Drawing in the cable/cleaning up slash

[dichelson]

Hello everybody. I know this may sound strange, but I'm not really interested in logging or forestry. Instead, I'm translating a novel, which talks about a logger who was "cleaning up some slash, drawing in the cable". I'm just interested in the meaning of that. Does that mean he was cleaning up some tree debris, and using a crane, skidder or something to pull a cable which was in turn attached to tree trunks, in order to drag them? Plus, it seems like he didn't draw the cable all at once, but it went there every day to pull the cable. Does it make sense to you? Thank you guys

[Kevin]

We should be able to sort that one out.  ;D

Slash pile: An accumulation of brushy debris and branches gathered into a pile.

It can be moved many ways including a skidder or yarding cable, any winching apparatus .

[beenthere]

Welcome to the forum. There are many languages touched by the ForestryForum.

drawing or pulling may fit bringing in wood, either brush, tops, or logs. Almost anything hooked to the cable seems could fit here, be it a tractor, winch, crane, overhead rigging, etc.

What language are you translating?

A bit more of the translation might help us provide the meaning you are looking for here too.

[rebocardo]

Translating Spanish perhaps?

> but it went there every day to pull the cable.

He worked over a period of days to finish the job.

Americans would just say worked, in Spanish tra bah ha (don't know how to spell it off hand - been a few decades since I wrote Spanish)  might not have been used and the actual action (pulling) describing what he was doing was.

Americans tend to throw one word out that describes a whole slew of actions, assuming you remember what was mentioned a paragraph before, where the romance languages tend to use a few more words to describe the action in a more defined way.

[simonmeridew]

It sounds to me that he was using a metaphor, a "figure of speech", specifically, "metonomy", which is "using a part for the whole", that is, the "drawing in cable" symbolizes the whole logging operation. "Cleaning up some slash" would perhaps symbolize someone who would go the extra mile in the logging operation, by doing something that was not a routinely done in many logging operations. Usually the slash or tops and small branches are just left on site as cleaning them up is not normally productive or remunerative.
If you're asking what does, "drawing in cable" mean in logging, it is the gathering in the harvest of logs from the woods and dragging or bringing them to the landing or point of accumulation and sale of product.
As an aside, one of the strengths of a metaphor is that you can use one word or a short phrase to paint a whole picture, in this case, one can picture someone on a skidder or tractor, working the winch, dragging in the harvest. We get a mental image of the whole logging operation, using 3 words. Then we define the scope of the operation with four more words acting as an adjective. Whether or not the metaphor works is up to the skill of the writer(and in your case, the translator).
Sorry, English 101, forty years ago.
simonmeridew

[rebocardo]

I can agree with that too 

[beenthere]

dichelson
Hope you come back to the FF to respond to some answers to your question.

See that you registered, and posted, and ....... : :

You have our curiousity peaked...

[Jeff]

Were taking something for granted.  This might be in English and the translation is into another language. Not vice versa.

The sentence is so out of context, that with a little before and a little after, the meaning might be quite apparent.