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The same is going on here, especially the "woodcutters". I've seen some stumps that would make you afraid to want look farther as you may not know what or who you may find lying on the ground.
Random Ramblings, Cutting Logs
- Thread starter Burvol
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The same is going on here, especially the "woodcutters". I've seen some stumps that would make you afraid to want look farther as you may not know what or who you may find lying on the ground.
i have had a few fallers that must have just thought we were playing pic up sticks. they would brag about how much wood they could cut but it took twice as long to get it skidded out and the leave trees got scared up bad becouse of the trees being strown every where. some suposed fallers can only fall where the tree leans. i too am down to me myself and i but i am putting out as much timber as other 3 men crews do. i had one mill ask me how many guys were helping me and i laughed. then said at the time being your looking at my crew. sometimes having a good cutter is worth two good choke setters.
Having a bunk skidder operator can really throw a monkey wrench in a good fallers operation..
I have to agree with the other folks who said this before. It's pretty F-in stupid to hire someone cheap who does a F-ed up job. Hiring someone a little more pricey yet still does a good job will pay off later.
Burvol
Bullbuck
I have beat this over the head, relentlesly here at AS. Macho ass log cutter wannabes that have no business being in the business....needing some much deprived attention from their childhood and never finding a girl to stomach their crap for more than two hours. It's some sort of inadequicy, or deficiancy in the brain. Some of these jokers could be trainded the right way to do it if their egos would allow. Instead, they want to run through the strip and stand on their last stump of the day and bask in their mess. lol
Instead of being cocky, they could try for perfection, cause no one is perfect, but if your that damn hot, you should try
I'm a pretty stubborn guy, but I'm not so stubborn that I'm not willing to learn how to cut from someone far more experienced then me. Guys like that who are too "proud" to seek help are the ones who get killed.
coastalfaller
ArboristSite Operative
It's been that way here for awhile, but my hopes seem to be coming to fruition! Things seem to be slowly turning for the better. Price is still the main factor, but there is more room now to talk and state my case. If I can prove why I need what I'm asking for, (and I can, to the penny!) I usually can get it now. I even had a conversation with a licensee awhile back who said that for so long contractors were considered a necessary evil, but he sees the days ahead where there won't be enough of us and the licensees will be bidding for our services! That day would be sweet justice!
coastalfaller
ArboristSite Operative
Absolutely. For too long it's been too easy for anyone with a crummy and a saw to all of a sudden decide "I think I'm going to be a falling contractor, looks easy enough!" By the time they've found they're sorely mistaken, they've made a complete mess of things (and the rates) for everyone else!
That happened here in the mid-90's. A bunch of crackheads went out and bought saws and started advertising themselves as log cutters. One set of those guys I was working alongside rigged up a deal where they would report their pickup "stolen" (they were camping on the job) and turn it into their insurance to get a new one.
Another one I was working with ended up staying up on the job for 8 days/7 nights because he was on the run from Johnny Law. I had to take him food, saw gas, and bar oil to keep him going (otherwise I'd be alone and couldn't work.) At the end of day 8 he decided to risk a trip to town and was promptly arrested and thrown in jail for 90 days. I was down for 4 days before I could find another guy to take up on the job.
Yup. We saw a lot of that on the burn salvage we did the last couple of years. For the first year if you had a pulse and could carry a saw you could find a job falling for somebody. Man, did that get ugly. Like most burn salvage the busy part didn't last too long and a lot of those guys went back to wherever they came from.
A lot of them were exchange students from south of the border. They worked for Burger King wages, slept on the ground, and never went to town until the job was over. I wonder why?
coastalfaller
ArboristSite Operative
That happened here in the mid-90's. A bunch of crackheads went out and bought saws and started advertising themselves as log cutters. One set of those guys I was working alongside rigged up a deal where they would report their pickup "stolen" (they were camping on the job) and turn it into their insurance to get a new one.
Another one I was working with ended up staying up on the job for 8 days/7 nights because he was on the run from Johnny Law. I had to take him food, saw gas, and bar oil to keep him going (otherwise I'd be alone and couldn't work.) At the end of day 8 he decided to risk a trip to town and was promptly arrested and thrown in jail for 90 days. I was down for 4 days before I could find another guy to take up on the job.
Yep, we've had our fair share of guys like that too. I knew one guy who's dream it was to buy a Ford Ranger. He stayed in camp for 60 days straight. Each day he'd draw a new piece of his prize (tire, door handle, etc). Finally he went to town, when he made it back I asked him if he bought his truck. He looked down at the floor and walked away. Turned out he blew his stake on crack and had to pawn his saws to get back to camp! This is the same guy who when you'd walk by his room he'd be lying on his bed pointing at the ceiling counting the dots on it!
coastalfaller
ArboristSite Operative
Shouldn't there be more background checks and drug tests for hiring cutters and loggers? I think they would help thin the herd of crappy cutters, I know I have no problem with that.
Unbelievable.
What was unbelievable was how many of those people just suddenly became available. They reminded me of a swarm of locusts.
Hearing all of this seems crazy to me, sounds like some companies will hire anyone who can run a chainsaw.
If you eliminated every man with a criminal history or a tendency to blaze up on the weekends you might not have too many left to make up your crew.
Most of our new hires, and there aren't many, are someone that somebody in the crew knows. I take them as they are. If they have a drug problem that affects their work I don't keep them. People that will do this kind of work day after day might have a few little rough spots on them but if they do what they're supposed to I tend not to judge them.
clearance
Addicted to ArboristSite
Yep, truer words have never been spoken here.
I love this old joke-guy is brought before the judge, monday morning.
Judge "Sir, you were involved in a bar fight, you are facing many charges. I see you already have an extensive record, so I want you to post a $500 bond to be released"
Logger "Can't do it your honor, I'm broke"
Judge "What? I understand you are a faller, what do you make?
Logger "Around $500 a day"
Judge " You were in camp for two months untill this weekend, how can you be broke, what did you do with all the money you made?"
Logger "Well your honor, I spent some of it on hoors, some in the bar on booze, some on cocaine, I guess I just wasted the rest"
tramp bushler
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.. Funny thing about all the druggies in the timber industry , and why they are allowed ... What ever it takes to reduce the cost of resource extraction is what the big outfits want ............. Tho they complain there arn,t any new guys in the brush , why would any one with a brain in his head want to do what we do for the same or less money than what guys made nearly 30 years ago ....
Burvol
Bullbuck
It's called the price of wood has dropped
They definitely get the quality they pay for. I sure notice. Just before the bust, one guy's crew had petered out so he could only get/afford a couple of crack boys in the rigging. They were fast, but they did not care about scarring up trees. I was down with them a lot. More than I should have been.
By the way, I find myself thinking about having a part time lawnmowing, brush piling after others take down trees, for second home owners business. I may have a name for it, La Gringa. :monkey:
By the way, I find myself thinking about having a part time lawnmowing, brush piling after others take down trees, for second home owners business.
I may have a name for it, La Gringa. :monkey:Similar threads
