Grandpa: “People say there is no God, bologna, boy, he knows way more than we know.”

Ezekiel 15:3-6
Shall wood be taken to do any work ... it is cast into the fire for fuel … therefor saith God I have given the trees of the forest to the fire for fuel.

God's got it … I didn't know anything, I just obeyed him and everything just fell into place. When I first started cutting that little wood, like Jack-Pine and Popple, I didn't want nothing to do with big chunks of wood. I thought, “What am I going to do with this?” It was great big chunks. I just kept piling them up and piling them up, I didn't know what I was ever going to do with them because nobody was burning them. And that is when I ran into Cracker Barrel. I was down banging on doors…Way down there one day, I was so lost. I had no idea where I was at, and I walk up to this guy’s house and he was working on his car. His head under the hood, he saw me coming. But he says, “Nah, I don't need no firewood.” And I said, “All right sir, have a blessed day.” 

I turned around and took about three steps and he called out, “Hey… I know who is looking for wood though.” I said, “You do?” He said, “My wife works at the Cracker Barrel and they can't find anybody dependable to bring ‘em wood.” And I said, “Where's this place at?” So I went down there and that is how I got the job. I did work for them up until about three years ago. They took a truckload a week. That is what they liked, is all that big stuff. And that is how I got rid of all that.

One time, when I first started, I would see 25 to 50 trucks a day heading North on Saturdays, hauling wood. And I'm going down there selling, but can't move wood. These guys are coming back empty after dark, blowing their horns at me. I've got wood in the back-end, and I'm just getting started, and they were rubbing it in a little bit. Finally I said to God, “how come these guys are all driving their brand new trucks and here I am driving this old junker?” you know, and he goes “those guys are out there working,” he says, “they're working... The business is there and they're working it.” 

You know you gotta work. So that is when I got a storage unit down there. God gave me that tip; the storage unit. Take the wood you don't sell, don't bring it back home, but put it in the storage unit. So then I would go down there on Saturdays and, boom, sell out right away, and then I would go to my storage unit and get more wood. There it was, right there. I wasn't coming home empty handed anymore.

After that I got into pine. … I didn't have a lake home delivery for years. When I first started I didn't have any business in the summer, but I had run out of Birch one time, and I was looking for Birch. I got up into the Pine River area and I met a guy up there and we got to talking and he says, “Oh I sell way more wood in the summer than I do in the winter.” And I says “What?! You have got to be kidding me! You sell more in the summer than you do in the winter?” “Oh Yeah,” he said, and I ask him, “Where? You sell it to people that much ahead of time?” “No,” he says, “For lake cabins. Fire pits.” I said, “You got to be kidding me!” 

So that is what I am doing now, I sell way more in the summer than I do in the winter. And that is how I get rid of my Pine and Popple now. Because the park wants me to remove all of that pine. But I had been avoiding it. Didn't want to touch it. … Now I go in and get as much as I can. 

Only God could do that. He brought everything up North, because I was slowly changing, because the Twin Cities kept getting smaller and smaller from people moving into newer and better houses, and getting places without fireplaces. Updating and Improving their lifestyles. But, God brought everything up here. … God took it and turned everything around.