Real loggers

[Rounder]

Where's all this smack talking going on? I only read the firewood forums so maybe it's elsewhere, but I agree with you in the sense that cutting firewood does not make you a logger. I'm just a guy with a truck and a saw (I do own a pair of Carhartt "logger" double front pants though) who's always looking for free advice and free wood. :greenchainsaw:

I am a logger, and a tip for you guys - check out Bailey's wild ass jeans- half the price and last twice as long, no BS

 

[xcr440]

with or without the buttons?

I am going to pick some up after I am back to work. They look just as good as carhartts.

 

[treejunkie13]

wild ass come with buttons u can put on urself which is nice...
Berne's make a real nice double knee also, but the buttons r already on. But both have a better price then Carhart.

 

[Burvol]

It's not about how many trees you have cut. It's about the job. I know and have worked with many a men that have know idea how to properly run a saw. They are still loggers. They may have 2 to 200 trees under there belt in 15 years, that isn't many. But they still work it, and live it.

There is lots more than just cutting. Until you have done the work and lived off of that you can't be a logger. A feller on here has a line in his signature. About logging being dangerous, you could starve to death. That is a major truth to logging. Work the riggin, work the landing, live the life and then you will be a logger.

Time in the brush working the job is all that will make you a logger.


Owl

Last year I came out the winter layoff with a gypo job minus the trucking on some White Fir and little Doug. It was mostly marginal wood with patches of good stuff for a week or so here and there. I cut it and skid it with my Dad's D4 w/line. It was a lot fun looking back now. I don't find much gypoin' anymore, but it's fun sometimes, do it all like you say. It was a good job to start the season off.

I am a faller, but the logging end of it all is pretty cool. Cutting for big tower settings then looking across the ridge and watching the rigging start working is impressive. It's like, "Ok, this is logging!". Cool ####.

 

[Rounder]

I'm on the same landing as Gary, beat to f**k. I can ram the spikes in and fall anything, I'm happy to leave the rest to the more able.
Sometimes I feel like I got tossed off a bluff and spent the night sleeping in a wheelbarrow full of rocks.

I can feel for ya- no knees left! But it's been fun and I'll go back as soon as I get the call- We're a sick bunch aren't we!

 

[Jacob J.]

I quite enjoyed watching the high lead when I was cutting. I never considered myself a logger nor would I ever. I started cutting early and never worked the rigging, never set chokers, never had to figure out how to get a big old residual out of a box canyon. That's real talent as far as I'm concerned- guys that use their ingenuity and woods sense to solve those kinds of problems.

I see the days of the 'real' loggers as dwindling. Even with shows like Axemen, the number of people who can turn an eye in a broken haulback on a stump are shrinking fast. My brother worked the high lead for 10 years until he was crushed by a turn.

As far as rigging clothes go, I never have figured out why guys on the west side wear rigging pants and a hickory shirt in the winter. They're 100% cotton and stay cold and wet all day long. In the 9 years I was contracting as a cutter, I wore those nylon pants from Madsen's. They resisted tears and punctures just as good as rigging pants did and never got sopping wet.

Just like other industries that have changed or gone by the wayside, so too will the days of old-school high lead soon be gone.

 

[Humptulips]

I quite enjoyed watching the high lead when I was cutting. I never considered myself a logger nor would I ever. I started cutting early and never worked the rigging, never set chokers, never had to figure out how to get a big old residual out of a box canyon. That's real talent as far as I'm concerned- guys that use their ingenuity and woods sense to solve those kinds of problems.

I see the days of the 'real' loggers as dwindling. Even with shows like Axemen, the number of people who can turn an eye in a broken haulback on a stump are shrinking fast. My brother worked the high lead for 10 years until he was crushed by a turn.

As far as rigging clothes go, I never have figured out why guys on the west side wear rigging pants and a hickory shirt in the winter. They're 100% cotton and stay cold and wet all day long. In the 9 years I was contracting as a cutter, I wore those nylon pants from Madsen's. They resisted tears and punctures just as good as rigging pants did and never got sopping wet.

Just like other industries that have changed or gone by the wayside, so too will the days of old-school high lead soon be gone.

Good post and of course I have comments on each item.

First off you are so right about the ingenuity part and that is what I don't like about so much of the logging I see now. Small wood and big machines to cut it and get it out. Not much ingenuity there, too much like factory work. Not saying modern loggers arn't smart. You have to be to keep afloat in this economy but the ingenuity and a bit of the mystic are missing.

Hickory shirt and rigging pants, that's the uniform allright. Long black wool when it gets cold and most of the winter a good set of rain gear. Move fast stay warm! At least that's what I was told my first year in the brush.LOL

Old school high lead, I'd say it's already gone by the wayside. Still towers but pretty much all motorized carriages on skylines. Probably never see a good North Bend show again. Gone the way of the big Tylers, skidders and flyers of days gone by.

 

[Jacob J.]

Good post and of course I have comments on each item.

First off you are so right about the ingenuity part and that is what I don't like about so much of the logging I see now. Small wood and big machines to cut it and get it out. Not much ingenuity there, too much like factory work. Not saying modern loggers arn't smart. You have to be to keep afloat in this economy but the ingenuity and a bit of the mystic are missing.

Hickory shirt and rigging pants, that's the uniform allright. Long black wool when it gets cold and most of the winter a good set of rain gear. Move fast stay warm! At least that's what I was told my first year in the brush.LOL

Old school high lead, I'd say it's already gone by the wayside. Still towers but pretty much all motorized carriages on skylines. Probably never see a good North Bend show again. Gone the way of the big Tylers, skidders and flyers of days gone by.

A couple of old boys from Whitaker logging told me a story when I was cutting for them....

They had a big North bend set-up over by Florence, Or., with about 8,000 feet total skyline out. They made a box which hooked to the carriage for the three guys in the brush to ride out and back. Well one day, they were riding back and the clamps let go and the box fell about 300 feet. The guys in front and back were killed, the guy in the middle made it with a broken back and a shattered femur. This was in 1979 and they never did that again. I know it's a true story because one of the old time general practice M.D.'s here attended to the fella that made it, but it really makes me shake my head that people were crazy enough to do something like that.

 

[Humptulips]

Early 70s I was setting chokers for an outfit and it was deep hole we had to climb out of at quiting time. We had a barrel and a couple pass chains. We could all get on and ride out. Did it a bunch of times, no problem. One day at starting time picked the skyline up, never even got it up tight and an extension shackle broke and down she come. Never rode the rigging out for a long time after that.
Rode a log out three different times in my career. Probably not the smartest thing but it was steep and we were tired.
My Dad used to say "I could have been killed a hundred times over but here I am" Now I get to say it.

 

[sawyerloggingon]

Riding the rigging up used to be common practice. We used to hook a short log at both ends, stand on it and hang on as we twirled our way up the mountain 50 feet above stumps. Dumb arse kids! As far as when you're a real logger goes ,it doesn't happen over night.I always run into people that say "Oh I used to be a logger", in reality they worked in the woods a couple summers while going to college or a year or two before they decided this is stupid,LOL.They wern't loggers,they logged. You're a logger when you wake up one morning and realize, this is what I do, this is all I will ever do, this is the life I hate, this is the life I love. I am sooooo screwed!

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Gonna have to order online from here on out.

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[John Ellison]

Can you still buy black wool? I practically lived in it in Alaska, but dont wear it here. The old timers said you only take off your wool to go to town on the 4th of July. Straight wool is kind of an aquired taste.
Yep move fast and stay warm. Run in for your job and out for your life. Found out that I was'nt quite the man I wished I was the first time I grabbed ahold of an 1 1/8" Bull choker.
Thankfully those were a rarity.
My old school logging was on some sled yarders and an A-frame in the early 80s. Most guys did'nt want to hire out for that outfit, but I thought it was interesting and liked it.

 

[slowp]

I was offered a ride on the rigging one time. I declined. The crew went up but the Yarder engineer was being extra careful and I arrived at the landing just before they did. Then, their boss (dad) came back the next day and their buns became almost non-existent from the chewing.

The wool still is worn. I wear tin pants and polyfleece. Wool is too itchy but I'm not a logger. Loggers must not get itchy. Tin pants are thick and it is hard to move in them if you have chaps on. When I am taking out anger on brushy roads, I don't notice the rain much. Then I get in the pickup to move on down/up the road and notice my back is soaked.

I have not seen a high lead working since the 80s. Butt rigging has been totally replaced by carriages here. The 'ologists seem to be either going skidder or helicopter for their projects. I take all the skyline sales because for some reason, I like to work on them and help with the figuring out where to put things and the hunt for proper trees to rig on. That latter part is getting pretty hard now. The old growth stumps are getting too rotten, and the second growth trees require a lot of twisters in our pummy soils.

My knees started clicking last year after a day on the 3 ibuprofen unit. I started icing them after work. That unit is the one most likely to log this year. But there's a good view from the ridgetop after the fallers have thinned out the trees, and I actually get paid to "hike and enjoy the view."

I am very worried that we'll lose some good loggers if things don't get better.
We already have.

 

[sawyerloggingon]

When I ran equipment, skidder and cat, I wore Filson pants,kept me warm. When I went cuttin I quiclky realized they kept me too warm.I just wear my ordinary carheart summer pants in winter with wool long underwear. After being in waste deeep snow all day your sopping wet allright but wool keeps you warm even when wet. Keep a pair of dry pants in my pickup to change into for ride home, that's always fun when it's 15 degreees with blowing snow.

 

[JAM]

Did some logging when I was younger, Small outfit a JD 440 skidder and a small handfull of saws cutting pulp. Work in the Mines now, rather be logging but a somewhat steady paycheck helps somewhat.

 

[Spotted Owl]

As far as when you're a real logger goes ,it doesn't happen over night.I always run into people that say "Oh I used to be a logger", in reality they worked in the woods a couple summers while going to college or a year or two before they decided this is stupid,LOL.They wern't loggers,they logged. You're a logger when you wake up one morning and realize, this is what I do, this is all I will ever do, this is the life I hate, this is the life I love. I am sooooo screwed!

There you have it. Very well said


Owl

 

[Gologit]

Riding the rigging up used to be common practice. We used to hook a short log at both ends, stand on it and hang on as we twirled our way up the mountain 50 feet above stumps. Dumb arse kids! As far as when you're a real logger goes ,it doesn't happen over night.I always run into people that say "Oh I used to be a logger", in reality they worked in the woods a couple summers while going to college or a year or two before they decided this is stupid,LOL.They wern't loggers,they logged. You're a logger when you wake up one morning and realize, this is what I do, this is all I will ever do, this is the life I hate, this is the life I love. I am sooooo screwed!

Yup...well said.

 

[Kunes]

I'm 16 Years Old.

I cut down trees, buck them and split firewood with a maul.

i'm no logger, i just like to learn more about ways of cutting down trees and about chainsaws.

 

[Bill_G]

Been logging 36 years and every year was going to be my last, just too much fun to get away from , bugs,mud, heat, cold and lets not forget the huge pay.

 

[olyman]

Been logging 36 years and every year was going to be my last, just too much fun to get away from , bugs,mud, heat, cold and lets not forget the huge pay.