This Week in the Woods
What an absolutely gorgeous day yesterday! I hope you got a chance to enjoy that sun, or clean the heck out of your house with the windows open. I did a combo of 50% cleaning and 50% lounging outside while Randy and the boys did tractor work outside. I am sure they hated every second of it. This spring has been incredibly quick. Winter was short and warm and a quick spring… sounds like a dream… but in the logging world it does pose some challenges. Being in an industry that is so dependent on weather is always pushing us to think outside of the box, adjust, and make moves. It is certainly never boring. You know the saying “If you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes.” Our profession has long counted on long cold winters where we work long hours and produce as much as we can before the spring thaw, when production either slows significantly or mostly, stops all together. Our wood buyers also expect this type of pattern and they use up stock piles of product throughout the spring. With a short spring, logging operations will be back up and running soon. That is great news! Except, the mills haven’t burned through winter product yet. We are, however, grateful the pesky orange posters are coming down already and we can get back to work when we are ready.
We were super fortunate to have a job on a non posted road this year and we actually are just getting started on equipment maintenance. Just the usual filter changes and such. It seems we won’t be down for long so luckily we don’t have much to do.
Randy has done his first mulching job of the year and it turned out very nice. It looks like a state park! Ever since we got that thing I’ve been begging him to bring it to our house… apparently that doesn’t pay the bills… It’s like home builders who have 100 undone home projects at their own home. The last thing they want to do when they are at home is the same work they do for work.
Did anyone participate in the FOR/Maine summit on Friday? I listened to just the first 30 minutes before I had another class. I am curious how it went?! I know the first 30 minutes gave me quite a bit of hope for the future of the forest products industry. I don’t know how quickly any of it will come to fruition, but we have 3 boys, at least one of which is dreaming of a career in the woods and if nothing else, I hope it’s a strong industry for them! I think the summit was recorded so maybe I can go back and watch…
Randy has been walking woodlots with landowners and planning our schedule but he is also doing the typical spring ponder and worry cycle. You will frequently catch him in a daze, moving his lips, and talking to himself. We call it a staff meeting! haha (Sorry dear) Maybe someday I could get him to take a vacation during spring break up. A girl can dream :)
Have a great week!