How do you really make a living?

[jimbo]

  i am on fixed income , from former inside factory job

[Tome]

I am a retired trucker of 30 years and I just bought my swingblade this year.  It is more of a hobby right now but I plan on cutting my own grade lumber, drying it in a solar kiln and doing anything else I can to add value to the lumber.  I also enjoy making furniture, cedar chests and adirondack chairs are two of my favorites.

[rbarshaw]

I'm retired US Navy Nuclear Submarines which gives me a monthly income. I am also working full time as a MUZAK service manager which pays twice a month. The mill was just built on a whim, but now occupies all my free time and thoughts and hopes and desires and............

[Chet]

Well Ppetersen we probably have met.    I took care of the utility line clearance duties for the Land 'O Lakes district of Wisconsin Electric for over 20 years.

[Frickman]

I manage private timberland and purchase and harvest timber, and run a conventional handset circle mill. I do a little brokering too sometimes. Also I farm 200+ acres on the side, mostly cash hay and sweet corn. Today we made hay, tommorow we'll cut logs.

[Bruce_A]

I'm not sure.  Two years ago I worked a short spell as a carpenter forman on a co-generation plant, till they moved me up to general forman and I got the joy of laying myself off when the job was starting to wind down.  I have been trying to build up a scrap metal business since, but do a lot of buying and selling of odd stuff also.  I keep receiving calls to cut lumber on shares and do some custom logging for past customers.  These I usually turn down for monatary reasons.  In the past I have cut shake bolts, sawed cants for various mills on my mobile dimension, on an old Belsaw and with a 36" Alaskan mill.  I have cut grade stakes, wedges, and blocking, even fence boards with a radial arm saw.  I have a scraggsawmill sitting as well as a small home built circlemill that I built to salvage slabs with.  I am now looking for a second job for my wife so that I can continue with the style of living I am accustomed to.

[Captain]

Captain is short for "Captain Comeback", champion of product quality and "fix it right the first time".  At least that is the view I hold of my job as a Service Engineer for General Motors.  If I had a lot of time and you all had enough interest, I could tell you everything that a Service Engineer does, but I will not bore you with details.  Great Job, Great Company.

Milling was borne out of need for me as with many.  We bought land, I needed to clear it because the wife needed a horse barn that needed to be build from the trees on the property because I needed to say that it was......Anyhow 6 years and two sawmills later, the business is taking on a life of its own.  (Taking my weekends, taking my vacations... )  I always explain to everybody that it is a hobby business that keeps me off the ski slopes and golf courses, and can actually self sustain income.  No regrets, just a lot more to learn.

CAPTAIN

[Bro. Noble]

My wife's a school marm

[FeltzE]

Retired Army ... Helicopter instructor pilot, Aviation Safety Manager, Multi-engine Airplane Pilot (all army stuff).

Rehired as Civil Service, Still doing some flying but mostly flying a desk.

Sawmilling was going to be my retirement job to supplement a fixed income but the rats offered me a position too good to turn down (at least for a while). So now I'm sawing at a reduced scale and staying tooooo busy with every thing going on.

Eric

[oakiemac]

Working full time in the rat race as a process instrument tech at a pharmacuetical plant in southern Michigan. I started the saw mill as a hobby but now do it as a second job.
Right now I'm working with a tree service company. They supply the logs, I supply the mill and labor. We are doing pretty good right now selling the lumber.
I hate punching a clock and having upper management dorks tell me how to do my job so right now I keep dreaming of working full time for myself. But with 2 kids, a dog, 2 ponys and a wife - it looks dim.

[Frickman]

It looks pretty dim, or grim, for you oakie. You put the wife after the dog and ponies. Hope she doesn't read this thread.

[oakiemac]

Good point Frickman. I hope she don't read this either or I'll be sleeping with the ponys!

[etat]

I'm too ornery and stubborn to work for somebody else.  I've been told that lots of times!!!!  Got into roofing by accident.  It's one a them things that most folks don't like to do.  I had just come out of working in a furniture factory for 10 years. Worked for the other man roofing for almost 5 years.  I saw what money could be made and I put myself into training, learning about the best equipment and tools and methods and business practices.  Never wanted to get too big, just find my notch and make a good living.  My favorite new houses are the big tall steep ones that most other folks won't touch. My favorite tear off jobs and reroofs are for retired or elderly people, and trading with them and giving them a fair price on their house. It's worked out really well. One a these days I'm gonna have me a sawmill to play with.

[oldsaw]

I'm a salesman.  Cover Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa.  I don't get very much time to cut, but am just cutting for my own use anyway.  With the amount of time I've spent on the road the past couple of years, I haven't had much time to do anything.

But, the old Jetta will pass 225,000 miles tomorrow.  It would be higher, but my wife drove it for a year and a half...putting a whopping 5 or 6,000 on it over that time, or I would be at 300k.  Since it hasn't broke in that time, it has freed up the cash to buy a used 066 and an Alaskan.  Just nice to get out in the woods, away from people, and back to my outdoor/farming roots.  You can take the boy off the farm, but...My wife is just beginning to figure the rest out after 15 years.

[Gipper]

Retired educator here, the last nine years in the administrative capacity.  Fourteen years were spent in coaching and being in KY, of course the sport had to be basketball.  Have had the sawdust bug for more than 20 years.  Bought an older model, used circular mill about 1980 and have had the fever ever since.  Got a new fully hydraulic band mill in Jan. 2002, a year and half after I retired.  Really have the sawdust bug now!!

Intent was a hobby, with enough sales to meet expenses, and maybe occasionally add a piece of support equipment.  Didn't know so many people would want custom sawing or would be wanting lumber.  Stay busy, more than I really would like to be, but it does keep me from being out spending money on the golf course or on the lake fishing.  Problem here is a lot of people always seem to be looking for a bargin, not realizing that fuel and blades cost me the same as the big time operators.  Actually the big time production mills in this area won't sell small amounts to individuals, and there aren't very many small full time operators in the area.  Also have a woodworking shop so I try to keep a good supply of stock on hand.  Now that the wife is also retired, she does the sawing, I do the "grunt" work, and we get to spend a lot more time together.  And we still speak to each other at the end of the day!!!  

So I guess you could say I'm spending my twilight years doing something I really enjoy and wish I could have done it all my working years.

[ARKANSAWYER]

  I am a Sawyer,
 I saw logs.
 Some times I mess up,
 and saw my dogs.

 I saw the homes,
 of birds and squirrels.
 To build homes,
 for boys and girls.

 I often set on stumps,
 and wonder of the tree.
 Which stood here for,
 years and where it be.

 Boards, cant's and ties,
 all these things I saw.
 But for a living you ask,
 Sawyer I am, that's all.

 I would give up my day job but then I would have to saw at night.  I saw and raise timber frames but saw just about every day.  Shipped lumber from coast to coast. From my front porch can see nothing but trees for as far as I can see.   I do not have to make a living as I live in the Ozarks and we live off the land.  It is a pretty land but poor for sure.  But the good side is all the fiber in the sawdust keeps me regular.
ARKANSAWYER

[JD350Cmark]

Well, I've got a full time day job 3 days a week.  I do a little excavating part time when the fish are not biting and when the crabs and shrimp are not finding their ways into my pots.  So with that being said, that would acount for the 25 hours on my new mill in 4 months.  Been eat'in a lot of seafood lately.

[Bruce_A]

Arkansawyer; I do believe you missed your calling. Very good.

[UrbanLogger]

I'm an all around woody guy!  

Joint and plane and cut joints in wood in the wee hours . . .    

Mill and trailer and stack wood through the day . . .

Glue, scrape, sand and finish wood in the evening . . .

and Love my wife and children any chance between.  

Wood and honest labor pays the bills--a "right livelihood" indeed!    

[woodman]

I am a retired truck driver of 30 years. picked up a used Wood Mizer about 5 years ago to cut some lumber for my self. Well someone told someone I had a saw mill and well I have a new Wood Mizer HD comming at the end of June to keep up. So do not tell anyone you have a mill if you want to retire.