Settling Down - My Minnesota Woods

Member Feature...Chris NagelSettling DownPillsbury Forest Hardwoods Finds Stabilityby Ray HigginsAfter years of change, PillsburyForest Hardwoods in Pillager ishitting its stride.Chris Nagel of Pillsbury ForestHardwoods sits in the cab of hiscircular sawmill, a place he’s beenfor four and a half years.That’s a long time for a guywho’s tried a variety of things in avariety of places. Over the pasttwenty years, he’s hand-felledtimber and run a portable sawmill.He’s bought stumpage and logsand sold lumber. He’s livedand/or worked in Pine River,Pequot Lakes, Park Rapids,Menahga, Staples, Jenkins, evenDuluth. But Nagel has finallyfound a home in Pillager, sawingred oak, birch, and basswood, forpallet cants, railroad ties, gradelumber, as well as other customsizedtimbers.“I finally found,” Nagel says, “alocation that I’m comfortablestaying with until I retire.”For Nagel, it’s been worth thewait. And he found the rightbusiness and the right location byheeding the advice his folks gave8 Timber Bulletin May/June 2010

him growing up.“They always told me,” Nagelsays, “to follow my dreams and dowhat I thought was best.”For Nagel it started as ayoungster, first in Pine River, thenin Pequot Lakes, where his familymoved when he was five. His dadwas a stone mason, among otherthings, so working in the woodsdoesn’t run in the family. Yet hestill found a home there.“I’ve loved to work with woodsince I was a little kid.” Nagel says.“I started with a little hatchet and abow saw out in the woods cuttingdown little trees at my Mom andDad’s. There’s no way to explainit, it’s just that I like to work withwood.”As a teenager he cut and soldquite a bit of firewood. He had achance to take a class in forestharvesting at the tech school inDuluth and then received a joboffer back in Pequot to work in asmall sawmill owned by NeilBrownell.“I came over and tried it for aday,” Nagel says,” and to make along story short, I needed money,so I quit the vo-tech and went towork for Neil.”After a couple of years, Brownelldecided to move out of the area, buthe offered to sell Nagel a portablesawmill. He was 20 years old.“It was a pretty fair deal, so Ibought it,” Nagel says,” andbasically took up where he left off,custom sawing for Ron and RayRichards and a little bit for CarlChristensen.”Over the years he also branchedoff and did some log buying andlumber selling between custom sawjobs. He moved the portablesawmill around a lot, too. He eventried logging for a time, owning askidder and hand -felling thetimber, but never on a large scale.But even with all of the moves andchanges, deep down, Nagel had aplan.“I always knew what I wanted todo,” he says. “I knew I was goingto stay with sawmilling or logging,one or the other. I got into thesawmill deal, and it was panningout for me, so that’s what I stuckwith.”It all started to come togetherwhen he moved the portable mill toPillager several years back. WhileNagel operates the Cleereman mill.there he met his future wife, Sara.They got married and had kids,and as they moved the businessaround the region, they realizedPillager was where they wanted tosettle. The final move came sevenyears ago when the Nagels movedfrom Pequot Lakes.Business-wise, he’d had apermanent location in Jenkins,about 25 miles to the north. Finallylate in 2005, he moved everythingto the current site and startedPillsbury Forest Hardwoods fromthe ground up.“I put all of the equipment ineither new or rebuilt,” Nagel says.“It’s a Cleereman factory rebuiltcarriage, so it’s just like new.”The new business was helped bythe fact that Nagel had beencultivating markets since he startedsawing back in 1990.“I have to thank Carl Christensenfor helping me find markets,” hesays, “ and from there it wasbasically putting out a goodquality product. We’ve beendealing with the same customerssince I started selling lumber,which I did on a smaller scale backin about 1995.”Business hasn’t been without itschallenges, especially for a guywho doesn’t come from a family ofsawyers or who took businessclasses. Nagel’s parents owned ahandful of small businesses overthe years, including a smallnewspaper, a bed and breakfast,and a stonemasonry concern, andhe learned a lot from watchingthem. Plus, his years running theportable sawmill allowed him tolearn the ins and outs of thebusiness.“The two years I worked for NeilBrownell, I learned a lot about thesawmill end of things. I learnedabout the equipment and all of thatkind of stuff,” Nagel says. “Ilearned from Ron and Ray Richardsabout selling lumber and buyingtimber and that kind of thing. Ilearned a lot about buying andselling from Carl Christensen. Ibasically learned from watchingother people.”Pillsbury Forest Hardwoodsgets its wood from a severalsources, including two primaryloggers that supply the material aswell as a collection of smallerproducers that will supply a loadhere and there.“Our primary species is red oak,”Nagel says, “followed by birchright now, and then basswood,aspen, a little bit of ash, maple,and white oak and occasionallysome pine. But the bulk of it is redoak. We do buy some standingtimber also. I get a contractor tocut it for me. The bulk of it isprivate. I do it because I enjoy it,especially private sales. I love toTimber Bulletin May/June 20109

A pile of red oak logs wait to be sawed while finished timbers wait to be shipped. Nagelusually doesn’t have to kiln-dry his product so it’s generally shipped within a week ofproduction.work with land owners and wehave a lot of good timber right inour area.”Pallet cants, railroad ties andtimbers make up about 65% of themill’s production, with gradelumber making up the rest. Asmall amount,usually pine, willbe custom kilndriedand then issold retail, but thelion’s share of thegrade lumberNagel produceswill be dried whenit gets to itsdestination. Plus,90% of the sawdustgoes to localfarmers who use itfor bedding, andoccasionally a loadgoes down to theco-gen plant inBenson.“Every log isdifferent,” he says,“and you just neverknow 100% whatyou’re going to getout of a given runof logs. More thananything it’s just10 Timber Bulletin May/June 2010how our species mix and how ourgrade of logs ends up sawing out.The flip side is, when the grademarkets were super low, we’dactually make more off of some ofour custom timbers and ourrailroad ties and that kind of thing,and absolutely, we’d pushto get whatever paid moreout of our logs. So I guessthat percentage of grade vs.cants and ties is kind ofbased on how the marketsare.”Making a go of it hasn’tbeen easy. Nagel had themisfortune of starting themill late in 2005, rightbefore the housing crisiscreated the industrydownturn. So thedifficulties of a start-upventure were compoundedwhen the economy tanked.“It’s been a rocky road,”he says. “When we startedhere we built from theground up, put thebuilding in, bought theequipment, put it all in,and then the housingmarket started to tank.To be honest with you,2009 was the worst yearwe’ve had here and it’sbeen tough, really tough,and it’s taken a lot of hardwork. Nose to the grindstone all ofthe time. Pushing. The mill runs40 hours a week, but as an owner, Iprobably put in 60 hours a week,with maintenance, planning outwhat we’re going to do. It doesn’talways work out the way we plan,but we work at it. Making it theseLarry Huntington drives the Cat IT28F loader, delivering red oak to the deck of the mill.

last four and a half yearshas taken a lot of work anda lot of planning.”But 2010 has startedmuch better markets-wiseand Nagel says thebusiness seems to beturning a corner.“We’re finally seeing thelight at the end of thetunnel here,” he says.“We’re getting some of ourequipment paid down. Thebulk of this equipment willbe paid off within about ayear. To me that’s a bigthing. I’d like to say rightnow I’m cautiouslyoptimistic, because 2010 hasbeen excellent. The pricesof red oak grade lumberhave gone up quite a bit.The demand has gone up alot, but again I want to sayI’m cautiously optimisticbecause I don’t know whatthe future’s going to hold. Ithink things are going to getbetter.”It helps to have good employees.Nagel has three full-timers: LarryMike Ratcliff sorts the sawed material into either pallet cants, railroad ties, or customsizedtimbers for a variety of applications.Huntington, Mike Ratcliff andCodee Pollock are all cross-trainedso they can each do any of the jobsat the mill. Nagel himself saws inthe summertime but has a reliefsawyer in the winter becauseTimber Bulletin May/June 201011

Red oak waits to be sawed. Pillsbury Forest Hardwoods also saws a variety ofother species: white oak, birch, basswood, aspen, and, occasionally, ash, mapleand pine.can get a perfect lay-out, borrowmoney one time and get it set-upand be done with it. It’s everchanging.”But Nagel wouldn’t have it anyother way. Now 40, he’s doingwhat he’s always wanted to do:working with wood, owning hisown business, living where hewants to live with his wife andthree kids.“If I were to mentor a youngerguy,” he says, “I’d tell him tofollow your heart. If it’s somethingyou love to do, do it. But this isn’tan industry that you jump intobecause you think it’s a way tomake money. There are somepeople that have made moneyalong the way at this, but it’stough.“I’m not in it for the money, soit’s great for me. I’m doing what Ienjoy.”there’s too much to do. On top ofthat, Nagel’s family is fullyinvolved in the operation.“My wife Sara does thebookwork, and also works pilingboards on the grading crew,” hesays. “My son Levi and nephewTyler are now doing cleanup at theend of every day. My daughterGrace and niece Kassie help sweepthe office, and my neice Alexis alsoworks part-time on the grading andre-sawing crew.”That’s allowing Nagel to startingthinking about the future. Hepurchased a 1996 Mellott de-barkerthat will be rebuilt over thesummer to handle that dirty, frozenwood that’s hard to saw, which willhelp production throughout thewinter months. He also isconsidering some type of a band resawwith hopes of increasingproduction and improving yieldfrom his logs.“We’ve made someimprovements along the way butit’s never ending,” he says. “Thefirst twenty years I made a lot ofmistakes, but I’ve learned a lot andI hope my next twenty years are alittle bit more refined, that I makesome better choices.“It’s the kind of thing where youkeep tweaking and adding andborrowing money. It just neverends. It’s not something where youCodee Pollock stacks grade lumber.12 Timber Bulletin May/June 2010