Spotted Owl
ArboristSite Guru
You really gonna claim that stump?
Owl
Owl
Barberchair
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hseII
Addicted to ArboristSite
Finally got around to watching the OP. DAAAAANG that was a hairy couple of seconds there. I don't like those moments much, and I am happy to say that I've only had a few. Fingers crossed that I can keep it that way.
HuskStihl
Chairin'em for the sound
Oh, I'm the worst thing there is. Half farmer, half homeowner, all know-it-all. That pic was from 5 years ago (pre-AS) when I intentionally made sloping back cuts. Now I'm learned-er, and I unintentionally make sloping back cuts
LOL...you've made a lot of progress since you've been here. If you wanted to log you already have two of the main requirements...a sense of humor and a wife with a steady job.
Less so now, but in years past where I grew up many folks logged at one or more points in their lives, including my father, but there were few career professional loggers much less timber fallers. I'm 58 and have always lived in southeastern rural areas except while in college. I have personally known only one career logger and he supplemented his income with dozer work and a few cattle. I think a lot of the East West thing is due to the lack of resources and the resulting progression of the profession where work was more abundant.* In Florida, our family as did many others, logged to clear land for cattle. In western North Carolina during my teenage years, there were almost no males 18 to 25 - they were either in the Army or had relocated to Washington State to chase the timber.
Ron
*If you look at photographs of the cross cut saw days, you will see many similarities between the two coasts. I believe the cross cut saw and axe pretty much took down the old growth in the South.
hseII
Addicted to ArboristSite
Good post Ron.
Where I grew up we thought our choices for a profession were limited. They weren't really but breaking the mold set by previous generations wasn't common. It wasn't encouraged either.
One side of our family were commercial fisherman and ranchers, the other side were loggers and crop dusters. I tended toward the logging and airplane side but I tried them all at one time or another.
Finishing high school was grudgingly accepted but not mandatory. We had a couple of renegades that went to college and established good careers outside of the normal family occupations but they left the area to do it. A lot of the family considered them to be snooty and pretentious. They weren't. They just found a way out of the cycle.
I went to the woods because I liked the work and the money was good. A career of sorts evolved from that with no conscious effort or thought on my part. In those days a guy just showed up, learned, did his work, kept his mouth shut, and defined himself...again with no conscious thought...by what he did for a living. One day, after a while, you turn around and you're a part of what's going on. You're logging.
I had good role models, great teachers in the woods, and I had some luck, too. I got in on the old growth redwood falling and I'll always be glad of that.
Every few years I'd get fed up, quit logging, find something else to do, and swear I was never putting on calks or picking up a saw, or getting up before daylight again. I always wound up going back to logging.
I'm 68 now and it's fun to play the "what if" game but if I had to do it all over again, start from zero and decide on a profession to follow all my life, I'd probably head for the woods .
LOLOL...some people just never learn.
Where I grew up we thought our choices for a profession were limited. They weren't really but breaking the mold set by previous generations wasn't common. It wasn't encouraged either.
One side of our family were commercial fisherman and ranchers, the other side were loggers and crop dusters. I tended toward the logging and airplane side but I tried them all at one time or another.
Finishing high school was grudgingly accepted but not mandatory. We had a couple of renegades that went to college and established good careers outside of the normal family occupations but they left the area to do it. A lot of the family considered them to be snooty and pretentious. They weren't. They just found a way out of the cycle.
I went to the woods because I liked the work and the money was good. A career of sorts evolved from that with no conscious effort or thought on my part. In those days a guy just showed up, learned, did his work, kept his mouth shut, and defined himself...again with no conscious thought...by what he did for a living. One day, after a while, you turn around and you're a part of what's going on. You're logging.
I had good role models, great teachers in the woods, and I had some luck, too. I got in on the old growth redwood falling and I'll always be glad of that.
Every few years I'd get fed up, quit logging, find something else to do, and swear I was never putting on calks or picking up a saw, or getting up before daylight again. I always wound up going back to logging.
I'm 68 now and it's fun to play the "what if" game but if I had to do it all over again, start from zero and decide on a profession to follow all my life, I'd probably head for the woods .
LOLOL...some people just never learn.
treeslayer2003
Addicted to ArboristSite
i wouldn't do much different as far as work........i love the woods.
waterman huh? the simularitys between here and there are uncanny some times. farm, log, work on the water, truck.......that was it besides low pay factory or canning house work and thats gone here now.
waterman huh? the simularitys between here and there are uncanny some times. farm, log, work on the water, truck.......that was it besides low pay factory or canning house work and thats gone here now.
Yup, lots of things the same. I worked for relatives on salmon trollers and crabbers when I was a kid. I liked the life and the boats but I never could get used to sometimes working for a week or more, not catching very much, and winding up with no paycheck. The boat got paid first, the hired help split up what was left. Sometimes that wasn't much.
We ate a lot of good fresh seafood though.
sw oh logger
ArboristSite Lurker
This kind of went where it didn't need to go! Although we all have many general similarities in our work in the woods , specifics vary. I don't have s skidder payment, a log truck to fuel, maintain, or drive anymore--let alone a million dollar insurance umbrella policy AND Workers Comp. payments to make any more. I'm almost 66 yrs.old{unfortunately!}, my kids are grown up and gone {youngest lives in D.C. and runs Tesla Motor Cars Mid-Atlantic region}, my grandkids come and go. I still maintain my CDL, haul 200 -225 loads of wheat,corn, and soybeans, and still cut just like I've done more or less since about 1978. My youngest brother needs me to help him in the woods, I worry about him, and want him to be safe and successful. I don't have a Bell 3-wheeler to upkeep, and house is paid for, I supervised Teamsters for 15 yrs. while logging on the side, but I still always ended up in the woods. 50+ yrs. ago my Dad would leave my 2 brothers and I in the woods in the cold and snow and say:"Have another load split when I get back!" So, I do this because I still can-I'm 6'4" 255# of old man, I get tired easier now, but I can still put the trees on the ground right, safely, in hot or cold weather. I enjoy my modded Huskys and Stihls, being with younger guys. Gologit has it right--a sense of humor and a good wife{41+ yrs.] who had a good job. I hope to leave this earth with a clear conscience, a full heart, and an empty wallet!
I can relate to what you said Gologit. I am 69, although not many loggers in my family, I was raised in the country on a cow ranch, family had summer premits in the mountains. Lol I didn't want to be a cowboy, but I kept coming back to it. I am still cowboying lol. Slowed down a hell of a lot though. I was always intrigued by logging, but never did any. Logging is a lot like cowboying, there are good ones and some not so good. Like the old saying, the clothes don't make the man. Ed
HuskStihl
Chairin'em for the sound
Spotted Owl
ArboristSite Guru
Wasn't intended to lead astray. Just my end of things. I do keep my CDL also. I'm not close to "retirement" age yet. I don't have any of those things or payments, mortgage aside, either. I don't work for myself other than side work here and there. I'm a hired gun, I do the check cashing not check writing. Don't want the hassle of the other side, to honest and didn't make it enough to keep on. I hear ya about the conscience and heart, believe it or not I really am a softie. At this stage in my game though an empty wallet does no favors for my family. In time though I look forward to what I think you are saying, just not quite yet. I do like being able to do this for the enjoyment of doing it, and to help some in need now and then. As time goes, I enjoy it more and more. I do still think though, don't give your skill away, I understand about the brother thing though.
I do certainly hope when I hit your stage in the game, I can be in the same fashion. I'm sure you already know, but it isn't always easy along the way to make sure, that later things can be as you describe. I'm always glad to see guys get to your stage and are able to make it. Lots, around here anyway seem like they are working right up to the grave.
Owl
I am about as much a cowboy as a logger but I did grow up with cattle and had a nice pair of "dress" cowboy boots I wore while in college. A young booted student from Texas stroll up to me one day on campus and she asks me if I was the real thing or just a kicker. I had never heard that term before but I knew I was no horse riding cowboy so I simply replied that back home they just called folks like me rednecks. Can't remember her reply but I remember her getting in a huff, spinning around and marching off. I didn't get a chance to ask her if she was the real thing or just a kicker. I understand that in today's slang a kicker can mean redneck but as used by her a kicker meant - "(slang, Southern US) A particular type of resident of Texas who is associated with country/western attire, attitudes and/or philosophy." Wiktionary.
When I cut, I wear Key logger jeans and suspenders and carry a long bar saw. Fools a lot of folks but none of it makes me cut any better, much less does it make me a logger.
Ron
sw oh logger
ArboristSite Lurker
What a great bunch of guys on here!! Owl, I guess I've made it,but, I look back over the years and don't know where the time went. However, I'm not done yet--if you quit working you'll die or at least go very slowly and ugly{like Huskstihl's post lol!!} I see Treeslayer2003 and KYLogger and it makes me feel good--20 yrs ago that was me, and I don't know how I survived sometimes. It's really good sharing with guys like you all, keeps me on my toes and realize where I've been. Please, all of you have a very blessed and Merry Christmas!!
treeslayer2003
Addicted to ArboristSite
oh logger........i gotta do this 20 more years??????
LOL, i prolly will and enjoy it........the last 20 been good.
LOL, i prolly will and enjoy it........the last 20 been good.
KYLogger
Professional Tree Assassin
The last 2 1/2 have been alright as well......sometimes starting out you have to decide if the crummy needs tires (when the wires are hanging out) or the skidder needs parts to keep it from losing a gallon of hyd. oil a day, or if you should just pay your house payment! LOL....... Like a wise old logger once said; "Chicken one day and feathers the next" And I would not have it any other way! I would like to have a skidder that wasn't a half century old.......... (Patience, Tom, Patience)
Merry Christmas everyone!
Merry Christmas everyone!
Calks, Ron, get some calks. Guaranteed to improve your cutting 100 %.
Want to look like a logger? Try to limp a little when you walk, look just slightly pissed off all the time, learn to use snoose, start every third sentence with "those damn environmentalists......", shave twice a week if you feel like it, develop a taste for 7-11 coffee and donettos, and drive a rig that's about the same color as the ground you're working so the dust will hide the dents.
Don't wash your clothes too often 'cause the accumulated layers of dirt and sweat and saw oil and wood chips and coffee spill and donetto crumbs will make them almost waterproof when the rains come.
That's all I can think of right now. Anybody got more ideas?
KYLogger
Professional Tree Assassin
Have a notebook aka.... your "Brain" crammed in your front shirt pocket with the number to all the area mills, equipment dealers, mechanics, parts houses, potential jobs etc............... and about 4-7 pop bottles rolling around the floorboard a third full of 'baccer spit. And the mandatory tailgate and truck bumper that will NEVER rust cause of all the bar oil, diesel, hyd. oil, and 2 cycle that has been spilled on it. Gologit purty much summed it up!
