 David Morrison Blaikie
A Nova Scotia
lumberman
1909-1976
19. Selling at home
The export market remained poor. Even when it did eventually pick up, we
never went back to it to any extent. Now we were puzzled about what we
should do. We had done pretty well on the local market during the
summer, but we didn't believe it was dependable during the winter. And
we had never done much dressing in winter. Snow and ice accumulates on
lumber during the winter months, and planing it can be very difficult.
But towards the end of October we had the offer of an order different
from anything we had done in the past. This order came from Joe Symonds,
manager of the Dartmouth Lumber Company.
It was an order for lumber to build twenty houses, and would require
over 250,000 feet of lumber. This made for a good testing ground for us.
If we accepted the order, and filled it successfully, more such orders
would likely come our way. If we turned it down, we were unlikely ever
to get another chance.
For summer delivery this order would have been fine. We would have from
six weeks to two months to deliver the stock, but winter would be upon
us before that time was over. When he found we were ready to discuss it,
he offered to come up to the mill and talked it over with us.
Under consideration
When he arrived, he brought the specifications with him. A little of the
lumber, some of the boards and 2x4, we already had in stock. The real
stickers were the floor joists and the rafters. Twenty-five thousand
feet of 2x6, seventeen feet long, were needed for the rafters. The
joists were 2x10, thirteen and fourteen feet long. Something over
twenty-five thousand of these would be needed. The logs need to make
these were at that moment all growing in the woods - whose woods we
didn't know. If we took this order, we would soon have to find out.
Joe wanted us to accept this order; it wasn't going to be an easy order
for him to get, and he knew that if we did accept it, we would give it a
real try. He agreed to a small increase in our prices, which we felt
would be necessary, in view of the difficulties we expected to
encounter. We accepted.
The first thing necessary was to contact anyone and everyone that might
cut logs for the joists and rafters. These logs were hard to get, and
were by far the most difficult part of the order. We calculated that by
the time we got those, enough smaller logs would be cut along with them
to make the rest of the order.
Scrounging for logs
I don't remember everyone who helped us out of this jam. I do remember
that we went from the head of Burnside to the head of Eastville, and
over into Upper Musquodoboit. Elmer Johnson of Burnside was one who cut
a major portion. Laurence Henry from Musquodoboit was another.
The weather held good, and by the end of November, we were over half
done. Then something horrible was brought to light. A mistake - not
ours, fortunately - had been made in ordering the rafters. It was found
that they had to be eighteen feet long, instead of seventeen, as
originally called for. If eighteens had been ordered, and then it was
discovered that seventeens would do, it would have involved some waste,
but the same pieces could have been used.
But not the other way around, obviously. As far as rafters went, we were
back where we started. Of course, Dartmouth Lumber would take the
seventeens off our hands, but that still wouldn't provide the eighteens.
At this time we ran into some real winter weather, which didn't help us
a bit. It's hard to get icy lumber to feed through a planer. But we got
a new set of heavily corrugated feed rollers, which made a great
improvement.
Meeting the deadline
And we managed to dress most of this lumber almost immediately after it
was sawn, before ice or snow had a chance to accumulate on it. We never
did get quite all the eighteens. Given a little more time, we would have
done so, but by this time the contractors were needing them, and the few
we couldn't supply, Dartmouth Lumber was able to pick up elsewhere.
We did quite well out of this order, and the Dartmouth Lumber Company
was happy that we were able to supply them. As a result, it represented
the beginning of a much larger volume of business than we had ever done
with Dartmouth Lumber during the past years.
By the time this order was finished it was New Year's - Jan. 1, 1958.
Our stock of lumber was low. But our recent success had encouraged us
regarding winter planing, and we continued to fill a few orders, and to
re-stock our yard. And not forgetting our aim of having more gutter to
offer for sale in the spring, we sawed as much as possible of this size
(4x5).
Production expands
The winter soon passed away. In March the roads were closed to trucks.
But we had the millyard full of logs, so there was no shortage of work.
Up to this time, I had done practically all the sawing, with a little
help from Walter Graham, a chap from Pembroke, about four miles from
home. He was a royally good man, around forty years of age. He had never
done much sawing, and always humbly stated
that he didn't know much about it. This was only partly true. But we
couldn't get him for a regular sawyer, because he had a small farm, and
from May through until November, he spent most of his time working on
it.
Already, orders were beginning to come in, and it was evident that our
time- honoured custom of running the sawmill for a period of time, then
shutting it down to use the planing mill, was not going to be good
enough any longer. Our engine, while hardly powerful enough to drive the
sawmill, plus the planer and resaw, still didn't do too badly if a good
pressure of steam was kept on the boiler.
Ray Richard
The roads would be opening soon. Another sawyer was obviously needed, so
that I would be free to operate the planer. We did some looking around,
without any success. I also mentioned to Mr. Giddens, Eva's foster
father, that we were looking for a sawyer.
One day, a little past the middle of April, a tall, well built man came
into the mill. He was a stranger to me, but from the first glance I felt
drawn to him. He had a frank, open countenance, and an air of quiet
confidence that made you feel that here was a very capable man.
He came directly to me, as I was sawing, and told me that he had heard
from Arnold Giddens that we were needing a sawyer. He also told me that
his name was Ray Richard, from Londonderry. Then, at least, I knew a
little about him, for his name as an outstanding sawyer had preceded
him.
April 22, 1958
It seemed to me that here was just what we were looking for. We chatted
together for awhile. He was from the same community as Eva had
originally been, and while their paths had never crossed much, he knew
her foster-parents very well. Before he left, it was settled that he
would come out on the Monday night following, and go to work sawing on
Tuesday, April 22.
I knew that the time had come for me to drop my role as steady sawyer.
Yet on Monday, knowing that Ray was due to come that night, a touch of
nostalgia crept in at the idea of leaving the job of sawing behind. I
had been steady sawyer for twenty-seven years, and had done a lot of
part time sawing before that. But a time comes for everything, and it
had now come for me to move on to other work.
I knew the mill was working well. That evening I came down and filed the
saw, swaging out the teeth and putting it in the best shape possible, as
I didn't want a good sawyer to come and find a poor working saw.
Boarding at Edwin's
Later that evening Ray arrived. Since Edwin had more room in his house
than we had, Ray was to go there to board. At Edwin's home there were
only three people - himself, his wife, Olive, and his son, Keith. In our
home there were six, Eva and I, and our four children, Frances, David,
Karla and Karen.
As had been planned, Ray began the next morning. In a very short time he
was recognized as a good sawyer by everyone, and as a little time went
by, it became clear that he was capable of dealing with any of the
problems that arose in a sawmill. And he was first rate.
Sid Cox was still our canterman. That night one of the fellows asked him
if he was planning to go to a card party on the following Saturday
night. He replied, "If that fellow saws every day this week the way he
did today, I won't be living when Saturday night comes." I don't believe
Ray's pace slowed very much, but Sid kept pace and was able to go to
card party after all.
Used to be faster
Ray was near my age, being born on March 14, 1910. He used to laughingly
remark that we got him at a time when he was already on the downgrade.
If this was true, he must have been 'chain lightning' at one time, as he
was still a good deal faster than the average sawyer.
That night I brought him up to our home to meet Eva. Both being from the
same area, they had many friends in common, which gave them a chance for
a good talk. And later we had a lunch. From the beginning, a warm
friendship sprang up between us. And this friendship was permanent.
Instinctively I knew from the first that Ray was one you could count on,
and who would never let you down.
Already orders were piling up in the planing mill. I went to work there
immediately, running the planer. By this time we had quite a stock of
material to be made into gutter, and I wanted to get at it, so that it
would have a chance to dry. I had plans for it. As we had around 20,000
lineal feet of this stock, it took about four days to manufacture the
gutter. The finished stock was then placed in the open air to dry. We
then went on planing routine orders for Halifax. It was not an
outstandingly good year for the sale of lumber, but we had a few orders
on hand.
Still unsold
At this point, we hadn't sold any of the gutter we had just produced. My
plan - as soon as I had a chance to get away from the planer - was to
load our truck with all we could haul, and run another trip down through
the Annapolis valley, and around the same area as we had done
previously, trusting to luck to sell as we went along.
There was, of course, always the possibility that our gutter hadn't been
well accepted, and I realized that we would look pretty foolish if we
arrived back home with most of the gutter still unsold. However, it was
a chance we would have to take.
So one evening late in May we loaded the truck, and set out early the
next morning, Fred Fulton driving. We planned to arrive at Windsor
around eight a.m., when the lumberyard would be opening. Luck was with
us. We found that both the firms there had been pleased with the
deliveries of the previous autumn, and were now needing a new supply for
the summer. We filled their requirements, and drove on to Wolfville.
Another good trip
It is unnecessary to go into all of the sales connected with this trip.
We sold all our gutter, and could have sold more. But one or two
incidents connected with this and with subsequent trips might be
mentioned.
We planned to call at any place associated with the lumber business, on
the chance of making a sale. A short distance below Digby we came to a
small, decrepit-looking mill, set up in an area of desolate bushland.
More to see what sort of people inhabited this forlorn place than with
any expectation of making sales, we stopped and went in.
It was no better on the inside. All the machinery would have been old 50
years earlier. The business was run by some rench-speaking people, who
were interested in our wooden gutter, as they had never heard of gutter
made from native wood before. After giving it a prolonged looking over,
they gathered together to discuss it, talking among themselves.
Small orders
Their discussion must have lasted a good 10 minutes. When it was over,
they told us they had decided to buy four pieces - around 55 lineal
feet! We found it hard to imagine why anyone would bother with only four
pieces for resale. But what really amused us was that when we made our
call on them next year, they reduced the order to three pieces, telling
us they still had some left in stock!
In the late afternoon we got through at Yarmouth, drove on to Tusket and
stopped there at the H.P. Motel and restaurant for supper. This place
was operated by two elderly maiden ladies, very kindly souls, who were
much interested in the gutters we still had on our truck. After it's use
had been explained to them they decided they should have a few pieces
for their house, which was right across the road from the motel.
So after measuring the house, we left them what they needed. They also
wanted enough to put on their motel, but felt unable to afford it before
next year. We promised to call on them at that time and, to complete the
story, we dropped in on them on a dull, wet morning during the following
May. The motel was deserted, so we called at their home. They had
evidently just gotten up for the day, as they were in dressing gowns,
with hair-do's something less than immaculate, preparing coffee, which
they invited us to share with them.
Credit sale
They were in a despondent mood. A couple of weeks previously they had
opened their motel, but the weather had been persistently bad, and they
had done no business worth mentioning. They still wanted the gutters for
their motel, but with the downspouts, which we also supplied, it would
cost them nearly a hundred dollars, besides the additional expense of
installation. They couldn't afford this. Perhaps later in the summer, if
business picked up, they might consider it.
I didn't know whether we'd be back later in the summer or not, but I
knew the time to sell anything was while you are right there with it,
and not sometime in the distant future. These people looked pretty
honest to me. When I asked them, they felt they might be able to pay for
it in August. So I told them that we would leave it now, and not even
send them a bill until the end of August, and if they were
still in financial difficulties, let us know and we would wait as long a
time as they would need.
This offer was gratefully accepted, and we went on our way. They didn't
disappoint my faith in human nature. When we sent their bill around
September, it was promptly paid.
Service station
A few miles out from Yarmouth there was a little service station where
we frequently stopped for gasoline. It was operated by a French man
whose knowledge of English was not the best, but was understandable. One
evening, some years after our first deliveries in that area began, we
stopped there.
Fred had been in the habit of ragging this man about buying some of our
gutter, and he took this seriously. This evening Fred - winking at me -
said to him: "It doesn't look fair to me. We come down here time after
time and buy gas from you, and you've never bought a stick of gutter
from us yet."
Of course, as we well knew, the poor guy had no use for any gutter. But
after having filled our tank, the poor fellow looked up and mumbled
apologetically: "Well, I could use two, three pieces for that little
building down there." We looked and saw a dilapidated, weather-beaten
shed that looked as if the only reason it was still standing was because
it didn't know which way to fall. It didn't seem
possible that anyone would wish to dignify it by the installation of
gutters. But we gave him the three pieces of gutter he thought might be
needed. I doubt whether he ever did put them on.
Off year in 1958
This was the summer of 1958, and it turned out to be an "off" year for
the lumber business. We simply did not have enough customers to use the
volume of lumber we were producing. Of course the main cause of this was
the lapse of the overseas market for rough lumber, but regardless of the
reason, we needed more customers.
At this point the Dartmouth Lumber Company was the only good sized
building supply concern we were dealing with. Besides their business, we
were also selling to a few contractors in Truro, but most of these were
also hard-pressed for business, and were not using any significant
amount of lumber.
There was a number of lumber yards in the Halifax-Dartmouth area at this
time. Since it was imperative that we increase sales, I went to Halifax
and made some calls. Immediate sales were made to two of these
companies, McCulloch's Limited, and Alpine Building Supplies. These led
to other sales, including Brookfield Bros., Eric Whebby, Whebby
Construction, Alfa Builders and Roy Hemming, while in Waverley we began
selling to Nova Scotia Building Supplies, a concern that gave us a lot
of business in the years ahead. One way and another, we did pick up the
business we needed to do us through the balance of the year.
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