Goodbye 2009 and Hello 2010

The old year drifted out and...

... the new one in with a few changes and most of them good. I've been busy looking at grants to improve stock, found myself a new and improved Brian and given the business a bit of a shake up.

Dave is now Brian but an upgraded model in that he has his own Pick Up, years of experience running his own business and a genuine love of wood and woodworking and a willingness to share it. Already he has made a difference and I hope that you will notice the improvements when you call.

The grant was frankly...

... a bit of a pain in the arse paperwork and sweat wise. There are fringe benefits like a new contact for Timber William Hamer who is also doing a woodland management plan that I have been talking about doing for some years - but that was as far as I had got !

Having spent many hours trying to tick all the boxes on the grant application I've put it on hold - what the Lord (well the local EU money grant people) giveth he is likely to take away if I don't fulfill the many and various conditions so I'm have a re-think.

We've acquired new stock, been right through the woodsheds and have started to regrade and re price the best and worst timber. There will be some bargains to be had but if you want to get hold of the best stuff before it is priced upwards come on down, the price is right.

The website brought in a steady flow of...

... orders for logs most of which I passed on to Erwin unless they were close to Dave and Daniel in the Wallops. A wise man once said ' Give a man some logs he will be warm for a day but set him on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life '!

Dave the tractor...

... thanks me for the orders by moaning that he is running out of wood to sell but provides me regularly with tea. Erwin returned the favour with a heads up about a Yew he had felled not far from Thruxton. I hadn't acquired any all year so I raced over for a look in my touring car, actually it's only a Yaris but I was being clever re: Thruxton circuit.. get it ? Ok forget it, move on.

At the back of an extremely nice house, owned by an extremely nice couple was what can only be described as an extremely nice little wood full of Yew. Well, obviously if I had a better grip of English and didn't use the word my late English teacher old mum detested 'nice' I would probably more accurately describe it as typical.

Those that know Yew...

... will be aware that half of it is rotten and if the other half isn't cracked to bits you're lucky. Well we were about par for the course. Considering the size of the trunk the good stuff wasn't much but the owner kindly let me have a reasonable amount of branch Yew which wasn't cracked. His delightful French wife popped out for a peek.

She's an artist and was unimpressed with wood being used for boring stuff like furniture when it can be sculpted. She further opined that most wood was boring except Yew, Cherry and Walnut. A lady with excellent and expensive taste - I can't afford a wife like that !

Jonathan the husband...

... was not surprised at his wife's desire for the best. I guess that makes him top quality. He showed me a large bowl he had turned whilst at school for his mum- we're talking quite a few years here.

It's perfectly competent bit of turning but what was interesting was that a school was using top quality Walnut for it's kids to practice on. At the school I went to we used the younger kids to practice on with our wood chiesels/knives.

After milling there was less than half of that pictured worth loading which was disappointing but the standing Yew to the left of the picture is heading for the ground and an appointment with my Alaskan mill !

He's a jolly good feller...

... is Gordon the old master so who better to come over and wave his magic with a chainsaw and turn a Beech tree into a bit of stock. In years gone by we have waited until February but we decided to get it down before Christmas to give us time for other projects at the end of winter.

We were joined by John the Magistrate who likes tree felling and Dave the Tractor and Daniel who like Beech firewood ! It was a bit of a schizo day weather wise pouring with rain one minute and then bright sunshine.. bit springlike if it wasn't November - global warming?

Before you could say timber...

... the tree was on the ground and with five working on it was soon snedded and Dave and Daniel's bit loaded on their trailer. Gordon reminded me about the A frame lift he had flogged me in 2007 and we popped that on the back of my tractor to bring the timber trunks to the top.

It worked a treat getting the logs to the saw area where in the past it has been a wait until spring and drier ground. I can't show you the action shot - it was still wet and miserable and I was driving the tractor. Actually I was being coached on smooth driving by Gordy with helpful hints from Tractor Dave:

" Try not to rev the bollocks out of it like you usually do! " - charming.

Before Gordy headed...

...for his armchair I got him to knock over a couple of Ash for the firewood stock and to create space and light for the Apple trees who's arrival was imminent. The rather sexy saw he is using is my newish Huskie. Gordon tweaked with the petrol feed and it was running and cutting superbly in his gnarled but capable hands.

He got hold of the rather fetching hat illustrated below from the local undertaker. It's a good tale but not as heart warming as the old boy who gets brought into the undertaker in his black suit. He always wanted to be buried in a blue suit but that's all he has his daughter lamented to the Death man.

A day later she comes back for the viewing and lo there he is in a smart blue suit. It was a bit of luck said the helpful Coffin man another old chap came in in that suit and he wanted to be buried in black apparently. Well you must have gone to a lot of trouble... not really I just swapped the heads round !

There are a lot of skilled people...

... who come and buy my wares. I'm always pleased to see pictures of end products of my timber. One of the most local customers Paul who works close to Andover Down sawmill won a turning competition. The prize for which was a week to display his work at a rather smart gallery in Weyhill.

I popped in a for a squint...

... the star piece was an amazing motorbike like a childs rocking chair but with the Harley esk bike, instead of one of those annoying four legged things with long noses ridden by stroppy women of indeterminate age who also have long noses that they look down at you with if you dare to pass them on the road at more than 1 mph.

I digress and write too long a sentance without punctuation. The point of this whole rabbling story is that when Paul was pointing out various items when he said " That was made out of your wood" I felt pathetically pleased as if I has some part in transforming it from a dull slab of wood into the work of art it ended up as.

You will recall the New Year...

... began a bit on the chilly side, well it was complete brass monkeys and the snow worse than Feb 2009. Unlike last winter I ducked the worst finding paperwork to do in the warm.

I had an email from a BBC Producer who wanted to film a piece on a small firewood business. I couldn't pretend to do more than my few bags of offcuts so made Erwin a star of BBC Breakfast news. As he didn't get a fee I couldn't claim my agent's cut but hopefully the publicity got him a few more orders.