Second Place
Jake Dean
Custom Sawmilling
Rentz, Georgia

Jake Dean is responsible for a quite a few trees that now grow in southeast Georgia. They are products of his reforestry company, which planted trees for private landowners and forestry consultants. The business he ran with his wife and two sons was successful until recent years when the forestry re-stocking hit a downturn.

Jake remembered a Wood- Mizer sawmill demonstration he saw years before at a local forestry show. Jake says: "We purchased an LT40 in 2002 and began to cut wood for customers during the down time in our reforestation business. We wanted to generate some extra income until things picked up in reforesting."

Soon, it was obvious that the Wood-Mizer sawmill was providing the money to make payments on the reforestry equipment and the mill itself. A new business was born.

Jake purchased a Wood-Mizer LT70 in March 2006 as cutting volume increased. "Our sawmill runs an average of seven hours a day actual cutting time, with 8,000 board feet produced daily on average," says Jake.

Jake posts an open invitation for anyone who thinks his production numbers are inflated: "Feel free to come out anytime with a measuring stick and a lawn chair."

His sawmill is set up on the lumber yard of his main customer, Beasley Forest Products near Rentz, Georgia. Five days a week, Jake loads and cuts oversize logs. Then, employees Alberto Cruz and Jose Andrade grab the lumber and move it down the roller table to the edger and loading stacks. "They work as hard as I do," he says.

Jake says the company has been so impressed with his cutting that it bought its own industrial version Wood-Mizer sawmill.

Jake's wife, Lorraine, handles bookkeeping. The sons are off to college and the Air Force.

Overall, Jake admits, "We never imagined our Wood-Mizer sawmill would become our main source of income when we originally purchased it. It has far exceeded our expectations."

And, as a bonus, Jake says every day he is sawmilling feels like Christmas. "Each log is a new present to be unwrapped."