Alas, I do not ski. I have been known to snowboard on occasion, but not lately. I was debating making a youtube video for the lumber yard where I “waterski on a sled” behind a truck driving around our icy parking lot, but haven’t gotten there yet.
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video for the lumber yard where I “waterski on a sled” behind a truck driving around our icy parking lot
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That would be so rad @Craig_Parker! I can’t wait for that video!! What are you waiting for? Trying to make a buck? 
Have you seen the Red Bull commercial w/ the moto cross covering the entire LBM supply chain, courtesy of @Michael_Haas ?
here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckTj4HT-GU4
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Well, here’s me counting insulation one day last year…
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99 bundles of insulation on the wall….
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Hello everyone!
My name is Andrey, I’m from Russia. I am 41 and I have little experience in the wood industry (about 1.5 years). Many people have told me that this is not the best time to change jobs and especially to start working in the wood industry, but who knows when the “best” time will come? I think that only after going a certain way you can tell what time was the best to start.
Anyway, I am here.
I sell birch lumber, which we produce here in Russia. The main market is China, we also supply products to Vietnam and customers in Europe.
@Andrew_Gibson, thanks for the invitation to join Pakira!
and sorry for my Ruglish! If you find any errors in the text, it’s Google’s fault! 
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Howdy !
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Privet @Andrey_Tikhomirov! No time like the present, glad to have you with us! Looking forward to hearing your perspective on the Russian Birch market.
Кто не рискует, тот не пьет шампанского
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I did the same thing, leaving a tech career to come help take over a family lumber yard. I figure if I can survive this, things should be fairly peachy moving forward.
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I think you made a great choice . Pakira is trying to connect tech to the lumber industry
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Welcome on board @Andrey_Tikhomirov! We hope to get to the point, somewhere in the not so distant future, where we can help you with your Russian birch business even in Russia, with China and Vietnam. We are currently starting from North America, US and Canada, and growing from there.
The “Google’s fault! ” is hilarious – we will keep this in mind for ourselves. Google won’t even notice it’s being blamed! 
On another note, Russian birches are very different from North American birches. The Russian birches are stark white, and really light up a forest. In the US, the birch forests tend to have silver birches. Not sure about further north in Canada, maybe they start to resemble the Russian birches more… ?
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Very interesting. I never knew that. How does Russain Birch compare to Baltic?
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They’re white here in Maine, but as they get older they start getting black at the bottoms. Google white “birch maine” images and you’ll see some.
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Russian birch and Baltic birch are synonymous with each other. I had been importing Russian birch plywood and lumber since around 2005 to the US. US birch production died out a long time ago due to over harvesting and Canada followed but still in production, however, the boards are narrow and inferior to Russian birch lumber in color and dimension capabilities due to cutting what birch trees that are left which are small compared to Russian trees and various species varieties not found in the US and Canadian markets.
Russian plywood is normally in 5 x 5’ platforms as that dimension was used for Russia’s aerospace platforms for their heavy bombers, but have outfitted now to some 4 x 8’ platforms to match US needs.
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well said Jeff !!!
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Andrew thank you!
We are waiting for high competition in this market. We will face rising sawlog prices soon due to high demand for plywood and OSB.
Лучше синица в руках, чем журавль в небе so better drink vodka!
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Craig,
You can!
I do not know what difficulties you have, but I hope that you will solve all the problems! A strong family is the main ally and a huge helper in any business!
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Michael hello!
I believe that we all have a great future and Pakira will help us in this!
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