Big Delivery Day

During my training for the apprentice position, I took the six-day practical woodworking course offered here at the shop. I was lucky enough to find myself assigned to the bench adjacent to fellow student, Steve Shreiner.

Steve was an excited student, an ambitious and creative table-maker, and (I can vouch) a really excellent glue-up partner. When he isn't taking the time to learn about making fine furniture with us at the Lohr School of Woodworking, he is the man in charge at Shreiner Tree Care. He introduced his professional arborist career during the class. He had started a tree and lawn care business in his younger days that has grown the past 27+ years into a huge and successful operation.

You can read about their history and services but, it seems as though they can perform pretty much any lawn, tree, or plant health task you could imagine. Better yet, they'll do it with a pleasant attitude and a genuine smile. Beyond that, Steve is just an incredibly generous guy. And, generous doesn't begin to describe what Steve had dropped off at our doorstep this morning. Excitement flooded the shop as a massive trucked pulled up loaded with four enormous walnut logs and two equally as enormous cherry logs.

My mind was blown as Rich eagerly perched atop this incredible truck, maneuvering the giant claw around like it was his third arm. With ease, he hoisted these massive logs up off the bed of the truck and onto the ground. What's more incredible is that he placed them as precisely on ground as you could place a pencil on a table top. It seemed like no time at all before these six logs (that could easily crush my car) were placed in a nice, neat row next to our saw mill. What took one skilled man and a truck to do in 20 minutes would have easily taken us 3 days. Discussion of how we are going to tackle these monstrous, beautiful logs has already ensued.

One of the logs had a piece of a metal hook embedded into it and could be seen from the outside which prompted a fascinating discussion of what kinds of things trees grow around. Apparently bullets are a common find embedded in a tree trunk. Common yard hand tools are often left to sit in the crotch of the tree and are swallowed up over time. And, most interestingly, we were told a story about a headstone that had been completely absorbed by a 6ft diameter cemetery tree. How insane! I am quickly learning that there is never a dull moment in the woodworking/arbor industry.

After a quick, easy, and fun delivery cooped with some awesome "I once found this in a tree" stories, the Shreiner truck drove away and we marveled at the latest addition to our wood collection.

Many, many thanks to Steve and his crew at Shreiner Tree Care. We are proud to call you an alumni of the Lohr School of Woodworking and forever thankful for your contribution to our shop. I can't even imagine what beautiful pieces of furniture are going to come from these logs. It seems to me a day or four at the saw mill are in our very near future. I'll be sure to keep a running record of these logs over time so we can read back and appreciate their lives from start to finish.

Thanks again, Steve! We hope to see you around the shop again soon!