153rd Class Convenes May 3rd, 2007

The 153rd Class of the National Hardwood Lumber Association Grading & Inspection School convened on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 in Memphis, Tennessee, with Director Rich Hascher (shown in the photo on the far right, sitting on a stool) and Registrar Mary Bartee. According to Rich, it is one of the smallest classes on record (just 13 students), and consists of Marquis Adams, John Aguilar, Derrik Allington, Guilio Azzalini, Florian Gerbl, Kelly Harriger, Cory Northrop, Evan Plumley, Thomas Porter, Nate Powell, John Sikes, Dane Thomas and Cory Walter. The guy in the foreground is Florian, who traveled all the way from Hinterbruhl, Austria, and rented a room in the same house I lived in.

Time for some fun

After several weeks of hard studying, we made it through our first major exam and decided to have a weekend barbeque at the school. No alcohol is allowed on the campus grounds, but that wasn't a problem since—in an amazing coincedence—none of us drink alcohol. Yes, I know it's hard to believe.

In the photo at left, Guilio, Nate and Florian kick back for a chat at the start of the cookout. Giulio (in the red shirt) hails from Italy, Nate (in the middle) from Michigan, and Florian from Austria. To view a larger version of this photo, just click on it. Giulio is also the class Treasurer, and Florian is Vice President, which is perfect because he loves vices and has developed several new ones since arriving in America.

In this next photo is Cory Walter, or Big Cory, as we call him since there are two Corys in the class. Cory is one of three students from Pennsylvania, which is home to a very large hardwood lumber industry. Like the photo above, you can just click on it for a larger version.

In the photo at left, Derrik and Dane do time on the grill. Derrik (in the burgundy shirt) is from Pennsylvania, and Dane is from Missouri. Dane's one of those types who could eat three times a day at MacDonald's or Burger King and never gain a pound.

In this photo is Evan Plumley and Derrik. Evan is from Wisconsin, and is also the Sergeant at Arms for the 153rd Class, and Derrik is the Secretary. Like any of the other photos, you can just click on them for larger versions.

In this photo is Jack Aguilar and Cory Northrop. Jack is from Wisconsin, and Cory is from Michigan. The barbeque only lasted a few hours since it was a hot afternoon and no alcohol was allowed on campus, but of course that wasn't a problem since none of us drink...much.

Rich "Moses" Hascher delivers the Rules

For three weeks now we've listened to Rich deliver the rules with authority, and he seemed particularly interested in making sure we grasped the complete F1F Rule 64, which begins with the ominous and somewhat oddly phrased "Shall grade not...", which sounded an awful lot like something from the Ten Commandments.

After listening to Rich repeat this phrase on a daily basis, we started to think he sounded like Moses—or at least Charlton Heston playing Moses—and decided to have a little fun with it. After finding a picture of Heston on the Internet, we doctored the photo in Adobe Photoshop, adding Rich's face behind Heston's beard, and tweaking the tablets just a little to reflect Rich's favorite grading rule. For a larger version of the image, just click on it.

The First Quarter ends, and the board runs begin...

The first quarter was largely spent on learning the rules and how to apply them, and beginning right after Memorial Day, we started doing board runs. As of June 1st, we still have our species exceptions to learn, but most of our Rule book study will taper off as we begin doing daily board runs and begin applying everything we've learned in "real" situations. To view larger images at any time, just click on any of the photos.

These photos show the grading area, a large covered shed that allows the school to lay out boards for grading. At some point we'll be doing a 100-board run, but so far we haven't dealt with more than 40, which we all graded and then took into the classroom for a closer inspection. It was a humbling experience for a few of us (I include myself in that group).

In these photos, Cory Northrop grades and inspects a board during our first 40-board run. Cory is from Michigan, and is sponsored by SunTree Hardwoods in Dowagiac, Michigan. Another student, Nate Powell, is also sponsored by SunTree Hardwoods.

Life in Bartlett, Tennessee

I really made a great choice for my living arrangements, and it was entirely by chance. After receiving the housing list from Mary Bartee, I went online, looked for a place close to the school, and called the first name on the list for the Bartlett area. Without ever considering another option, I called Margaret Johnson, who lives on Elmore Park Road, and after a short conversation, I mailed in my deposit. I figured that if things weren't to my liking, I could always find another place. As I mentioned earlier, though, it turned out to be a great choice.

I loaded up the old SAAB in Pennsylvania on Monday morning, April 29th, and drove to Memphis in 14 hours. I arrived at Margaret's house around 7 p.m. that evening, and discovered that I'd be sharing the accomodations with Florian Gerbl, a 30-year-old student from Austria. Florian arrived later the next day, and we developed an instant friendship. Shy, modest and quiet are definitely not words you'd use to describe Florian, whose effusive personality helps him meet people and make friends quite easily. The picture on the left is Margaret's house on Elmore Park Road with my car parked out front (just click it, or any of the photos, to view larger versions.

Margaret has been renting to NHLA students for about five years, and says she does it because she loves people and likes to make new friends. We both like her very much and she's a wonderful host. We never feel like guests in her house...everything's very casual and it's really like having a big house with a bunch of roommates. In this photo you see Florian and Margaret about to make breakfast on a Saturday morning. I usually have the house to myself for most of the morning on the weekends because both Margaret and Florian like to sleep in until the crack of noon.

This next photo is of Pumpkin, the owner of the house. Margaret just pays the bills and buys his groceries, and Pumpkin allows her to live there. In this photo, Pumpkin lurks in the shower in the early morning, waiting patiently for the right moment to pounce on Florian, then kill and eat him for breakfast. I managed to warn Florian in time, and tragedy was averted. Pumpkin was quite pissed off at me, so now I have to step carefully and keep my eyes open at all times.

Since I arrived first, I had first choice of the bedrooms, and chose the larger one with a desk. Florian ended up with the slightly smaller room, but the one with the DSL Internet connection, where the modem and router is located. Here he surfs the web, and luckily there's nothing too risque on the screen. He managed to convert his dresser into a makeshift desk, which seems to work quite well for him.

In this last photo, Florian relaxes on the back patio, which is almost like having an outside living room. It's a very comfortable place to relax, and we spend a lot of time out there when the weather permits (in other words, when the humidity and temperature will allow it). After spending this summer in Memphis, I'll never complain about the humidity in Pennsylvania again. Well, that's about it for the living arrangements. If any potential future student is reading this, make sure you give Margaret Johnson's place some serious consideration. It's a great place to stay with a great host.

The Lumberman's Club of Memphis hosts a luncheon

On Thursday, June 21st, The Lumberman's Club of Memphis hosted the first of what promises to be a regular event for the Club and the Inspection School. The Inspection school is near and dear to the hearts of many of the Club's members (many are past graduates), and the Club was also instrumental in helping the school get its start back in 1948.

The luncheon was catered by Corky's Barbeque, and was attended by members of the club, the students, and NHLA staff. It was a great opportunity for students to rub shoulders wtih some of the region's prominent lumbermen, both past and present, as well as enjoy some of the region's best barbeque.

A Quick Tour of the Facilities

In 1948, the National Hardwood Lumber Association established a vocational training school to teach the rules and application of the NHLA grading system and help meet the industry’s increasing demand for skilled lumber inspectors. The NHLA Inspection School is located on ten acres on the outskirts of Memphis, Tennessee. Just click on any of the photos to view larger versions of them.

As the only permanent school of its type, the NHLA Inspection School attracts students from around the world. The campus is located on the outskirts of Memphis Tennessee, convenient to affordable housing, entertainment and transportation. Since it's founding, the school has trained over 6,500 lumber inspectors, and their class photos can be found in the main hallway of the school, lining boths sides of the hall, and two walls in the break room.

The NHLA headquarters and seventy-seat Inspection School is a dual-purpose building containing approximately 11,500 square feet of office space with an additional 10,000 feet of covered area for practice lumber grading. Here's a shot of a class in session, with students Marquis Adams and Cory Northrop at the front of the class, and Director Rich Hascher at the right.

NHLA graduates are qualified for immediate employment as lumber inspectors. Because of its established reputation and the strong demand for inspectors, most of the graduates receive 2 to 5 job offers at graduations time. Many can select the region where they most want to live, but since many students are sponsored by lumber companies, a majority take jobs near home.

Here's a lobby view of NHLA headquarters. The twenty-two species of hardwoods used in the construction of the building were obtained from northern, southern, western and foreign areas where NHLA membership is located and are representative of merchantable hardwoods generally available.

In this last image, Cory Walters, a student from Pennsylvania, relaxes in the school's lounge area, which is generously supplied with all the latest issues of the hardwood lumber industry's trade magazines. The offices and campus area is located in a quiet, relaxing area of Memphis, and the bulk of the housing available to students is in the surrounding suburbs.

More food and fun

Just two days after the Lumberman's Club hosted a barbeque luncheon at the school, Margaret Johnson (our host/landlady), hosted one on the following Saturday for the entire class, plus some NHLA staff and neighbors. She went all-out, cooking well into the night on Friday. In addition to country-style ribs, she also made loose meat pork-butt barbeque, potato salad, baked beans, fruit dishes and several desserts. It was enough food to feed several classes, and it gave Florian, Margaret and I plenty to snack on during the remainder of the week.

A good time was had by all, and the party lasted well into the evening. When the party finally broke up around 9 p.m., most of the students gathered elsewhere to keep the festivities going. This photo of Florian and Mary was taken during the party. Mary looks like she's having a blast in spite of the fact that no one had a drop to drink. Seriously.

The class takes a field trip, Part 1

In late June, the class took a field trip to visit two regional businesses, both located in Mississippi. Our first stop was at Oakland, where we visited a small mill that focused on supplying lumber for specific market needs, primarily to local contractors in the housing and cabinet industries. In this first photo, Derrik speaks with the mill owners as the class observes a bandsaw operation that's producing cypress siding for homes. Derrik asks questions about the process while Giulio "I'm too sexy for my shirt" Azzalini strikes his best GQ Magazine pose. (just click on any of the photos to view larger versions of them)

In this next photo, Jack Aquilar and Rich speak with the mill owner about his flooring operation. The mill has a flooring and molding planer which can produce a variety of custom tongue-and-groove floorings as well as baseboard and strip mouldings. As the owners explained to us, smaller mills must adapt and specialize in a number of targeted markets if they wish to survive.

In this next photo, Cory, Evan and Jack take a break at the end of the tour as Cory gets better acquainted with a new friend. The tour of the first mill gave us a very good idea how these smaller operations can remain competitive in an increasingly tight hardwood market that is currently in the process of becoming more globalized.

The class takes a field trip, Part 2

Our second stop of the day was the J.T. Shannon concentration yard. The operation at J.T. Shannon was very impressive, particularly it's walnut production, which is largely for the Chinese export market. Our guide informed us that Shannon shipped hundreds of thousands of board feet of walnut to China every month, and they had the filled warehouses to back up that claim. In this photos, you can see just a fraction of the walnut bound and ready for export. This entire warehouse was filled from floor to ceiling with Selects and Better walnut. (just click on any of the photos to view larger versions of them)

The lumber grading operation at very different from what the students have grown used to at NHLA school. There was no grading with sticks or flipping lumber on the ground. In this photo, a lumber inspector grades from the end of the piece as the boards move past him at a very fast pace. The boards then get sorted mechanically by size and grade a bit later in the operation, which runs all the lumber down conveyor belts until they're sorted and dropped into bins for bundling.

In this next photo, the class visits Shamrock Flooring, a J.T. Shannon brand company that is housed on the main lot. Shamrock runs a very profitable flooring business that currently grosses about $23-million-plus a year, and is still growing rapidly. The bundles being inspected by the students are part of a high-yield operation that takes small odds and ends of hardwood products and produces variable-sized flooring for the contracting and home-improvement businesses.

This last photo provides a view of a Shamrock Flooring warehouse filled with walnut and oak flooring that's ready for shipment. While we were visiting the operation, we saw three trucks taking on full loads of the flooring that was headed for various markets. The entire business at J.T. Shannon, which is still growing very rapidly, was one of the more impressive operations any of us had ever seen, and provided us with an excellent view of what you can do if you're focused and inventive about going after specific markets.

The Class visits Anderson-Tully Company

Our last major field trip was to Vicksburg, Mississippi, to visit the Anderson-Tully Co. facilities. ATCO is the largest production lumber facility in the United States, and cuts millions of board feet per year. The class drove down to Vicksburg the afternoon before our tour, and stayed at the Battlefield Inn for the night before gathering the next morning to begin the tour.

When we first began our tour, we learned that ATCO still has its first dry kiln (see photo at left), built in the 1890s, located on the property. To view larger versions of this photo or any other, please just click on the image.

To speed up the drying process, ATCO uses large air-drying sheds, which are open in the front for loading, and filled with fans in the back. This shot shows the closed, outside end of the shed with the fans lined up to dry stacks as high as 20'.

In this next photo, students see the underside of a drop-sorter. ATCO uses much of the latest technology in its operation, and because it's such a large business, most of the processes are monitored by computers to produce maximum output and make sure that the production lines are running profitably. The computers will estimate how many board feet per hour are needed to make budget, and the foremen must see that the production levels are met.

This next photo shows lumber inspectors at work in a high-output production setting. These inspectors were grading about 10,000 board feet per hour. There were supposed to be three of them at this point in the process, but one was at lunch, so the other two had to really pick up their pace. Inspectors at ATCO are graded regularly on their performance, and their pay scale is adjusted to correspond with the accuracy of their grading.

This photo shows the early stages of a large production run of poplar logs at the smaller mill in Vicksburg. ATCO runs two mills along the river, and we visited the large one first, then went to the smaller one last, right before being treated to a barbeque feast for lunch.

Here's a shot of some logs in the very early stages of the mill process. We were amazed at the speed with which the logs made it from the yard into the grading sheds. Overall, our trip to ATCO really impressed us and gave us a very good idea of the level of production capable under the right conditions.

153rd Class Graduates August 3rd, 2007

It's been a long, hard 14 weeks, but "The Dirty Dozen" finally made it to the end of the course. We took our last exam on Friday, July 27th, and had an easy week up until graduation on Friday, August 3rd, when the partying began.

In the photo above, from left to right in the first row, is Evan Plumley, Marquis Adams, Rich Hascher (School Director), Tom Porter and Derrik Allington. In the second row, from left to right, is Giulio Azzalini, John Sikes, Dane Thomas, Cory Walters, Kelly Harriger, Florian Gerbl, John Aquilar and Cory Northrop.

Special Awards were handed out at the ceremony: John Thompson Award for Highest Overall Average—Derrik Allington; Howard Hanlon Award for Second Highest Overall Average—Giulio Azzalini; Westside Hardwood Club Award for Highest Board Run Average— Marquis Adams; J.P. Hamer Award for Most Improved Student—Florian Gerbl; Willard Scholarship Award for Attitude & Effort by a Self-Sponsored Student—Dane Thomas; Lumberman's Club of Memphis Leadership Award—Kelly Harriger.

Class Officers were Giulio Azzalini, Treasurer; Derrik Allington, Secretary; Evan Plumley, Sergeant at Arms; Kelly Harriger, President; Florian Gerbl, Vice-President.