About

My first memories of working in the woods were back when I was about 10 or so. My family would go for occasional visits to my Uncle John’s farm in Vermont and on one trip, the adults wanted to go to town to do whatever adults do.  To keep me occupied, Uncle John loaned me a hand ax and pointed to a stand of early growth trees in his hay field. He said he would give me 25 cents for every tree I cut, limbed, and stacked as poles. John had a ‘small sarcastic’ streak, and he was very frugal you see. I am sure he thought it would keep me busy, teach me a lesson, keep me out of the way until they got back and likely not cost him more than a quarter, two at most. So they left for town. I looked at the ax, beat and worn as it was, I knew it wouldn’t cut much, so I went to the barn and found an old bow saw and took both and headed for the stand. It was hard work and slow going.  But when they got back and John saw me still working out there his curiosity was peaked and he came across the field. I am pretty sure you could have knocked him over with a feather. There laid a pile of sapling poles, probably about 30 of them. He never expected that. I don’t recall whether I ever got paid, probably did. but the day of hard work and something accomplished really appealed to me. I do recall my Dad smiled broadly that I had ‘put something over on John’ and did what he did not expect. I know the $7.50 or so hurt him well enough to shell out, but he made the bargain, so…

 Ever since that day, I have enjoyed working in the woods. Decades of hiking, some hunting, lots of backpacking miles in many states have led me to love the woods.

 I like the challenge cutting trees without getting hurt, but I do not enjoy the loss of any tree without good reasons. Mostly what I hate is to see trees die, fall over and go to rot in the woods, that is such a waste. 

 So my business is based on saving those trees, that is, to use them before they turn to dust. You cannot imagine the wonders and beauty you see when a long dead log is cut open to reveal what is inside. EVERY time, this is a new adventure. The rest is just fun. Lots of hard heavy work, but fun for me.

I am not a woodworker, but I can hold my own. The things I build may have a flaw or two. A little remnant of a sawmill cut, a slight twist here or there, A ding from a cant hook when the log was skidded up to the mill. Many times I leave those things in. The ‘end user’ needs a reminder sometimes that this was a tree with flaws and I just transpose it into a table or some other thing. I like to make what the tree indicates to me it would like to be. I don’t know how this happens, maybe I am just taking a guess.  The point is, I try to ‘do right’ by the wood.

 I invite you to explore these pages, look at the services I can provide and read a little between the lines if you will. The business is developing and I have an open mind. Use the contact page to send me and email if you have an idea, or question to explore.  Life is about a lot more than making a living. Working hard while having some fun and trying new things is an important part of it too.

Poke around and enjoy the site.