News

SPRING 2003 FIELD DAY

To the Chapman Saw Mill and New Mellerary Abbey in Iowa on Fri. 16May03

The day started bright and early with attendees boarding the bus in Madison at 7:00AM. At 8:00AM, another 14 people met the bus in the Walmart Parking lot in Dodgeville where everyone enjoyed doughnuts and coffee, before leaving on the 1 ½ hr ride to Chapman’s Saw Mill in the prairie farms lands near Sand Spring, Iowa, about 30 miles west of Dubuque. At Chapman’s, another 11 attendees registered, bringing the total number of attendees to 42 for the event.
The tour consisted of the automated saw mill, where Walnut was being cut for our convenience for the day. Of significance was how they tried to sort and utilize ALL different grades of board for the eventual end product of 3 inch raw flooring pieces for a company in Sweden. The demand is so great that Chapman’s can’t get enough timber logs, of even low quality, to meet the total demands of the Swedish company. Next there was a stop at the “ Steaming Building “ where the walnut boards, banded with plastic straps on pallets (versus steel straps which originally had caused all kinds of problems with rusting and staining of the boards), are steam wet-heated to blend the sap wood into the same dark color as the heart-wood. This greatly increases the value of the finished product.

The heart of the operation was where the steamed boards were processed into 3 inch wide, 1 ¼ thick, by various lengths from 6 inches to 24 inches. A special computerized, automatic sawing machine cutout the defects and sawed the final pieces for maximum yield with computer optimization algorithms. Operators stacked the walnut pieces on pallets for containerized overseas shipment, One finished stacked pallet held 2640 pieces, which will eventually be sliced and glued with other pieces of softwood to make parquet flooring, with the walnut being the top surface, ¼ inch thick after being sliced from the original 1 ¼ thick Chapman product.

After viewing the Kiln-drying ovens which are fueled with sawdust from the saw mill ( saves thousands of $’s per year in fuel cost compared to propane gas ), we toured various other operations involving other hardwoods and some softwood, like basswood, that are supplied to other customers other than their primary customer in Sweden. Then we spent some time listening to Ben Bruggeman in the “log yard “ as he explained the log grading and purchasing process. Ben is truly an expert on the topic, and the education he provides is very helpful in understanding how to better grow a veneer quality tree, which is a gamble at best, especially within a plantation. One statement that really stood-out was on the discussion of “pin-knots “. He said the best way to have a walnut tree without pin-knots is having the trees growing VERY close together in a natural stand, or one that has been direct-seeded so that the initial stand has trees growing 2-3 feet apart. What was discouraging was his further comment that trees in most plantations are growing too far apart and get too much exposure to sunlight during most of their growing life.

An excellent lunch was provided in the near-by community building by the Bruggeman family, and the desserts by Grandma Bruggeman were simply OUTSTANDING. So much for the weight loss program. Oh, well…….another day.
At the end of lunch, Ron Jervis, our President, led a short business meeting by first recognizing and thanking everyone who had helped with the event: Ben Bruggeman, the Chapman family, the cooks, and especially Mike Pfanku for his outstanding job in arranging and leading this year’s Spring Field Day. His efforts were especially significant because of his newness to the organization and his recent election to the Board of Directors in January. Ron also mentioned plans for the Fall Meeting and summarized that our Chapter has about 135 paid-up members so far this year, which compares to 100 this same time last year. The goal of the new membership program this year is to have 180 total members by year-end………so we need everyone’s support to reach the goal.

New Mellerary Abbey Tour

After a short ½ hour bus ride, we arrived at the scenic New Mellerary Abbey near Peosta, Iowa, which is 12 miles west of Dubuque. Established in 1847 by the parent Catholic ORDER of Trappist Monks based in Ireland ( influenced by the potato famine ) it is one of the strictest orders of monks in the world. At one time, the population of monks was 145, but today 35 monks reside at the Abbey, where their typical day begins at 3:00AM and consists of over 7 religious services every day.

Their major source of income is the manufacture of caskets: pine, oak, and primarily black walnut, which are sold on their INTERNET WEB SITE. A fine walnut casket sells for $1695, and was indeed very nice-looking. 30% of the lumber comes from their own forests, less now than previously because the demand for their finished products is increasing so rapidly, the supply from their own forests is insufficient.

The tour of the Fabrication Shop was very interesting and reflected very high quality workmanship, despite the renovated old farm building they worked in. The most interesting feature of the walnut caskets was the “ raised panel “ work, which involved the gluing together of many finely machined walnut pieces.

Obviously, due to the nature of the business, they are prepared to take an order and deliver a casket to any location in the US within 24-48 hours.

Afterwards, we were guided through the abbey by one of the youngest monks ( at 48 years old ). It was very austere with hardly any furniture. The stonework was beautiful and perpetuated the atmosphere of solitude and meditation.

In summary, this was a good example of value-added niche marketing providing a needed service to the community at a reasonable cost

At 3:45PM, we boarded the bus for the ride back to Dodgeville and then Madison, arriving almost on schedule at 5:15PM. One aspect of the bus trip was the opportunity to have discussions with other members while traveling to our destinations; however, by the end of the day everyone was starting to feel the effects of a FULL DAY, but a day of 2 excellent tours, making it one of the best Spring Field Days ever.

Respectfully submitted by Ron Jervis ( because he forgot to appoint an acting Secretary for the event)