Spring is Coming, But Winter is Still Here
As we sit here on Sunday morning, drinking our coffee, we can’t help but notice that the sun coming through the kitchen window is sitting quite a bit higher these days. It is a welcomed change and we all feel that sense of hope building as we approach Spring. I saw this funny meme the other day about how those random 60 degree and sunny days make you feel like you took a party drug. I may have never had a party drug, but I definitely felt like a million bucks soaking in all that heat and sun! To the logging industry, the warmer days start to create a panic. Obsessive weather checking… and when I say obsessive, I mean it is the only topic of conversation allowed. If you try to talk about something else in my house, it quickly gets turned back to temperatures and the dreaded road postings. The anxiety is fueled by the unknowns and lack of control over when the posters go up, how long they will be up, and how long and drawn out mud season will be.
Me, I try not to let those things get me down… instead, I get excited because Spring means I get to make Randy do all the projects I dreamed up all winter.
We have had a very eventful winter season. We started off the season with our new cut to length system up and running and they have surpassed our expectations 10 fold. Similar to everyone else running a business in this era, we had a bit of a staffing crisis, but I can say with full confidence, we have the absolute best crew working with us all around now. You know when it just clicks? It’s clicking and we are thrilled and grateful! Winter projects were scattered around the area ranging from Stoneham, to Canton, Durham to Poland. Both the whole tree and cut to length crews hosted the University of Maine forest science students during their Winter Camp to show them what on the ground work looks like. It was a fantastic experience with many very curious students, eager to learn. We have had to adjust to gut wrenching fuel increases as well as everything else. It’s quite nauseating, but we all just pivot, and get through it. A couple of breakdowns came just when we didn’t need them…. including the one where the truck broke down two days after we hired a new truck driver. That was great. Luckily, it was my amazing brother who we hired back and he needed a few days off anyways! We have certainly learned some lessons this winter and that will just continue to fuel our growth.
As warmer weather approaches, our crew will be attending multiple professional trainings. Our staff participate in safety trainings and learn best management practices. The mulching machine will be kept busy on projects to manage invasive species, improve views, and clearing out over grown fields. Spring will be busy with maintenance, mulching, and maybe a magical 100 acre job with a million feet of pine logs on sandy ground on a non-posted road. Hey, we can dream, right?