Another financial year...

... is coming to an end. We continue to increase the size of our stocks and the volume of sales. However, expensive repairs to the diesel saw and the Land Rover, coupled with big increases in delivery costs, mean a review of our prices is inevitable. The price of £21 a cubic foot for planks and £1 a kilogram for turning blanks hasn’t gone up since 1999. We are committed to keeping prices as low as possible. Probably the way forward is to charge a premium for rare stock, such as Elm and to offer discounts for plentiful hardwoods, such as Beech and Ash.

On the other hand...

... neither Brian nor I are motivated by cash. We are so disorganized that it could be some time before we get round to heisting the prices, so get buying!

Early summer came and went with rain and more rain, don’t know about flaming June, ferkin’ muddy more like. We spent a lot of time clearing and tidying and not much planking stock.

We like to have regular ...

... clear outs of the wood sheds every few years, whether they need them or not. A day so employed one wet May day revealed several treasures.  Unfortunately, none were wonderful highly saleable bits of Walnut we had forgotten about. One was the tractor key missing for over a year and another was a handy penknife that Brian had borrowed from one of our best customers and ‘forgotten’ to give back and then lost somewhere. Probably the most exciting thing was a dead squirrel - make a handy hat for winter sawing.

I mentioned buying ...

... some rare trees last time. We had a bit of a Nightmare on the street where we bought the Elm! It didn’t help that we were over an hour late getting to the place near Romsey. Bob, the tree surgeon wanted us there at 8.30am to load the two Elm, two Yew and a nice Walnut with his tractor. This meant a 5.45 am start for me from London but we set off from Stoke a bit after 8am more or less on time.

Brian reckons it was dodgy directions. Chris, our website rebuilder cum interesting stock spotter (who had written the directions) pointed out Brian had missed a small, but nonetheless useful, left turn. Anyway we got there… late. Bob, probably furious but hiding it well (he hadn’t got our cash at that stage), quickly and skillfully loaded all the trees onto a big four-wheel trailer we had borrowed from Francis, a farmer from Stoke and a mate of Brian.

Once the used £20 notes had changed hands, Bob chugged off in his tractor hoping, no doubt, never to see us again. After a brief chat with Chris, who been at the site since 8.15 stopping Bob from leaving, we prepared to strap the load for the return journey. At this point we found a flat tyre on the trailer, no spare and no jack. A closer look at the other three tyres showed them to be rather perished and well past their best.

Plan ‘A’ included wandering around swearing, berating Bob clearing off so quick and a general rant about what a bummer the whole situation was. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t change much. Plan ‘B’ was to somehow get the wheel off, go into Winchester and buy a new tyre. I called the AA ( the motoring group- not the nice alcohol chaps) and they thought they might be able to help getting the wheel off in an hour or so.

  Whilst waiting, Brian had the brainwave of instead of trying to lift the trailer up, to dig down in the mud (the trees were in a field ) and thus create room to get it off. It worked! We left the trailer and took the wheel into the only tyre place for miles around (Don’t worry I cancelled the AA). The rather gormless bloke there took one look and said there was no chance getting a tyre like that for at least a week.

We regressed to Plan A for a while and then decided to return to Stoke to see if either The Blacksmith had an old tyre that might do, or if Francis had a spare. After dropping the wheel at the Blacksmith we tracked down Francis who stated the last git to use the trailer had nicked the spare wheel! Back to the Blacksmiths – Len and Rob ( Useful people) who had removed a nail and repaired the puncture. They are usually quite good – Brian helps them a lot on non wood days, but excelled themselves as my brother had sent a cheque that morning for May's bill.

We now had four wheels, but I wasn’t convinced the trailer and in particular the tyres were up to the job of lugging the five trees the 25 miles back to the woods. In the end they nearly did, getting to within a mile from the woods when a bit of check plate aluminum on the trailer bed began rubbing against one of the tyres causing plumes of smoke, but happily no puncture. Whilst hammering that back out of the way the Land Rover showed it’s displeasure at the weight of the load and the amount of four letter words being issued, by bursting a radiator hose. A decision to dive for the woods before the radiator drained, paid off and we managed, eventually to get our booty into the woods, some five hours later than planned.

  The Walnut we rescued has...

... been converted to about 12 cu ft of slabs 3, 4 and I think 5 “. The Elm which despite having been dead and felled for some months before we got to it has been planked and slabbed, but will need a good bit of time to let the moisture out. Great colour and pattern though, I am sure it will fly away when ready, hopefully making the effort of getting it, worthwhile.

Regulars will know...

... I occasionally ( alright, often ) moan about Parcel Force. In fact, although frequently late they have only lost one parcel about two years ago. Another, posted at the end of May arrived at its destination three weeks later apparently looking like it had spent the time in between in a pool of water. I put in a claim for the max £20 and fair play they coughed up a cheque. Our system is that I do all the work and collect the cheques and then post them to my brother who counts them! I may have the wrong end of the deal, but the point of this story is that the compensation cheque arrived at my brothers torn beyond use, in a Post Office envelope with  ‘a sorry we damaged your letter on it ‘. Now will Parcel Force cough a second cheque?

About the one...

... bit of machinery that hasn’t died or at least broken in the four years I have been playing with the woods was the diesel engine that powered the bandsaw. The best thing about it was that even if not used for a week or three it would start with one tug of the handle. Occasionally it would puff out black smoke which would tell us to clear the air filter or change the oil, but apart from that  it needed little maintenance. This is good because as time goes by one gets more like one’s old man in thinking maintenance is a swear word. Sod’s law was that it died a couple of weeks after we  had given the filter the best blow through for some time and put some oil in that is for diesel engines and doesn’t look like black sludge.

  After several weeks without the saw it is now back in action with a bigger engine. This has caused problems as it is now harder to push but we are hoping the extra power will increase it’s life and cut through hard lumps with a bit more enthusiasm than the old one.

Had a call...

... from a tree surgeon called Ollie who sold us some nice Cherry last year, asking if we were interested in a Walnut he was due to fell in Basingstoke. It’s a bit of a trek but we trundled over for a look and it’s certainly a big 'un, about 400 years old around which a council estate has sprung. As I write we are still waiting for Ollie to knock it down, hopefully I will be able to report next time that it is worth the wait

I’ve been losing my grip ...

... on my wadge of cash and buying in more stock. We are well stocked now with huge slabs of spalted Beech and are running out of space to put the Ash we have cut. We are also in the process of acquiring about 30 cu ft of bone dry Ash that has been sitting in a barn for the past four years, more about that in the next news letter.

You will also...

... be hearing more about Gordon ‘digger’ Barnes as he is making noises about delivering a load of trees including that big Cherry. I think he is the man to lead the overdue rebuilding of one of the wood sheds. The promised new website hasn’t appeared yet although we have polished up the old one a bit. The problem was that the new one produced by Chris West was too different for the wife’s taste and trying to incorporate what was good with the old, with the new, proved too difficult. Current plan is to have the new one on a different server, linked to the old perhaps with a leaning towards Turners.

  As autumn...

... heads for winter a dry September and help from my nephew Nick has helped us to clear the backlog of trunks awaiting the saw and most of the years objectives attained – we set ourselves low targets and frequently fail to achieve them!

On the to do list...

... for the winter months, in addition to the wood shed is a refurbishment of Old Harold, the two wheel heavy duty trailer that has brought many tons of timber back to the woods. We have at least two Oaks to fell when the leaves are off and I would also like to replant a few trees, mainly to obtain a new woodland grant. Sadly Nick has had the audacity to get a job that pays money and so it’s back to me and Brian, with a little help from our friends as the Beatle song goes. As Brian is a miserable sod ( only kidding ) with no friends, it’s hard work!

Visitors...

... are still welcome through the winter, although we try and avoid the worst weather. Dragging big lumps of wood in the mud is a mugs game, as is getting very wet. However we are always pleased to see people with money to spend, being happy to suffer a little discomfort for pound notes.  Besides wood workers need a little something to work on a cold winter's night!

Regards,

Paul GOULDEN