Featured Story:  “Double Coverage”

Written By: David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times

Company: J&D Timber, LLC
Location: Flora, MS
SLT Issue: December 2019

A mere eight miles separated the childhood homes of David Rees, 43, and Jonathan Rasberry, 42, when they were growing up, but they didn’t know each other then. It wasn’t until the summer after they both graduated, from different high schools in 1995, when the met after joining the same hunting camp. A friendship grew from their mutual passion for wild game.

By 2005, after five years working together for Scott Penn of Canton, Mississippi, Rees and Rasberry were ready to step out on their own. “Scott knew we wanted to do more,” Rasberry says. “He was willing to sell one of his crews, so we bought it.” They chose to name their company J&D Timber, LLC, from the initials of their first names, Jonathan and David.

In 2007 they split J&D into two crews, with each man supervising one job. A third crew followed in 2012. That was almost eight years ago when they last expanded the operation; would they consider adding a fourth crew now? “No, sir,” Rees says. “Not in today’s markets and labor pool.”