Logs to Lumber

Last weekend I went to Sauder Village along with my dad, Ben, and Ben's friend Nick to watch the big old white oak tree that until recently stood at the south west corner of our house be sliced into boards. Before we had the tree cut down back in June I thought that the trunk was hollow or at the very least rotten but to my pleasant surprise it was completely solid. The tree was probably darn near one hundred feet tall when it was standing and the biggest section of log from the lower tree trunk was about thirty feet long tapering from twenty two inches at the base to 16 inches at the top. Far too good to turn into firewood. Through lucky coincidence I was able to talk to a gentleman that helps with the sawmill at Sauder Village. He came to our house, cut the log into ten foot long sections, loaded it onto his trailer and took it to Archbold. They only demonstrate the sawmill at Sauders every once in a while so my log's turn didn't come up until last week. It's quite an operation and really fun to watch, although I'm now sure if OSHA would approve of that huge blade spinning around with no guard to keep stray hands away! The volunteers running the mill were quite skillful and the mill itself is a marvelous contraption. I'm sure glad I was able to see the mill in action and also spend the day with dad & Ben. Last Wednesday the man that picked up the long to begin with brought back the cut lumber. It still needs to dry before I'll be able to use it so for the next year or so it will sit seasoning in my Uncle's barn. Once the wood is good and dry I hope to use the wood to make new kitchen cabinets. That's the plan anyway - we'll see if it works out!

In other news, Rite Aid bought the prescription files from the Pharm Pharmacy across the street a couple of weeks ago and brought their pharmacy staff over to work with us. The net result is that we are now doing just about exactly double the business we were a month ago. Think about that for a minute. DOUBLE the business - and I thought we were fairly busy before! As you may well imagine it's been a challenge and most likely will continue to be a challenge for the foreseeable future... It certainly keeps life interesting!

Cheers - dj