This Week (Still out) of the woods
Happy Easter! The boys woke up to a few eggs scattered around the house and a giant peanut butter cup Easter bunny. I’m pretty sure they have already eaten it all and it’s 7:31am. It has been a pretty productive couple of weeks both at home and in the garage. We have been building baby furniture and digging out old baby stuff as the newest Kimball son is due to arrive in a couple of weeks. We have a big weekend coming up next weekend, so we are hoping he stays put at least one more week. Well I hope he does, Chrissy might think otherwise. In my spare time I really enjoy working on Harley Davidson motorcycles. I have a 2012 street glide that tends to be apart more than together because I like to tinker on it. The poor thing only has 3000 miles on it because I don’t ride it much, but when I do the “Kimball 500” as my family and friends call it, I thoroughly enjoy it!
Next weekend on the 27th we will be at the Ricker Library in Poland to celebrate Earth Day. People probably wouldn’t associate loggers with Earth Day but it is important to recognize that we are a key part of maintaining forest health and we are excited to be a part of this event. We will be available to answer any questions you have regarding managing your woodlot. If you come visit us, you will score one of these awesome walnut coasters made for us by Chad of Coaster Oven based out of Missouri.
Last week we had a visit from a writer from Northern Logger magazine. He interviewed Chrissy and me at the garage and took some photos of the family. We are so humbled that they chose us to be in their magazine and I can’t wait to see the final result. Most of our equipment doesn’t need much in the way of maintenance this year just the standard oil and filter changes. We have been working on our chipper, though. My father is pretty handy with a welder and built a stabilizer outrigger for it and we fixed the feed chain. Speaking of my father, Hancock Lumber presented a nice plaque recognizing him for delivering 543,418 board feet of pine logs to their sawmill in Casco.
As foolish as it may be, I have owned a tractor trailer truck for 5 years and never had time to go get my license. It was never really necessary because we hire a truck driver, but there is nothing more frustrating to me than not being able to move my own equipment around. Last year I got my permit for my class A and this past week I finally went for the test. I haven’t had to “test” for anything in a very very long time. Every morning my poor family had to listen to me watch videos on pre-trip inspections over and over again. Thankfully, I passed! What a relief. Taking a test isn’t so bad…. it’s the anticipation of the test that is brutal. I am so grateful to have passed the test and not be completely handicapped if my driver is sick or something. I’m not exactly interested in being a truck driver… I have much respect for those who have to drive through traffic with 100,000 lbs!
We are all very happy to see the snow has melted and hopefully we will be back in the woods soon once things dry up a bit more! Have a great week.