At the Log Yard

Paid a visit to Allard Lumber’s Pawlet log yard today to visit with Dan Wood, who’s a log buyer there. We talked about log prices, Chinese markets, and the art of log grading. It was fun to watch the men scale a load. Logs were lifted off the truck and both sides were displayed to the graders to be judged for defects. The logs were then measured and graded – a process i’ll tell you all about in the story i’m writing for Volume II. 

I asked Wood how long it takes to get good at this, and he said that if you’re smart, he can teach you 80% of what you need to know in a weekend. As for the other 20%, it takes a lifetime. He’s been in some facet of the log business since 1977 and he still sees some things that surprise him.