MEGAN SKIING PAST POPLAR PULPWOOD ON WOOD PRAIRIE FAMILY FARM. Accompanied by energetic Australian Shepherd, Oakley, Megan is decked out in her snow suit.
She cross-country skis across a snow-plowed field road. Beside Megan is a pile of ‘semi-tree-length’ Poplar which Caleb and Justin recently cut down near our power lines to reduce the threat from our increased winds.
The field beneath and beside the pulpwood will be one of the home farm fields where we will be planting our 2023 crop of Organic Seed Potatoes. Our piles of pulpwood are headed to the mill to be chipped and made into Maine paper.
We’ve been waiting our turn for our local independent pulp truck driver to come out and load it onto his truck with his grapple loader. The pay price is up this Winter and true to supply and demand theory, there is more Poplar being cut. So the waiting line has been longer to get it hauled away. Pay price is based on a weighed 5000-pound-cord.
There isn’t much evaporation this time of year with the wood being frozen. Come Spring and Summer evaporation becomes a factor and loggers like their wood picked up fresh to minimize weight loss and a resulting thinner paystub.
Caleb, Megan & Jim
