His name is Fred................

Fred meet world! World meet Fred! Every year, much to the dismay of my family, I name our turkey! This year his name is Fred,he came from the Butterball family! They seem to be nice parents, every year they raise their young to be about 12-13 pounds and then send them out to meet the world!

Fred

We found him hanging out in the big playpen (freezer) at the Wal-mart. He and all his brothers and sisters where just hanging out waiting to be adopted. I was looking for the big fat one with low self esteem but they all seemed to be about the same size! So I based it on location in the playpen. He was hanging around in the bottom and looked like he really wanted to get out so I dug deep and brought him to the top!

Fred on a plate

His first stage in life will be the oven and then the plate where I will introduce him to the family, they are all really excited to meet Fred so we will make sure he is dressed to impress!!! After everybody enjoys the afternoon hanging out with Fred we will pack him up and he will be ready for the final act in his career!!!

Fred on bread!

That's right he will make a guest appearance as a turkey sandwich the following day! His final act will be Fred on Bread!! Then his career as the family turkey will come to an end!

Next year we will visit the Butterball playpen and see how they do with the next generation of little fat kids! Then we can do it all over again. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Correct Deck Siesta Decking...............

Yes, I know we stock the Fiberon Horizon series decking. Lately we have sold a lot of it too. But right now Correct deck is offering a special price point (they are trying to unload some product) before the winter season comes in. Correct deck is the original co-extruded decking product and it has the 30 year warranty.

The Siesta decking is truly a nice product and we have sold a lot of it! Most of the time if our customers don't like the Fiberon products they usually buy the Correct Deck product. Right now is a great time to buy if you have an interest in composite decking. The performance of these products is really amazing when you take into consideration the low maintenance of them.

When was the last time you spilled something on your deck and thought "oh no" that's gonna leave a stain! With the Siesta Decking all you need is a roll of paper towels! Presto mess cleaned up, no stain! My house it would probably be ketchup before wine but you get the point.

Of course it has the hidden fastener system, one of the best designs too. If you have a board damaged in the middle of the deck you can replace it with no problem at all. Some of the other systems make this task very difficult. 

In this last picture you can see the quality of the finished product. They have the Duralife composite railings installed to compliment the Siesta decking.  http://www.gaf.com/Decking/DuraLife-Siesta-Deck/DuraLife-siesta-deck.aspx If you have time click the link and take a moment to check out the two products.......

Rusty Money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally, the best time of the year to ride a bike and do outside repairs. Fall has arrived!! You know you have been putting them off because it's been to hot! Get up and get moving, it's time to make it happen! If you don't want to do it yourself give us a call and we can recommend somebody for you!

Yes the economy is still in the tank, but people are doing remodel projects. That's where we can help, all you need to do is give us a call. We will be glad to help you get going in the right direction! With winter coming it's not to late replace those windows! Especially if you are a Duke power customer, it might help you off set that new rate hike they are trying to hit you with!

Wouldn't it be nice to go ahead and do that deck now, come spring you would already have it done and be able to enjoy it right away. Think about it, I would rather have a crew in my yard now, not when I am ready to start enjoying the summer. Spring would come and you would already have that out of the way!

Then you could start another project! If you haven't figured out yet I am trying to talk you into spending some of that rusty money..........................Have a nice weekend........................

Back to Building Supplies...........................

OK I put the trucks up here Friday, so today it's time to talk business again. Have you ever heard the term "Drop Ship". If you ever purchase anything on the Internet they drop ship it direct to your front door. That's all UPS does, drop ship. So now you understand the concept right?

We'll it seems to work for a lot of other lumber yards so maybe it can work for us! I have appointed myself the title of "lumber relocation specialist" aka "drop ship coordinator" call it what you want but I am going to sell something through this damn computer! One way or another! We get phone calls more and more about shipping things like this so why not? We like to eat too!

It takes a little more effort, you have to line up a freight company to receive the product and line up the delivery to the job, but if you can make it happen that's what it's all about. I used to dispatch for my neighbors trucking company and we had 30 trucks I had to keep moving everyday. So I learned a thing or two about the process, hence the reason I am taking control of this.

Bottom line! If you are reading this blog or use our website look for the new "drop ship" quote box (coming very soon). Give me a chance to look into what you are working on. So far I have been competitive on what I have quoted.

It's Friday Peoples..........................

Because of that I am going to post something just for the heck of it. Big trucks baby!!! That's right I like big bad trucks. I drove a tractor trailer for awhile and had a blast. It was fun and I had a fast truck! Ask my wife and she will tell ya, I was always on the verge of losing my license!

Again, I ain't talking about your company truck specials, the trucks with no personality. I am talking about the chrome ones with the matching trailers and all the chicken lights! Did ya know that's what all the lights on the custom trucks are called, "chicken lights". These trucks can and will fly! The only place you will see the big customs on the east coast are on I95. You get out west and you will see a lot more of them.

My first truck was a cab over...Loved it!!!!

I like the hood vents on this one

this truck is actually from Marshville, NC

long and low

So checkout these, next time you see one coming up the left lane get outta the way!!!! They got places to go........Have a nice weekend.........................................

Versatility.........

If you look up "versatility" one of the definitions you will find will be ; "Having varied uses or serving many functions". Well with a little work and a little thought, I made our 2x10 yellow pine into a tractor trailer replacement part! How you ask? I drove a truck for 5 years at one time and I still have friends in the trucking industry.

The other day a friend calls me and says; I need a new floor on my drop deck. The trailer sales place wants $1800 for the material alone, what can you do for me? First thing I did was figured out what it was they were going to sell him. Strike one, can't get what they have. It is manufactured and sold only to companies that make trailers. So I had to do some thinking and investigating.

He had to have something 1-1/8inch thick, dimensional lumber doesn't come in that. So taking into consideration it is exposed to the elements all the time and the fact that the cross members in the trailer are 10inch on center. We ran some numbers and regular old yellow pine works just fine. Now we had an option!

So we sent 2x10 grade #1 to the shop and had them plane it down to the right thickness. Then he took the time to apply a water sealant to all six sides of the board before he installed them. 'What do ya know' he had a new floor in his trailer and guess what he saved 1500 dollars! Even after having our shop plane the material.......Versatility......Our middle name.............

It's Official...........

We have inventory and plenty of it! How do I know, we just got it all counted. Or they they got it all counted I have been away for a few days with my boys surgery. I did show up for the comparison on Saturday morning. Yes I said Saturday, AM to top it off. We, or they counted Friday and then we enter all of it on Saturday and run the comparison to find out who can count or not, and then we check the big losses.

That's when we find out who can count or not, or if we have been ripped off. Usually the big discrepancies are from entering it wrong when it was received or counting it wrong when we have inventory. We really do have a good customer base and theft is not a problem around Matthews. We tend to make it harder on ourselves more than anything.

So now we know what we have and are ready to deliver! So Monday AM spread the word Matthews has lumber and lots of it.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For all you facebook friends, the weather has changed and it's time to tackle all those projects you have been putting of till fall...Fall has arrived!!!!!!!!!