First Place, Northeast Region
Nick Zandstra
Topsham, VT

Building Confidence

Nick Zandstra was attending a trail building class and had a chance meeting with a guy named Rick who ended up being his neighbor. Upon realizing they lived just three miles apart, Rick asked Nick about clearing a hillside of overgrown white pine. Nick was not set up for clearing, but had the sawing knowledge to know much of the timber would likely go for pulpwood so he encouraged Rick to consider sawing a portion of the logs into lumber.

A couple of months later, Nick got a call from his neighbor asking him to help buck the logs to maximize the lumber quality and start sawing. Rick had only vague ideas about what he might want to build, so Nick decided to cut a variety of pieces: 2"x4", 2"x6", 6"x6", and 1" boards. There was about 10,000 board feet of lumber processed through Nick's sawmill just waiting for a project.

The following winter, that project was determined and Nick was asked to build a barn. Having never tackled a large building project for a customer, Nick was hesitant. However, Rick expressed a great deal of faith in Nick's ability and convinced him to take the job.

The result was a 28' x 38' two-story, utility barn containing hemlock, fir, spruce, and pine completely sawn on Nick's Wood-Mizer. Most of the wood came from within 200 yards of the building site. "This was by far the largest project I'd ever taken on and gave me a huge boost in confidence," expressed Nick.