We're Going Down...Not just me Brother, YOU!

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I can't help but be concerned for me, my whole family, friends, and logger buddies here. But....everyone here will feel it too. It is mind blowing when you no longer take logs, anywhere. We are heading into some dark times, things that we will never forget.

The market has finally collapsed in my area. Gone. The Chip market is suppose to be viable in 2013 here. No one wants to cut logs until around 2012 here. Our export yard is set to close permantly as well.

My point is, there is not enough inventory to last 2-3 years. What do people see ahead? DISASTER.

Logging is a great barometer of the nation's health. No one is building or fixing things, expanding, ect. This is going to effect all of us here on AS, not just loggers.

I just wanted to say it's more than bad, it's looking like hell. I picked up a thinning job for a month or so, and I am greatful. I want to cut logs this year, but I will stop thinking about it now, and do my best to survive this mess. I'm telling you, it's even worse than the news and people are led on to believe.

Part of this seems planned to me. Kill the markets. Kill logging. Kill Urban Growth. Kill the expansion of America. Move everyone into the cities into affordable Ghettos. Put nature behind glass, go visit it and bow in worship.

The new age is here, ready to roll. Thanks Black Jesus.

I agree with you that this seems planned.

However, I believe that it has been planned by a few of the Wall Street Bankers or ultra wealthy men.

They want General Motors to fail, so they can buy it for 10 cents on the dollar.

Same thing for anything else that goes under, land, businesses, houses.

Happened after the 29 crash. This group wants it to happen again.
 
We are paying the price for hiring the rest of the world to build our products. I watched our machine tool business dissappear in the 1970's and 1980's, was a part of the "Technology" transfer of the 1990's and knew we we in serious trouble when IBM sold off its PC business to a Chinese company..at the beginning of this decade.

I saw the maufacturing sub industries fold from founderies to stamping as we "out sourced" our entire manufacturing sector to those who don't have our best interests at heart.

I watched our States and Local governements subsidize foreign car manufactures to compete with our own home grown companies and the "pop" culture (Liberalizm) attempt destroy all things technical from our past..from our manufacturing to our military.

We have been destroying piece by piece everything structural our forefathers fought to build.

We as a nation actively have supported these trends for years and years with our dollars and our politics...you reap what you sow.

Will this turn? I certainly hope so. For my kids and yours.
 
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The only thing I can say is enjoy life while we can. I gonna cut as much wood as I can this year, I will even cut some for the people in need and churches. God bless anyone not keeping warm.

That sounds great, cut it all. See around here specifically where I live, there really isn't any regulations on cutting. If want to go in the woods or in my yard cuz I saw a big hooter I want to cut, no one is going to stop me. We don't have hippies either, with quarrying and logging combined the hippies would get killed around here.
 
You are correct! I lost my job in December selling Forestry and Arborist Equipment. You may have to come up with alternative ways of selling your logs. In Alabama and Georgia our mills have closed or gone to limited hours. I don't know if you eat chickens in Oregon but the mills closing in Alabama and Georgia have created a problem with the chicken farmer as he may have to wait up to 3-4 weeks to get wood shavings for the bedding. The sawmills were providing them the bedding material. In Georgia we are the second largest user of wood chips as a fuel. You might want to see if there is a pelletizing plant around you. These pellets are used in England in a big way.
I know of a plant in Alabama shipping 10 million dollars worth of pellets. I know our economic outlook is bleak at best. Hopefully, these ideas may give you other avenues of selling your logs.

Equipment Broker
 
I was brought up in a forestry,hydrodam and farming area. The school I went to in Atiamuri village had near 200 kids. Alot including my best mate Glen lived nearby in Ohakuri village that was there to service the nearby dam where Glens dad worked. Atiamuri village had pools, golf course, bowling clubs, halls,an ambulance service, a garage and was generally a great little tight community. If bored with the playground there were always old D9's and skidders to play on near the school. The forestry gang trucks were everywhere. As kids we knew alot of the logging truck drivers by name and some kids came to school by horse which browsed the playing fields and nearby paddocks.

The feller bunchers came in then log prices fell, they mechanised the hydrodams and the villages started to die. Dam staff went from something like 60 to 5 full timers. Glens dad lost his job and ended up luckily getting a job in town as a mechanic. Glens Uncle and cousins lost there jobs. Ohakuri village is now NOTHING but an empty dead end road with some random but lovely trees.
My younger brother didnt get to finish his time at atiamuri school because it closed so he had to go to school in town, spending over 2 hours on a bus every day.
The boys who could leave school at 16 and start breaking out on skid sites or get an apprenticehip at the dams found there was nothign for them.
The good people moved out and the bad moved in. Retired men who had built the village and dams in the 50's had to watch it all go to crap and there families leave. There were no jobs.

I worked a hundred short jobs on farms, did hay and silage contracting, drove cattle trucks, milked cows, sprayed weeds, worked as an industrial absieler on the dams, painted transformers, pumped gas, pruned, picked up bales, crotched sheep, built cowsheds, fenced, picked up dead stock, did some mechanical and panel work. Anything I could get to make some money. But in that area that I had been brought up in and had all my friends and family just wasnt going to give me any security. So I packed up my car and left to a city I had only visited a few times to stay with friends while I looked for work.

In some ways I was lucky because I had so very little so could only move upwards.

Sadly these things happen everywhere. Change. Boom, bust, supply, demand, technology and redundance.
 
Hey, I'm no expert on the economy for sure - One thing I see & think though is 'the economy' as we knew it was running on some false ideals. There were how many thousands of houses being built and sold to people that 20 years ago would not & could not qualify for a mortgage. Now these houses sit empty, reposesed by a bank or lending company because people were extended credit they could not afford. These were not 'starter homes' either, many are mini-mansions 4000 sf and up. The sub divisions of the 50's and 60's [small sensible houses] weren't good enough anymore. Nowadays people wanted "The Dream Home" to start out with. In my crystal ball, I see the lumber market staying flat [or lower] until people start to buy some of these reposesed homes, and the banks and mortagage companies have some $$$$$ to work with. The paper & pulp industry however, will be booming - As there is so much bullsh*t around Washington DC, that the need for toilet paper will be at an all time high. They love their paperwork too, those politicians.
 
Hey, I'm no expert on the economy for sure - One thing I see & think though is 'the economy' as we knew it was running on some false ideals. There were how many thousands of houses being built and sold to people that 20 years ago would not & could not qualify for a mortgage. Now these houses sit empty, reposesed by a bank or lending company because people were extended credit they could not afford. These were not 'starter homes' either, many are mini-mansions 4000 sf and up. The sub divisions of the 50's and 60's [small sensible houses] weren't good enough anymore. Nowadays people wanted "The Dream Home" to start out with. In my crystal ball, I see the lumber market staying flat [or lower] until people start to buy some of these reposesed homes, and the banks and mortagage companies have some $$$$$ to work with. The paper & pulp industry however, will be booming - As there is so much bullsh*t around Washington DC, that the need for toilet paper will be at an all time high. They love their paperwork too, those politicians.

Well said.
 
Housing picking up with the spring here recently,but some of that I think is due to the natural geographical land locked nature of Anchorage,how long it lasts hard to say of course,things will never go back to the go-go days of 2000-2004,but should remain steady.My excavation buddies are backed up 15 houses,and thats with DOT spring time weight restrictions.
Like the old saying goes,"location,location,location"...

ak4195
 
I'm disappointed. Went out to see what was happening at the Moneypit, and the workers doing the sheetrocking seem to be Exchange Students. They're about done, but I'm disappointed. Maybe I'm wrong and they are Instate Students? So much for local guys as far as sheetrocking goes.
 
Bushpig

I posted a large list of mills closing and cutting back in the PNW on another thread. Its dismal. 20% unemployment in rural Oregon now. 12% statewide. We lead the nation now. The mills cannot run skelleton crews forever, and they cannot stay shut for long either. So a lot of the mills are going the way of the sawdust burners here. The next building boom will probably be supplied by imported lumber form Siberia. Or the logging industry will be socilized under ObamaVision, Inc.

BTW: Chrystler Motors is going under as of today too. GM may not be far behind. We have a ways to go on this economic road to disaster.

I think some of you blokes need to wake up , you lot had old bushpig in for how many years? makeing a complete shamozel of things and just before he leaves office , the crap hits the fan , my pet pig has more brains in one of his turds than he ever had , then as soon as obama gets in office , what happens , all the brainless turkeys blame him , the smartest thing that has happened to your country in years , is the electing of president Obama . Cheers MM
 
Burvol, it's the pathetic truth about our country. We buy our steel from Asia, import oil from the Middle East, send our oil from Alaska to Asia, we get our potatos from ASIA! Even our military technology is so poor that we could make every part on our M1-A2 Abrams tank, but we have to get the barrels from Germany. Our country is dependent on every country except itself.
 
I think some of you blokes need to wake up , you lot had old bushpig in for how many years? makeing a complete shamozel of things and just before he leaves office , the crap hits the fan , my pet pig has more brains in one of his turds than he ever had , then as soon as obama gets in office , what happens , all the brainless turkeys blame him , the smartest thing that has happened to your country in years , is the electing of president Obama . Cheers MM

Word up dude, I'm glad for the Obama change.... and I cut full time everyday..... imagine that. Plus, env. regs gets more of the rif raf out of the woods so those of us that excel can overcome, meanwhile sustaining a viable industry into the future.
Future? Yeah, so my kids can be loggers too. If that means fulfilling biological AND societal expectations, so be it.
 
I think some of you blokes need to wake up , you lot had old bushpig in for how many years? makeing a complete shamozel of things and just before he leaves office , the crap hits the fan , my pet pig has more brains in one of his turds than he ever had , then as soon as obama gets in office , what happens , all the brainless turkeys blame him , the smartest thing that has happened to your country in years , is the electing of president Obama . Cheers MM

Well, I'm no fan of Bush. But if Obama keeps it up at the rate he's going, he will far exceed Bush at screw ups. But that's ok, our grandkids can pay for it.

Andy
 
I can't help but be concerned for me, my whole family, friends, and logger buddies here. But....everyone here will feel it too. It is mind blowing when you no longer take logs, anywhere. We are heading into some dark times, things that we will never forget.

The market has finally collapsed in my area. Gone. The Chip market is suppose to be viable in 2013 here. No one wants to cut logs until around 2012 here. Our export yard is set to close permantly as well.

My point is, there is not enough inventory to last 2-3 years. What do people see ahead? DISASTER.

Logging is a great barometer of the nation's health. No one is building or fixing things, expanding, ect. This is going to effect all of us here on AS, not just loggers.

I just wanted to say it's more than bad, it's looking like hell. I picked up a thinning job for a month or so, and I am greatful. I want to cut logs this year, but I will stop thinking about it now, and do my best to survive this mess. I'm telling you, it's even worse than the news and people are led on to believe.

Part of this seems planned to me. Kill the markets. Kill logging. Kill Urban Growth. Kill the expansion of America. Move everyone into the cities into affordable Ghettos. Put nature behind glass, go visit it and bow in worship.

The new age is here, ready to roll. Thanks Black Jesus.

amen brother!reads just like gospel to me!that is exactly the plan that big government has for the common working man,i mean what does this country produce anymore?absolutely nothing!i see in the next fifteen years or maybe less the only thing i see americans being known as is green just a self righteous title to stand by and let the country decay into a worthless bunch of do gooders that do nothin!here wherei am the government has pushed out the ranchers almost to the point of extintion(they were here long before any govt jockey came rollin down the pipe)they have the loggers on the ropes and off road vehichles are being persecuted like frickin criminals,but yet the f.s.just got a brand new multi million dollar complex here on the mountain with probably 55 brand new 50,000 dolar trucks lined up with an idential complex to match twenty five miles from it!we are on the chopping block now make no mistake about it people!p.s.by the way if anyone could tell me what the forest service actually does during the day i would love to know because i have lived here 33 years and i still do not know?
 
amen brother!reads just like gospel to me!that is exactly the plan that big government has for the common working man,i mean what does this country produce anymore?absolutely nothing!i see in the next fifteen years or maybe less the only thing i see americans being known as is green just a self righteous title to stand by and let the country decay into a worthless bunch of do gooders that do nothin!here wherei am the government has pushed out the ranchers almost to the point of extintion(they were here long before any govt jockey came rollin down the pipe)they have the loggers on the ropes and off road vehichles are being persecuted like frickin criminals,but yet the f.s.just got a brand new multi million dollar complex here on the mountain with probably 55 brand new 50,000 dolar trucks lined up with an idential complex to match twenty five miles from it!we are on the chopping block now make no mistake about it people!p.s.by the way if anyone could tell me what the forest service actually does during the day i would love to know because i have lived here 33 years and i still do not know?

Well, out here they drive around a lot in their new pickups. They get lost a lot, too, and wind up over on private ground and don't even know it. They put up signs in the woods...lots of signs...Smokey the Bear stuff. They change the toilet paper rolls in the campgrounds...but not very often. They go to a lot of meetings and conferences and training sessions...and stay in motels and eat fancy meals at taxpayer expense. They send a lot of memos and emails back and forth amongst themselves...they all agree with each other but the amount of paperwork they generate is considered when career opportunities arise. They go out and drive around some more.

Oh, wait a minute. You were wondering what they do that's good and useful, right? Let me think about that. I'll think about it real hard when I drive through one of the burns that's full of good pine and fir and cedar from last summer that they haven't even put up for bid yet because they're still out driving around. And putting up signs. And having meetings.

What do they do that's useful? I'm still thinking about it. If I think of anything I'll let you know.
 
Well, out here they drive around a lot in their new pickups. They get lost a lot, too, and wind up over on private ground and don't even know it. They put up signs in the woods...lots of signs...Smokey the Bear stuff. They change the toilet paper rolls in the campgrounds...but not very often. They go to a lot of meetings and conferences and training sessions...and stay in motels and eat fancy meals at taxpayer expense. They send a lot of memos and emails back and forth amongst themselves...they all agree with each other but the amount of paperwork they generate is considered when career opportunities arise. They go out and drive around some more.

Oh, wait a minute. You were wondering what they do that's good and useful, right? Let me think about that. I'll think about it real hard when I drive through one of the burns that's full of good pine and fir and cedar from last summer that they haven't even put up for bid yet because they're still out driving around. And putting up signs. And having meetings.

What do they do that's useful? I'm still thinking about it. If I think of anything I'll let you know.
ok i think i am following you paperwork followed by meetings to push the paperwork leading to a need to drive the paperwork around to meet with other paperpushers and possibly do some printing to produce more paperwork that ultimately puts the pinch on your salvage contract needed to produce more paper?and we wonder why this country is in the toilet!
 
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