Bitz? You're younger than me? I thought we were about the same age (42).
What Would It Be Like If We Were All In A Logging Camp Together?
- Thread starter Gypo Logger
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Old fogeys....
windthrown
361 Junkie
I spent a lot of time in Big Sur and down through Pacific Valley and Cambria. Also Carmel Valley out to Arroyo Seco and toward Greenfield/King City. Also Salinas, Hollister, San Juan, Santa Cruz, etc. etc. I lived in Monterey, PG and Carmel Valley for 20 years. In Carmel Valley I lived with a bunch of tree butchers that worked out of Greenfield. I know where those giant eucs are on 101. They have been there forever. That is going to be one hell of a job. I would love to have the firewood from those trees. Lifetime supply of high heat. You are going to need more than one 661 and some big bars. Throw in a few big Brush Bandits as well. I used to harvest eucs with my brother down in Garrapata on D ick Kelty's estate. He used to have a trout farm and a lot of land down there. He invented the internal frame Kelty backpack. That wood was hard and once it was dry it was near impossible to cut. Bid high. That is a lot of work. I suppose you could process the firewood and sell that as well. There has to be at least 1 MBF per tree, which is 3 cords of firewood. 1,000 cords x $300 per cord = $300 grand. Not chump change. Have to truck and process the wood though, season it, and then deliver it. God knows what you are going to do with all the limbs, chips and leaves. Gonna be some big piles of wood and chips for sure.
KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
Know what species of eucs? Maybe some viable lumber/slabs in 'em ? Are they big? If so:
or
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Holman-Enterprises-Ltd/1486052478319960
or
or
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Holman-Enterprises-Ltd/1486052478319960
or
HuskStihl
Chairin'em for the sound
Bitz is just a kid. A foul-mouthed, excessively procreating kid, but a kid nonetheless. Nate, it's funny that you are the same age as Aaron and Handsome Mike, as you act old enough to be their father!
bitzer
******** Timber Expert
33 Thats born in '82 to save you the math. I feel about 10 years older.
bitzer
******** Timber Expert
Mike acts like hes about 90. Clint is only a year or two younger then him, but gets lumped in with the young guys. I'd cuss right now, but that just wouldn't be polite. You should hear me after a few beers or jacks. Then the real foul language starts.Bitz is just a kid. A foul-mouthed, excessively procreating kid, but a kid nonetheless. Nate, it's funny that you are the same age as Aaron and Handsome Mike, as you act old enough to be their father!
It was noisy.
HuskStihl
Chairin'em for the sound
How is ol' Clinton faring these days?
windthrown
361 Junkie
There are many species of eucs in California. Some are even hybrid species that are unique to California now. There was a big trade of trees 120 some odd years ago when the Monterey pines (radiatas) went to Oz and NZ, and the eucs came to CA. Some are continually planted here in Oregon, but every 5 to 10 years or so a good 10 deg. F. killing frost comes along and does them in. I get them for firewood after those years. My guess on the big ones on Highway 101 north of KC would be blue gums. Those are the most common in Northern CA and they were commonly planted by settlers after the gold rush days when many native tree stands were wiped out for wood. They have strips of bark that constantly shed off the trees. They commonly get over 200 feet tall there. As for milling them, I do not know of any demand for blue gum lumber in CA. Far West lists some for sale, but only turning blanks. They dropped all the eucs on Angel Island and a lot of other suburban and urban parks when I was living in the SF Bay Area. They just left them lay there to rot as logs. Some more pretty euc wood is being milled sporadically in SoCal, similar to Madrone here. I know of only 2 mills that process Madrone in Oregon though.
windthrown
361 Junkie
KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
Seemed quite a wavy grain, so maybe botryoides rather than saligna?
Could be quite a lucrative niche because it makes for wonderful flooring. hard and beautiful. The heartwood is durable enough for external use like decking (can splinter a wee bit but nowhere near as bad as some other decking materials used here) and joinery but probably wont last much beyond 15 years in-ground. Quite a belligerent wood to mill and season though. Good firewood.
The 'ologists and engineers refer to them as blue gum trees but I don't know for sure. Many many of these trees were planted as wind brakes throughout Cali. They are at an age where they are dropping limbs, sometimes very large car crushing size limbs. These trees are thick with shed bark and leaves. They are great habitat for rats and rattle snakes. 8' dbh trees are not uncommon.
The problem is getting rid of the wood. (The same goes for Monterey pines, many planted by the CCC in the 1930's). We have buried some of the tree trunks, some, years ago, went to China for paper. Euc produces a very white paper I'm told. A few lower trunks mayb 8' tall went to make tree house (hobbit houses) for wealthy families. The tree house maker would split the trunk and carve out the middle and make a doll/hobbit house and reassemble in someone's back yard. I never did see one but I have seen a couple made from redwood.
As far as milling goes eucs have a reputation for twisting badly. Some guys have just milled the wood into cants and let them season a couple of years before final milling. I have used euc for fence and corral boards, it is really strong, but the twist was pretty bad. A full dimension 3X6 is one strong peace of wood that horses can't break. Even cattle have a tough time, sorta. Speaking of that I slept in today till 0730 till the phone rang and told me a cow was out sight seeing on the roadway. The cops had him in before I got there, they like doing that kind of stuff.
chuckwood
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Well, let's just hope it wouldn't go like this. I've cut and pasted this out of some old archives of my hometown newspaper. This is how it was in 1905. Maybe today what might happen is us folks in the political forum somehow wind up in a logging camp, get drunk, and start arguing about politics and then guns get pulled. Anyhow, here's the quoted text:
Friday, August 10, 1905
Last Sunday as the hands at one of the lumber camps of the Little River Lumber
Company, in the upper end of Tuckaleechee Cove, were enjoying themselves
telling yarns and drinking, they had a misunderstanding and several pulled
pistols and began shooting around freely to prove their argument. As usual the
innocent bystander occupied all the danger spots. Tom Messner was standing in
the door of his cabin when a bullet hit him in the leg, inflicting an ugly
wound. His partner, Walter Heffner, a Carolinian about 26 years old, went to
his assistance, and, as he stooped over, a bullet ripped up his back and cut
an artery in his arm. Another hand, when the stray bullets came whistling
around, thought the shooting was for his benefit. So he drove into his cabin
and contributed a few shots from his trusty Winchester. There was so much
miscellaneous shooting going on that it would be impossible to say whose
bullets did the damage. Heffner was bleeding badly and was seen to be in
serious condition. He was bandaged and put on a hand-car, and a force started
with him for Knoxville, 40 miles away, to place him in a hospital. But before
they had covered half the distance, while near Hubbard Siding, the wounded man
died. The body was brought to this city and taken to Pflanze’s undertaking
establishment, where it was prepared for burial and the next morning sent to
his home in North Carolina. It is claimed that the men in these lumber camps
are regularly supplied with moonshine whiskey from up in the mountains, and
that this together with the habit of carrying pistols, is responsible for
nearly all the troubles and disturbances in these lumber camps, as all who
know the hands employed there declare that they are as nice and orderly a lot
of men, when sober, as are to be found anywhere.
Friday, August 10, 1905
Last Sunday as the hands at one of the lumber camps of the Little River Lumber
Company, in the upper end of Tuckaleechee Cove, were enjoying themselves
telling yarns and drinking, they had a misunderstanding and several pulled
pistols and began shooting around freely to prove their argument. As usual the
innocent bystander occupied all the danger spots. Tom Messner was standing in
the door of his cabin when a bullet hit him in the leg, inflicting an ugly
wound. His partner, Walter Heffner, a Carolinian about 26 years old, went to
his assistance, and, as he stooped over, a bullet ripped up his back and cut
an artery in his arm. Another hand, when the stray bullets came whistling
around, thought the shooting was for his benefit. So he drove into his cabin
and contributed a few shots from his trusty Winchester. There was so much
miscellaneous shooting going on that it would be impossible to say whose
bullets did the damage. Heffner was bleeding badly and was seen to be in
serious condition. He was bandaged and put on a hand-car, and a force started
with him for Knoxville, 40 miles away, to place him in a hospital. But before
they had covered half the distance, while near Hubbard Siding, the wounded man
died. The body was brought to this city and taken to Pflanze’s undertaking
establishment, where it was prepared for burial and the next morning sent to
his home in North Carolina. It is claimed that the men in these lumber camps
are regularly supplied with moonshine whiskey from up in the mountains, and
that this together with the habit of carrying pistols, is responsible for
nearly all the troubles and disturbances in these lumber camps, as all who
know the hands employed there declare that they are as nice and orderly a lot
of men, when sober, as are to be found anywhere.
windthrown
361 Junkie
Those are definitely blue gums. AKA: Tasmanian blue gum, Southern blue gum, Eucalyptus globulus. Invasive as all heck in California. Probably on the order of 130 years old or more (Highway 101 is a really old road gong back to Spanish colonial days; El Camino Real). Long haul to the pulp mills from there. Not worth the hauling cost. I do not even know where the closest chip or pulp mill would be down there. There are large stands of red gum eucs up around Red Bluff along I-5 that some guy planted to make hog fuel with (fat wood chips for burning). The venture failed as the cost was too high to generate electricity with it. Shipping to China would be out of Alameda or Oakland I guess. Too expensive. Hobbit houses? That is a laugh. Never heard of that outside of NZ. Firewood galore though. I would haul it here and process it into firewood. But getting it here would be prohibitive. Maybe blow them up as tank targets at Hunter Ligget? Or haul them over the Naciamento-Furgason Road and make rafts out of them in Pacific Valley and sail them to Hawaii. Make a documentary or a reality TV show out of it? Hollywood is not that far away down 101. Slash burning on site is likely out of the question. Maybe hire some artist to make them into a highway road-side exhibit? If it were Oregon, you could float them down the mighty Salinas River in a raft to Moss Landing. Heh heh heh... but that river usually goes dry around Greenfield. May not be any water in it after this drought. Cut it into pieces and sell it to tourists along 101? OK, that is all the ideas that I have.
Neighbors' cows and bulls get out here regularly. Part of rural life here.
Neighbors' cows and bulls get out here regularly. Part of rural life here.
The 'ologists and engineers refer to them as blue gum trees but I don't know for sure. Many many of these trees were planted as wind brakes throughout Cali. They are at an age where they are dropping limbs, sometimes very large car crushing size limbs. These trees are thick with shed bark and leaves. They are great habitat for rats and rattle snakes. 8' dbh trees are not uncommon.
The problem is getting rid of the wood. (The same goes for Monterey pines, many planted by the CCC in the 1930's). We have buried some of the tree trunks, some, years ago, went to China for paper. Euc produces a very white paper I'm told. A few lower trunks mayb 8' tall went to make tree house (hobbit houses) for wealthy families. The tree house maker would split the trunk and carve out the middle and make a doll/hobbit house and reassemble in someone's back yard. I never did see one but I have seen a couple made from redwood.
As far as milling goes eucs have a reputation for twisting badly. Some guys have just milled the wood into cants and let them season a couple of years before final milling. I have used euc for fence and corral boards, it is really strong, but the twist was pretty bad. A full dimension 3X6 is one strong peace of wood that horses can't break. Even cattle have a tough time, sorta. Speaking of that I slept in today till 0730 till the phone rang and told me a cow was out sight seeing on the roadway. The cops had him in before I got there, they like doing that kind of stuff.
Gypo Logger
Timber Baron
I think in the book, The Koolaid Acid Test by Thomas Wolfe? When the Merry Prangsters got to the east coast they tore kelp out of the ocean and beat the crummy with it, singing,"Kelp, I need somebody, Kelp, not just anybody." Lol
windthrown
361 Junkie
Yes, but it was in California and the kelp flogging and song were separate events. The Prangsters flogged the bus with kelp at Asilomar Beach (in Pacific Grove, near Monterey where I lived then). That was at an Asilomar conference of the Unitarian Church which my family belonged to at that time. The Pranksters were asked to leave by the church after that, but they hung around. Later on the closing day the kids at the conference put on a play, and that included the song, "Kelp I need Somebody". I was not at the conference, but I heard about it. That was about the time that the Unitarian minister told us to burn our draft cards. I was too young to have a draft card then. Actually the VN war ended just before I turned 18.
Gypo Logger
Timber Baron
I kinda had the story turned around a bit didn't I? Lol. I heard Kesey wasn't too thrilled when OFOTCN movie was different than his book.
Been trying to find a signed copy of Sometimes a Great Notion with dustjacket, but I don't have 5 G's. I'll settle for a readers paperback copy though as I haven't read the book yet.
John
Been trying to find a signed copy of Sometimes a Great Notion with dustjacket, but I don't have 5 G's. I'll settle for a readers paperback copy though as I haven't read the book yet.
John
