This Week in the Woods

It always makes me chuckle at how much we don’t understand each other’s businesses and what would make them struggle. A frequent question we are asked lately is “how is the logging industry these days?” What people see is the crazy prices for lumber so I just want to make everyone aware… loggers are getting pay cuts for their products. The price we get paid for chips is down, the price of everything is down on our end. So please don’t confuse high lumber prices with loggers making bank! Then there is the weather. We need some cold. Some real Mainer cold, not 20 degrees above zero, but some numbers below zero would be great! We are all fighting mud and getting real frustrated.

Our crew spent most of the week working half days so they could some what preserve our skidder roads and not sink into giant mud pits. They work in the morning while it is the coldest and do the best they can. Operating a business with so many uncontrollable factors, particularly the beast of the unpredictable mother nature can be a real pain in the butt. However, we love having an office in the woods so we keep trying. We passed a crew working for CMP the other day and Randy says to me “I wish I could just have a job.” I laughed and told him he certainly could. It’s always an option. (knowing full well he would be a miserable human if he punched a clock.) He says this while we were driving to have a lunch date, which we like to do when he can’t be in the woods because of weather. I just told him, “Yup, and those guys would love to be heading for a lunch date with their wives.” The grass isn’t greener on the other side. It’s just different.

Randy has been annoyingly frustrated and is kinda no fun to live with this week. (Ha, sorry dear) So for my sake… PLEASE MOTHER NATURE FREEZE UP! I suppose the good thing is that we’ve been able to continue to mulch. I say “we”, it’s not me, I don’t mulch, or log, or fight mud. I just have to live with the grump who does!

I hope you all have a great week!