This Week in the Woods
Brrrrrrrr. It was cold last night. The days are getting shorter and that little bit of cold air was enough to light a fire under my back side to stack my firewood. I’ve got 12 cords to stack. In the colder months we exclusively use our outdoor wood boiler to heat our home. It is totally worth it to go outside to fill it twice a day in order to not see an oil truck pull in several times a year…. he comes enough to fill the diesel tank!
One morning when I was doing my typical coffee/social media scroll I came across this perfect description of a “Day in the life as an Entrepreneur” It is an accurate portrayal of my weekly feelings.
Let’s start at the beginning: “I’m excited!” I started the week off doing my favorite thing which is walking a woodlot to look at nice standing timber. The lot is again, close to home. I get very excited to walk woodlots and discuss the options with the landowner at the same time. It gives me an opportunity to get to know them and really envision their goals.
“Agh, this is hard” Investing. To buy or not to buy. I hate making that decision. Is it going to break as soon as I buy it, is it the right machine for the job, can I make money with it? Do I pull the trigger? Wait, I’ll just ask the wife and then I can blame her if it breaks. Ok, I’ve got a plan…. now I feel like “It’s working!!!”
“I messed up” I have to admit, because we are not perfect and I won’t pretend to be… this week we had to go back to a job to pick up some wood we left behind. We had done a job out in Minot for another contractor this past winter and when the forester went to check out the job, he found some hitches left behind. Receiving that phone call was not a proud moment. We always walk our woodlots when we are done to make sure we didn’t miss anything but this time, we missed something. Because the job was at the end of winter and it is a wet lot, we had to wait until now to go get it. I went over with the track skidder and my chainsaw and delimbed it in the woods and dragged it out to the landing in 90 degree humid weather…. that, my friends is not my cup of tea. That day made me really appreciate 1. how my father started this business, 2. my machine, and 3. AIR CONDITIONERS! Hats off to you traditional loggers still working that way. While I am certainly not happy that we left that wood behind, it provided a good learning opportunity for me to be more thorough in my post harvest inspections.
“Give up the good for the great” I’ve got it pretty well made working so closely with my father. He has a garage filled with 40 years of tools and everything we could need to work on our equipment. But, I am bull headed and I want my own. So here I am moving dirt with my little tractor and installing drainage around this garage of mine. This is going to be a long slow process but it’s going to be great when I am done to have my business in my own yard. Dad says he isn’t going to do this forever so I need to be prepared (although I don’t believe him)
“I think I am going bankrupt” Well if that ain’t the truth…. I think all business people feel like this on occasion especially when you’re about to make some big purchases. It just so happens that my father’s new truck came in this month and I am always standing in line to buy his used stuff. So now I gotta buy his older Peterbilt which is 8 years newer and has 400,000 less miles than my old girl. No doubt this is a wise decision for me, but it’s expensive and exciting. Keep your eyes peeled for Nate Meserve driving that sweet baby up route 4.
“I’m good. I don’t know why I get so down on myself” Then there are pine logs. All my worries disappear. I wake up happy, I go to bed happy. That’s all I really have to say about that.
“I was wrong, I suck” My truck driver, Nate and I had to spend a few hours under the chip trailer changing a break air can on Friday. It has been so dry and dusty (not complaining just stating a fact) that dust gets into the air can and makes it leak and fail… on a Friday afternoon of course.
“Wait my life is great!!” Then I finish out my week and head home to spend some time with my wife and kids and all the rest is history. My life really is great!!!
