The Forestry Forum

I'm sawing for a neighbor, and it's kind of amusing how the job has gotten bigger after I got set up and started sawing.  It seems that having the mill there is an inspiration to drop some additional trees to be sawn for other projects. I don't mind; the mill is there and we may as well keep going as long as the weather is decent.  Just wondering if it happened to others

 
 Yes, neighbors bring logs over a lot and most customers cant count.  15 logs means 30 logs.  Steve

I ran into an excavator friend a week or so ago. He was clearing a lot and wanted to drop off a few logs so he had some boards around his place for projects. I came home and there was a load of white oak logs in front of the mill. The next day there's 2 loads of pine and one of poplar lined up all along the length of the sawshed. The next morning I hear a trailer coming in and by the time I get down there he's rolling off maple. "Tom, I thought you just needed some project wood!" "Yeah, I've got no idea what I'll do with it, I really was thinking of a chicken coop when this started but it seemed a waste to just firewood it all :D"

Nothing wrong with job security

I have very often left a sawing job on Friday evening thinking that I would finish Monday/Tuesday.  Monday morning there would be more logs than when I first began.  There are other times when I finish a job and start to fold up only to see the customer dragging more logs that were hiding behind the barn.  Most often these are ERC.

   Yes, I expect the job to grow as often as not and not just from my customer but his friends and neighbor. Several times I have had a friend or neighbor tell me "I live just down the street. I'm moving my logs into place as soon as I leave here so please just stop by there when you finish here." I had one customer hand off the off-bearing to his younger brother while he left to cut more trees and dragged them down on his dozer before I finish the stack that was there when we started. 

Kinda like when I hear the words "well while yer here Doc will you......"

One of my best clients does forest management for landowners. I just expect to spend at least double the time he asks for on any given project. He will hire a helper for me and spend the whole time I'm sawing dragging in more logs. 
People can NOT count logs. It's hard me not to laugh when someone tells me " I have 12 or 15 logs. " I want to say take off your shoes so as you can use your fingers and your toes then call me back with how many logs you have. I think one in ten can actually tell me how many logs they have.
 True story..  I stopped by a job that was coming up in a few weeks just because I was in the area. Client and I are standing there looking at the logs all laid out side by side. He says " I think I have 10 logs". Yup. He had 10 but he wasn't about to commit to the number!!
mh

Yes, happened twice this week.

Monday, a 20 ERC job turned into 40+.....He seemed to be growing these trees faster than I could mill them.

Thursday, a 20 SYP job turned into 35+/- (plus 5 ERC and 3 Pecan)...they just appeared!  The SYP were all small 7"-10", 8.5ft  logs and he only wanted 4x4s and 6x6s...no side lumber.  went very fast.

It's all by the hour, so it's good!!!!!

Quote from: ladylake on October 15, 2020, 05:26:08 PM

Yes, neighbors bring logs over a lot and most customers cant count.  15 logs means 30 logs.  Steve

Amazing, they can't read a tape measure either.  those " two and a half to three foot diameter logs" always seem to be more like 18-24 inches! 

I have the opposite problem. I cut big stuff. "Huge" logs seems to be about 24". Huge logs to me start at 48+". 

It can work the other way too. I have had customers that only need a certain number of boards for a project, and have me stop cutting when that much lumber is cut, even though there are more logs ready to saw. Be careful it doesn't become a schedule conflict, (especially with a portable job) if you only budgeted so much time to do a certain number of logs, and then that number grows.

Murphy didn't create the corollaries to his law but people seem to define new ones every time I go to a job.  

Tuesday was a day like that.  12 red oak logs became 12 red oaks, 10 white oaks and 4 BIG poplar logs.  I went to look at the logs (I walked the 3/10 of a mile) there were 12 red oaks neatly stacked and ready to be cut.  Lengths were 8', 12' and 16'.  When I went to set up the mill there were the 6 white oak logs 8' and 10'.  Since it was a job that spilled into Wednesday, when I arrived Wednesday morning the rest of the white oaks were stacked and ready to be milled.  By my mid morning break 4 poplar logs 32' SED showed up!  

The owner was helping me and unbeknownst to me he had three guys cutting trees for saw logs and firewood.  

I was still there on Thursday.

So....  Any finite appearing portable sawmill job may grow from 20 to 1500 percent dependent upon the customer's motivation or inability to count.

     It happens now and then.  If I'm on a job, I tell prospective customers I don't know when I can get to them but I'll put them in the book and will let them know when I'm available.  If that isn't good enough I suggest talking to one of my competitors to see if they're available.
     My current project started off as about a dozen sinker logs.  Then a truckload of cypress was added.  Then another truckload.  I'm working on the third truckload now, and am told there's "some" pine coming after that.  I got no idea how long I'll be on this jobsite. :D

Sometimes I get a customer who is surprised I have to be somewhere else the next day.  :-\

I do not make any commitments beyond the customer that I am sawing for.  The next customer is in the book and I will let him know as quickly as possible when.  Once I get there I belong to him as long as he has logs to saw.  I am about two months behind now and am giving "sometime next year" time frames.

Quote from: Magicman on October 18, 2020, 10:56:16 PM
I do not make any commitments beyond the customer that I am sawing for.  The next customer is in the book and I will let him know as quickly as possible when.  Once I get there I belong to him as long as he has logs to saw.  I am about two months behind now and am giving "sometime next year" time frames.

This is why I bought a mill. I had two large red oak logs to saw, and the guy I'd scheduled to mill them kept cancelling. I realized he had plenty of business and could pick and choose.