How it started
Robin Wood started in 2003 with a borrowed truck, a tired forklift, and half an acre of scrub off Old Mill Road. Robin Callahan had spent nine years grading lumber at a big mill in East Texas and figured Waco deserved a yard that looked you in the eye while it measured your boards.
The first year we sold mostly pine fencing and firewood to stay lit. The first kiln came in 2008 — a used unit we rebuilt over one long summer — and that changed everything. Suddenly cabinet shops started calling. Then builders. Then folks driving in from two counties over for mesquite.
Twenty-plus years on, it's still family. Robin's kids grew up stacking stickers in these sheds, and the tally book still gets checked at the kitchen table on Monday mornings.
- 2003 — Yard opens on Old Mill Road with one truck and one forklift.
- 2008 — First kiln rebuilt and fired. Hardwood program begins.
- 2014 — Second shed goes up; mesquite and pecan program starts.
- 2019 — "Bertha," the delivery truck, joins the fleet.
- 2023 — Solar panels on the big shed's roof. The kiln runs sunny.
- 2026 — Still here. Still measuring straight.
Robin, meter-checking a lot of white oak before it goes on sale.
