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Summer 2006
Things have certainly happened… … since last time. Brian and Big Mike have cheated the grim reaper - more later and I’ve had a big push at tidying up the sheds. Essentially it’s still the same slightly disorganised place with the chance of some excellent timber at cheap prices. Our man with the big… … Woodmizer saw, Richard, visited back in the summer. It was a cracking summer’s day and the track to the woods was bone dry. Good job too, as the saw at 24 foot long - about 10 ft longer than I anticipated only just made it into the woods. This was only achieved by a spectacular bit of reversing 100 yards down the track and into the woods where there is a nasty slope. Anyway, true to his advert the saw was ready for action in 5 minutes and it positively purred through our waiting stack of Ash, Beech and Cherry. Our 12 horse power saw cuts up to 18” diameter and about 12’ long. Richard’s 42 hp machine does 36” and up to 20’ in length. Computer controlled each plank came off exactly the same as the one before, something we never achieve.
We also traded tips and business plans and over several beverages in the evening at the pub, put the world to rights. I’ve taken on board one or two of the more interesting ideas but what they are I’m not going to tell you…. you’ll have to hire him yourself. Details of Richard’s services are on the links page .
… people who help us. There’s a few more of them in the cupboard, but there is another almost as useful type of character. These are people with land – trees and a not too greedy attitude to parting with them. Tim, with his Golf Club, Pub and 300 yards of prime River Test fishing could be my best friend. Unfortunately I don’t have time for Golf and Fishing so I don’t lick Tim’s behind very often. In November I measured up the cubic footage of several beech and ash trees for him. He had the idea it was prime veneer timber and worth thousands! I told him to try and sell it as such and to let me know if he couldn’t. My thought being I’d get it off his ‘bowling green’ lawn but didn’t plan on parting with much money. In February he rang to say, “come and get it”. Not sure what he thought; when I told him that I wasn’t going to rush round and hand over several hundred quid as I had enough beech and ash. Result: He hung up on me!
Big Mike, (chief tree clearer) pictured below was one of the dark clouds
mentioned at end of last newsletter.
Mike is pictured at the far end, with Gordon sweating away nearest to me, standing around taking pictures. I love hard work, I could watch it all day!
Women of a certain age … … go for a bit of refurbishment to varying degrees to keep looking good. Gordon looked in the mirror and decided that in his case it was going to be very expensive. On these grounds and because his timber trailer is much more attractive he decided to have that done instead. The resulting back to the metal paint and refit has made this most beautiful of objects even more desirable. For less than the price of a nose job I’m sure you’ll agree it looks great. What’s more it’s a lot more useful than a pair of false breasts.
World War I… … took and ruined many lives. I visited our mate Mark
at Andover Down Sawmill at around 11am on the 11th of the 11th. I kept
the two minute silence and then found Mark who was feeling a very personal
loss relating to the Great War. He had bought several thousand pounds
worth of Belgian Oak and has discovered that buried deep in most of the
trees was shrapnel. Metal leaves dark blue patches in the wood and an
empty bank account. Post script , Brian took a call from a Belgian
bloke last month asking if we wanted to avail ourselves of his Oak.
… is the Post Office. Back in 2002 they upped the cost of parcels half a quid and cut the weight limit from 30kgs to 20kgs rendering the boxes of blanks poor value for money. We’ve concentrated on selling blanks to callers and have sharpened up and waxed and rounded the blanks. I was recommended a courier who do up to 30kgs for £9.99 – two pounds cheaper than by post. We’ve started using them and they are great. Not only do we not have to face the woman in the Post Office but they collect them from us! Guess who the couriers use to collect and deliver- yep Royal Mail. Am I missing something??? Another post script, after 3 months Parcel Farce have forced them to up it to £14.50! Brian left at the end of November… …. But was back by the beginning of December! Rather aggravated by the constant changes in rebuilding plans and too much talk and not enough action. A bit more talk persuaded him back and it was just as well as December was really busy customer stock collecting and building wise. By Christmas Eve we had broken the back of the various projects and a buff envelope dropped through the door informing him that his valve replacement op was scheduled for the first week in January. It pays to advertise… …so I’m told, mostly by young space sellers in wood mags. My problem is that I don’t like paying to advertise. The website and word of mouth brings in enough business and doesn’t cost anything. My old dad who died in 1998 not having the internet relied heavily on adverts in the wood mags , alternating the main old each month. I had an order for a box of blanks addressed to O.A . Goulden ( the old boy) . It turned out that Len the chap ordering had seen the ad in a 1993 issue of Good Woodworking. The price is still exactly the same… yeah , right , it’s much better value now! The trusty old.. … Fergie left us headed no doubt for a better home in Dorset.
… and spring sprung. Brian came back from his op and reorganisation of the sheds continued. April brought steady sales and progress. At the end of the month we unearthed the pile of Beech Brian had spotted by the roadside early summer in 2004. It has dried into the finest timber we have had…. Get down and buy it quick.
… hope you will too and buy some wood. Selling off some Beech and Ash v. cheap to visitors to clear some space. In the next edition I will have the before and after pictures of our woodsheds. This will either show how good the place is now or how bad it was before! Regards,
See our page of interesting things produced
by our customers from our wood. Copyright Goulden Management Limited 2006 |
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