Numbers say stop.
Hannah used it whenever somebody asked whether she loved the old machine.
She did.
That made the numbers more important.
Love makes people justify bad equipment.
Sentimentality can turn machinery into a museum that consumes money.
Hannah refused.
Every quarter she reviewed.
Revenue.
Downtime.
Repair reserve.
Fuel.
Utilization.
Cost per productive hour.
Resale.
Replacement alternatives.
If a newer machine became economically better, she would replace the Deere.
At least that was what she told herself.
Then the Wisconsin Woodland Contractors Association announced a business workshop in March.
Hannah almost did not attend.
Dale called.
“You going?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Work.”
“It’s Saturday.”
“Still work.”
“You should.”
“Why?”
“Bank guy’s doing machine-cost analysis.”
Hannah paused.
“What bank?”
“North Country Equipment Finance.”
Interesting.
She attended.
The meeting took place in a hotel conference room.
Approximately sixty contractors.
Coffee.
Dry muffins.
Slides nobody wanted.
The presenter was named Eric Sloan.
Not a logger.
Financial analyst specializing in equipment-intensive rural businesses.
He started with a sentence that immediately made half the room uncomfortable.
“Gross revenue is not machine profit.”
Hannah smiled.
Dale saw.
“Stop.”
She whispered:
“I didn’t say anything.”
Eric displayed examples.
New skidder.
Purchase price.
Financing.
Insurance.
Fuel.
Operator labor.
Maintenance.
Depreciation.
Transport.
Downtime.
Productive utilization.
Then an older paid-off skidder.
Lower capital cost.
Higher maintenance.
Potentially higher downtime.
Less fuel efficiency depending on model.
Different safety and productivity features.
The point was not old better.
Or new better.
The point was economics depended on use.
Eric asked:
“Anybody here track machine contribution by productive hour?”
Few hands.
Hannah raised hers.
Dale looked offended.
Eric pointed.
“You.”
“Hannah Mercer.”
“What machine?”
“1980s Deere 648 cable skidder.”
People laughed.
Not cruelly this time.
Mostly recognition.
Someone called:
“The auction one?”
Hannah looked toward Dale.
He was already laughing.
Eric asked:
“What did you pay?”
“Eleven hundred.”
The room reacted.
Eric smiled.
“Current total capitalized repair and improvement cost?”
Hannah liked him immediately.