Remembering Arty – where do I begin?
What do you say about someone who has been a family friend
for three generations of Wightmans, a loyal and trusted employee for over three
decades and one of those “salt of the earth” men who are defined by three
simple words – a good man.
It seems that I knew Arty all my life, from my childhood,
through school, college, and adult years until he left us all to be in a better
place. I knew him when we pitched hay
bales on the farm, when he came to our high school football games, when we all
went out and got drunk the night before I got married, when my wife and I moved
from our house in Oneonta to a new home, during our early years at Wightman
Lumber when times were really tough, when my children were going to college,
and on to his retirement years.
We covered a lot of time together and through all that time
I always could count on Arty to be there to hold up his end of whatever we were
doing. I could rely on him to be honest
and forthright which is something of a rarity in any day and age. He wasn’t afraid to speak up and say what was
on his mind. While we didn’t always see
eye to eye I always listened to what he said because he thought about what he was
going to say before he said it, just like what a man is supposed to do.
One of the attributes of Arty that I remember the most was
his ability to face any situation he met in life straight on. He approached his obligations to his family,
his responsibilities at work, his patriotic duties as a citizen, and the final
test of his own mortality, like a man.
He knew what was expected of him from his own code of honor and there
was no backing down from his guiding principles. On my last visit to him in the hospital a few
days before he died, he knew what was most likely going to be his destiny and
we talked about it at length. There was
no fear, no weakness of character, no emotional distress in him but rather a
certainty that he was going to face this episode of life head on just like all
the previous ones he had experienced – just like a good man should. - Dan Wightman
A modified version of a stanza from the English writer and
statesman Thomas Babington Macaulay’s (1800 – 1859) epic poem “Horatius at the
Bridge”:
Then
out spake brave Horatius,
The
Captain of the Gate:
To
every man upon this earth
Death
cometh soon or late.
And
how can a man better die
Living
a long life of good acts
With
his head held high
And
his principles intact.
Western Red Cedar is popular most of all for its appearance. Its fine, straight grain, outstanding strength/weight ratio and low rate of expansion and contraction make it a much sought-after species. It is highly resistant to warping and checking. Red cedar contains natural oils that make it resistant to moisture, insects and decay. It is light, easy to work with and easily accepts a range of finishes.
Western Red Cedar – The perfect building material for Gazebos and Pergolas.
Western Red Cedar
The perfect choice for your outdoor project
Wightman now stocks western red cedar. Highly revered for its fine, straight grain, red cedar contains oils that make it naturally resistant to moisture, insects, and decay. When finished and maintained appropriately, western red cedar will provide decades of performance.
Environmentally friendly and easy to work with, western red cedar is the perfect choice for your decking:
- Superior resistance to warping, twisting and cracking
- Muffles sound transmission
- Can be painted, stained, varnished, oiled or waxed
- Easy to transform, cut, saw and nail
- 100% natural and risk free to the health
Come and visit Wightman today -- see how our family-run business earned its reputation as one of the region’s top resources for lumber. Just minutes from Cooperstown, NY, we stock wood siding, outdoor decking, hardwood flooring, beadboard millwork, cabinet lumber, 4/4 lumber, and much more.
Wightman offers expertise and quality that will add beauty — and value — to your home renovation, commercial remodel, new home construction, or historic building restoration.
Wightman Lumber and Building Supplies, Inc. sponsored the 2nd annual Stihl Timbersports competitions last weekend at Damaschke Field in Oneonta, NY.
On Saturday the Professional Northeast Qualifier events were held and on Sunday the Men’s and Women’s Lumberjack Competitions.
Disciplines included: hot saw, single buck, springboard chop, standing block shop, stock saw and underhand chop.
Marty Corsi and David Wightman
Tom Foster shares another photo this week from the forest of a red eft. Tom has found the red eft to be abundant this year.
The bright orange coloring tells us that this little guy is in the juvenile stage of his life cycle. During this stage he is land-dwelling. After about 3 years of a terrestrial lifestyle the red eft will enter into the third stage of the life cycle. During this adult stage he will become a newt. At this stage he will turn green and return to the aquatic lifestyle he was born into.
 Our Forester, Tom Foster snapped this shot of a young
porcupine while visiting a wood lot. I
read up a little about porcupines and found out they are among the creatures
that bear young shortly after Memorial Day. This leaves me believing this little
fellow made it through his first New
York winter.
You just can’t help but laugh,
Steve Decker not only knows how to fix and build almost
anything but he also knows how to have fun and make us laugh. Steve works in
our maintenance department and brings 12 years of experience to Wightman Lumber
and Building Supplies, Inc. Add this to the previously introduced employees and
we are now up to 543 years of experience.
This is spring in Porltandville.
We are enjoying spring in Porltandville, New York. I’ve been told that in the northern hemisphere the official spring season is from March 1st to May 31st. In Portlandville the first 6 days of spring have provided no flowers only snow, sleet, ice and subzero temperatures. Possibly the ground hog was right, if so spring will arrive in just 10 days. It’s a great time to start planning warm weather projects like decks and gazebos.
Warm up your home with pre-finished hardwood flooring, now available for order at Wightman Specialty Woods.
 Don Elliott – Scaling logs
Although the cold and snow bring many hardships, it does
allow loggers to harvest. Photos show Don Elliott scaling a load of logs in the
yard this morning. Don brings 34 years of experience to our team and immense
amount of knowledge about logs. Recently he transferred from working in the mill
to working in the yard full time. He stays busy keep the yard organized,
scaling logs, slashing tree length logs and metal detecting of logs found to
have hardware. Previously we have
introduced you to 497 years of experience that our work force brings to the
table. Adding Don’s 34 years brings us up to 531 years and we still have
more experienced members of workforce to add to our total.
As cold weather settles upon us we are busy producing
lumber. 5/4 Red Oak sits outside in the yard awaiting kiln space. Production levels are good and our kilns are full.
Place some QUALITY, EXPERIENCE and INSPIRATION under your Christmas tree this year with a gift certificate from Wightman Specialty Woods. No need to fight for a parking spot, running form store to store searching for gift that does not disappoint. Visit our retail location just minutes from Oneonta and Cooperstown.
We wish everyone an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday.
Retail will be closed Thursday. Retail will be open on Friday, 11/28/14 from 8 am to 4:30 pm and Saturday, 11/29/14 from 8 am to 12 pm.
Thanks to everyone who came out to our open house.
Please note that our 21st Annual Fall Family Festival will take place on
Saturday 11th October (NOT Sunday 5th October as advertised on our billboard last week. Sorry!!). We'll
have live music, kids crafts and games, refreshments, a mill tour, and
tons of prizes! Hope to see you then!
Our new web page is now available. Please check out our
fresh new look.
The weather is cooling off and it’s a great time to think about cozying up your home with beautiful hard wood flooring. Wightman Specialty Woods offers unfinished hardwood flooring manufactured at our mill and also available for order a full line of prefinished and engineered flooring.
As we wave goodbye to the summer of 2014 we remain busy with
mill improvement projects.
Our bolster production area was upgraded earlier
this summer.
A ddition has been added to the green chain area.
Improvements to the staging area for the debarker.
Pouring concrete today in our log yard.
We still have other ongoing projects.
Stay tuned in to see what else we are busy doing.
 Renewable energy
Congressman Chris Gibson visited our mill today along with
Jessica Frohman Lubetsky, officer, clean energy for The PEW Charitable Trusts. Today’s
visit was focused around how Wightman Lumber uses sawdust, a byproduct of our
manufacturing process, to produce heat. Saw dust is feed into our boilers to
generate heat for the kilns that dry lumber and to produce heat for the
facility during the cold winter months.
 Utilizing this technology allows the company to turns waste material into energy and provides substantial cost savings. 
We now have available for order a full line of prefinished and engineered flooring.
Stop by and check out the new options we now offer at Wightman Specialty Woods, Portlandville, NY
It’s time again for the NYS Woodsmen’s Field Days in Boonville, New York. We hope that those who are luck enough to be able to attend have a fun and enjoyable time.
The schedule of events can be found at http://www.starinfo.com/woodsmen/schedule.html
A few of the activities include, Woodsmen Lumberjack Contests, displays, vendors, food, kayak Races, 10k race, and parade. Sounds like something fun for everyone.
Event runs from Aug. 14th to Aug. 17th this year.
Wightman’s
mouldings are milled with state-of-the-art equipment from solid wood that is
chosen and produced for its high quality. We offer stock mouldings in pine and
oak as well as custom mouldings from our catalog of over 400 profiles. We
invite you to stop by our retail location in Portlandville, NY.
On Friday, July 25, 2014 had the pleasure of sharing in an
employee picnic at the mill followed by our monthly safety meeting.
Cliff Clune was kind enough to step up and be our grill master.
We now have 140 days without a lost time accident and we are setting new goals everyday.
At this time I would like to mention the various segments of
Wightman Lumber that combine to make our business run efficiently. Today we’ll
talk about the yard crew. They are overseen by one of the partners of the
business; David Wightman. David works in the yard with the crew, and in the
office co-coordinating wholesale sales.
Foreman: Dan Hunter, with his 25 yrs. of service, is responsible for assigning
employee coverage to the various tasks. Dan has the ability to cover just about
anything that needs doing in the yard, however his specific task is prepping
wholesale loads for shipment, maintain safe operating conditions with safety
inspections, help maintain inventory and production as needed. As if that
wasn't enough, he also helps cover the retail yard when necessary. No moss
grows under Dan's feet.
Loader operator: Jeff VanDewerker, who also has 25 yrs. with Wightmans, is on
the go loading tractor trailer customers, relocates logs and
lumber between the sawmill, grading department, drying kilns and planer
department. Jeff also keeps track of what is stored where in our many
storage facilities of kiln dried product. As if that wasn't enough,
he also loads shavings &
sawdust as needed for retail customers. No one knows a Volvo loader better than
Jeff.
Ed Cotton: With 15 years at Wightman's, Ed also knows his way around. Ed's job
is to maintain the low moisture content of the kiln dried lumber. With that
comes constant overseeing of the kilns so they run at peak efficiency, as well
as moving lumber in the various facilities to keep it at the correct moisture
content, very critical.
Larry Kessler: Now semi-retired, Larry has been with us for
13 years, still working 3 days a week he maintains the boilers as well as
prepping loads for export, and also still delivers to customer sites.
John Ashe: Although he's only been full time for 6 months, he
is busy running forklift moving inventory as well as delivering.
Eric Waddell: The newest member of the yard team, has been
with us for 3 months, is training to handle loading & unloading the kilns,
and is able to work in the production facility as well as maintenance of
equipment.
As you can see, many jobs and areas overlap, so teamwork is
vital to the expanding growth and fulfilling customer needs. Over the past year
we have introduced employees with a total of 497 years of dedication to the
industry. Our experienced employees
allow Wightman Specialty Woods to insure high standards of excellence in our
manufacture process. We take great pride
in the many fine products we produce and invite you to stop by our retail
location in Portlandville, New York.
Wightman Specialty Woods can provide you with the ideal wood
for dock or deck projects this summer.
Ipe is an exotic wood species which grows mainly in
Central and South America. It has a fine texture which appears oily. Among the
more common uses are: pathways through gardens and natural areas, ground level patios,
outdoor showers, saunas and spas, mud mats, outdoor planter foundations, picnic
areas and balconies.
Ipe is a high density and harder wood. It is unique
in its coloration, character marks and graining variations.
Now available at
Wightman Specialty Woods.
Stop by our retail location in Portlandville, New York
or call 607-286-9201 to speak with our professional sales staff.
Any type of
hardwood flooring to meet your needs.
We know that unfinished hardwood flooring is not always the
best answer for your flooring needs. To insure we can supply you with the best
products we expanded the product line available to you at our retail location
in Portlandville, NY. Should you be
looking for engineered flooring, strip flooring, or prefinished hardwood
flooring we can assist you in finding the right product for your project.
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