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A new financial year... ... in November and a new trading name GOULDEN HARDWOODS. The woods and all the gear under the banner of Goulden Management -the old boy’s rather pompous holding company name are jointly owned by his 6 kids. Me, the youngest and best looking does the hard work- unless I can talk someone else like Brian into it. The time has come to trade on my own. Should by some miracle we ever make money, some might actually come my way rather than the other way round. So from November wood sales will be Goulden Hardwoods and I’ll leave the accountant brother to sort out how much of a slice the limited company wants out of sales. Customer wise... ...it shouldn’t make much difference apart from a new name on cheques - start practising. Price wise there won’t be a hike beyond inflation as I still won’t be taking a wage, the game plan being to improve the equipment and the stock.
Gordon Barnes... ... has been over a few times picking up wood and helping with installation of a rather flash new gate to the woods amongst other things. Chris West, our man in the south has been trotting around, knees permitting looking at trees and sources of sawn timber. Chris and other customers have shown how cheap we are- I quoted one chap £63 for some Cherry – he was quoted £428 by a well established and admittedly much slicker looking place than us in Sussex. Brian is in good form, I struggled in early summer when he was ill and wasn’t around. I thought I’d use the time on my own to catch up with a bit of topping on the tractor to keep the grass on the rides down. I usually let the old bugger do it- he’s better at it than me and I feel that he deserves the seat whilst I go round with the strimmer. I was getting on well... ...when having reversed back up one of the hilly bits to do the final cut in that section I made the mistake of taking it out of reverse and not getting into forward gear quick enough. I started going faster and faster down the hill, the brakes on wet grass are crap and as I picked up speed crapping myself was becoming an option. At the bottom of the slope was a barbed wire fence and I had to make a quick decision whether to go through that or try and slow myself on a small tree. I chose the tree – well two actually and it worked, not before completely knackering them and almost turning the tractor over. I managed to chainsaw the trees off the underneath of the tractor and when I eventually admitted to Brian my little error he was quite pleased because the two trees I squashed had got in the way of his left turn many times, so I’ve done him a favour really. When I hit 40 last year... ... I didn’t have an age crisis, spending my days with Brian , Big Mike and the other hard working 60 somethings makes me a young ‘un. However, I realised I was getting old when my wife caught me reading the Stilh catalogue’s safety clothing section in bed instead of my previous favourite, the women’s underwear section of her catalogues that has entertained me for the past 30 years. Now, women’s safety underwear, that might be interesting. Every so often we make a contact that develops into a useful business arrangement. We have had a lot of good timber from a farm at Egbury in the past year and have also started to pick up trees from another estate at Binley. Mark the owner of the latter was previously selling trees to a place in Wales and the cost to him of getting them there gives us a big advantage as we are on the doorstep. Distance is the key to obtaining trees. Experience has shown that the further we have to go to get them the more grief it is. Occasionally it is worth it like last years trip to Romsey for The Elm. We’ve had quite a pile... ... from Binley, the Ash in particular is first rate and we have it in the sort of quantities that makes us generous to our favourite customers ( those with money). We are always on the lookout for new, cheap and interesting stock. There is another 300 acre wood near Whitchurch that I have acquired some Oak from and I hope that this will develop into a regular occurrence. The owner of the big wood, Christopher has a large barn and plans to keep at least half of each load, use some himself and will let us market the rest on commission probably in loads of 10 and 20 cu ft. More details on request, should have something on the website about this after Christmas. We’re always happy... ... to meet individual needs. One chap called Kev wanted saplings about the thickness of scaffolding pole , 20’ long to make a tee pee ( wigwam) out of. We have loads that need thinning so I quoted him a tenner for the 20 he needed. He emailed back thanks but £200 was a bit much. When I told him I meant a tenner total so 50p a tree the deal was on. Next problem was getting them to Norfolk. Ours didn’t want to know- anything over 3 metres is a no no. The willing couriers his end quoted £15 a tree which put a strain on his dodgy ticker. Eventually he found a mate with a lorry, who said he would call by and collect on his way home. We took them to the sawmill as it is near the A303, but to date despite Kev paying they are still sitting there. Goes to show it’s not finding the wood it’s getting it home that costs the cash.
... rearing pheasants in the west country we had the usual helpers doing a bit including Mark from the sawmill building a rather nifty tree house. Mark’s main business is in processing larch, he did me a very handy lap larch shed for my garden and lent me his truck to transport it. Any trunks we acquire that are too big for us – over 22” in diameter get carted to him for planking.
He’s one of those amiable people who will always stop for a chat, the downside is when you are trying to get your job done and he disappears for half an hour for a natter with someone else. On the plus side sawmill prices make building your own shed an attractive idea. You can choose the size you want rather than what garden centres and the like decide you need and they are considerably better quality that the mass produced thin stuff. Mark can be contacted at the sawmill on 01264 365664. I was sorry to hear... ... that Dick the Tree, a friend of the firm and the man who originally clear felled the south woods in 1984 died in the summer followed a couple of weeks later by his wife. Dick, was a knowledgeable gent. Prepared, though happily in the end not required to go up a tree in Cobham back in our early days.. see old newsletter, when nearly 80.We’ll miss his good advice and measuring skills. On a happier note I have been in touch with his son who is not into forestry and we will be putting Dick’s excellent old saws to good use. Old Harold at 82... ... is still around in his French lawnmower on wheels. We don’t get any work out of him but he comes for a walk around the woods occasionally, mostly I suspect to check OAG is really dead and not back on his stool issuing orders. So the winter comes with more shedbuilding, sawing and hopefully clawing in a bit more decent stock. We still like to see people, in fact it gives us the enthusiasm to struggle through rain and cold to the woods. Regards, Paul Goulden.
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