did.

With the construction done
… stage two of clearing out the old stock was just as hard work. We took the view that if it hadn’t sold for several years and looked rough out it went. The trouble with keeping a lot of seconds stuff I’ve found is that it will either sit there untouched or customers will come and fill their cars with that and not buy the good stuff- meaning spend a bit of cash. I’ve done a couple of piles- one odd yew shapes and the other branch stuff like Holly and Walnut and given the rest to Mike the Tree in payment for all his hard work.

Stock wise, having sold so much Oak we restocked for sale next spring with a couple of trees from the wood and some from local farms and have had a trailer load of Ash, Maple, Sycamore and beech from Gordon. I also persuaded Sawmill Mark to sell me 25cu ft of London plane he had tucked away for a couple of years. Very favourable reports from initial purchasers- get in quick.

So summer has just begun
… non wood production objectives apart from keeping the grass short is a bit of Hazel coppicing and construction of a tree house for the kids. Timber wise we need to get stuck into the pile that Gordon brought and try and source some more. I have been to see a big pile of Oak Burrs that a local tree surgeon has collected over the years. He wants to sell them as a job lot and wants quite a bit for them. I can understand why as it takes a fair bit of work cutting them out and you lose a bit of timber. I’m in two minds whether to go for them as they can be a lottery but I’m willing to be persuaded.

Next issue I will do a bit on Sawmill Mark who has increasingly helped me with both advice and practical help and should have an update on the quality of The Maple, Walnut and little bit of Elm we have recently bought. Old Harold the trailer is in for a major overhaul so we might have something to report on that too.

Come and see us, the cost of delivery far outweighs petrol costs and you get to choose your wood and get a bit thrown in as we don’t have to lug it to the Post Office. Currently the Bluebells are out but there’s always something to see it the woods.

We look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones- especially very very rich ones. Strike that, they are only rich because they don’t spend it.

Regards,

Paul GOULDEN

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