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General Forestry => Forestry and Logging => Topic started by: Tombstone on May 25, 2009, 07:53:51 PM

Title: Women in Logging
Post by: Tombstone on May 25, 2009, 07:53:51 PM

I was introduced to a woman the other day and was told she used to fell trees? It made me stop and wonder just how many if any, there were out there. The story goes that the original owner of my skideder back in 76 used to have his wife skid for him when he cut, I thought that was kind of cool.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Ron Scott on May 25, 2009, 08:02:35 PM
I've known a few that were tree fallers, buckers, skidder operators, feller buncher operators, wood hauling truckers, and log scalers. Also some that were coal miners. ;)
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Jeff on May 25, 2009, 10:21:59 PM
Not uncommon at all around here. Ron probably knows some of the same ones I do.  :)
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Dave Shepard on May 25, 2009, 10:23:37 PM
One of the mills around here, now gone, started out as a mom and pop show. He sawed, she off-beared, railroad ties. :o
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: LeeB on May 26, 2009, 01:28:07 AM
I bet he said yes ma'am to her too. :D
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Sawyerfortyish on May 26, 2009, 06:28:02 AM
I have a women that works for me part time. Back about 8 years ago I taught her how to fell a tree. After 9/11 she felt compelled to join the fire fighters now she fells trees for the forest fire service and has been sent all over the west where needed to do so. You would never beleive she runs a nail salon and works for me part time in my sawmill a couple days a week just to get away from those people that come in to get there nails done. You would not want to make her mad or rub her the wrong way she could put a hurtin on ya  :o.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Fla._Deadheader on May 26, 2009, 07:22:52 AM

My small Wife offbears our mill.  8)
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Jeff on May 26, 2009, 07:35:39 AM
One of the best  offbearers ever to work at the mill I sawed at was a gal.  Her name was Stacey. She had long jet black hair was 6 foot tall, well built, tattoed and chewed tabacco and swore like a sailor. Before she worked at the mill she worked at the Weidman Bar as the barmaid. She left the mill after only a few months to start her own drywall hanging and finishing business.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Tombstone on May 26, 2009, 08:16:13 AM
 I guess there are more out there than I thought!?? Lee B I am sure he did say yes Ma'am all the time  :D!!!
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Ron Scott on May 26, 2009, 11:30:10 AM
Also many woman mill workers, foresters and wildland firefighters.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Bro. Noble on May 26, 2009, 11:46:45 AM
Quote from: Ron Scott on May 26, 2009, 11:30:10 AM
Also many woman mill workers, foresters and wildland firefighters.

One of my favorite vacations was a trip around Lake Superior.  What made me most envious of the men who lived there was that it seemed like all the road crews were women. Whenever you saw a woman,  she was usually working often holding an outdoor tool.  Seemed Most of the men seemed to be carrying fishing poles :D :D :D
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Tombstone on May 26, 2009, 12:35:40 PM
LoL! :D
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: stumphugger on May 26, 2009, 08:26:01 PM
Let me see, I've done the following:

Planted trees, cruised and marked timber, ran saw on a thinning crew (first woman there to survive running saw) laid out roads, worked on the line on the occasional fire crew (back when we had to throw a fit to get a shower) burned slash, scaled logs, now I go out and harass loggers,  cut blowdown out when I get a call, and have set chokers when I took pity on the short handed crew (wasn't much more physical than marking timber) and did a little chasing on a couple of days where we were getting a slide cleaned out.


Now, back when I was young, I worked in an orchard.  The boys got paid more to run tractor.  I had run tractor since age 12 and wanted that job.  But I was told that girls can't operate tractors.   :-X  So I went to work in the woods. :)

Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Woodhog on May 26, 2009, 09:13:38 PM
You can go here and take a womans chainsaw course.

http://queenscountytimes.ca/smallfarms/index.html (http://queenscountytimes.ca/smallfarms/index.html)

Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: stumphugger on May 27, 2009, 09:11:26 AM
Quote from: Woodhog on May 26, 2009, 09:13:38 PM
You can go here and take a womans chainsaw course.

http://queenscountytimes.ca/smallfarms/index.html (http://queenscountytimes.ca/smallfarms/index.html)

Why?  I take the same training as everybody else.  We do need to work out or build up strength prior to running the bigger saws. 
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Ron Scott on May 27, 2009, 10:01:06 AM
Well done! There's also a woman owned and run Tree Service Company here. She has been in business for a number of years and will usually take anything on.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Tillaway on May 27, 2009, 10:31:51 PM
One logger here had nearly an all woman landing.  One ran loader under the yarder and the other chased the landing.  They did not have a delimber so the chaser had to limb and buck.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: baronthered on May 28, 2009, 04:34:30 AM
I knew a few like that one Jeff. One actually ran a bar in town before coming onto my bridge building crew. she was like that old saying "she a burlap bag full of bobcats" We got another woman on the crew a few weeks later to do some runing and light stuff. It was worse than watching two tomcats circling each other with their hair all sticking up. Always got a kick out of that. Wound up dating the first one awhile thank god she didn't chew, but she was a wild woman for sure.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: nhlogga on June 12, 2009, 09:09:11 PM
my girlfriend helps me when I need her to. she handles firewood, works on equipment, what ever I need her to do. Showed her how to run skidder. clark 665d, clark 664c. best machines to learn on. tough and simple to run. 3 levers run the whole machine. She can also run chainsaw a little. One of the best workers you could ask for.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: arojay on June 13, 2009, 10:22:50 PM
My wife never looks hotter than when she is stacking firewood!  Seriously though,  I have met a few women who could work with the boys without being one of the boys, in several lines of work.  About thirty-five or so years ago I knew of a service rig toolpush who had a whole crew of his own daughters.  Yes ma'am, no ma'am.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Phorester on June 14, 2009, 07:49:48 AM

I may have related this before, but we've got a lady in my area who is now in her 40s, maybe 50s (no, I ain't gonna ask........) who has her own pulpwood cutting company of 2 or 3 people total. This is the size of most pulpwood crews here.  She started in her teens with her dad, who died last year.  She pretty much took over the company a few years ago when her dad's health started failing and now it's hers.

She runs all the equipment - chainsaw, fellerbuncher, knuckle boom loader, bulldozer, etc. They bolted a chunk of wood to the pedals of their log truck so she could reach them. She also buys the wood, handles the bookkeeping, etc. Never married.  I imagine when she was younger that she intimidated all the boys with her man-related abilities.

About 20 years ago the chainsaw kicked back into her face.  She has a scar running diagnonally from one cheek up and across the bridge of her nose into her forehead. Fortunately no serious damage, just superficial to her skin.  Have to look real hard to see it now, but it was a humdinger for the first year or so after the accident.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Tombstone on June 16, 2009, 11:37:55 AM
Nhlogga,

  I run the Clark 666b, wonder if I can get my wife to give it a spin? They are easy to run, good machine.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: nhlogga on June 16, 2009, 09:03:04 PM
tombstone,                                                                                                                                ask your wife to bring you lunch, put her on 'ol clarky (thats what i call my old clark)and let her try it. Clarks are tough and easy to run. Best machine for someone to learn on.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Tombstone on June 16, 2009, 09:07:55 PM
nhlogga,

  Sounds like a plan to me! Im gonna give it a rip! How far from richmond is farmington?
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: nhlogga on June 16, 2009, 09:10:47 PM
wheres richmond near? farmington is just north of rochester and about an hour south of tamworth.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: tarzanstree on June 24, 2009, 03:55:43 PM
I remember hearing multiple stories about a woman named "Jagger Jenny", when I was Falling Timber for Columbia Helicopters.  I guess she and her husband made quite the pair.  I also remember a saw shop in Sandpoint Idaho that showed a picture of a woman falling a tree.  Guess she owned the saw shop.  My grandmother on my Dad's side used to cut and skid for herself in a little town called Fox Park Wyoming;  She was a tough old gal! smiley_chop

Cody
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Tombstone on July 02, 2009, 02:03:35 PM
nhlogga,

        richmond is outsida keene and swanzey area. what year is your machine?
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: nhlogga on July 02, 2009, 09:00:42 PM
tombstone, ol clarky is a '79. You are probably a couple hours away from farmington. any luck with the wife running the 666? if she does when she shuts the machine down hand her the grease gun. after all the operator greases the machine right? ;D
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: pappy19 on July 03, 2009, 02:51:55 PM
Quote from: Ron Scott on May 26, 2009, 11:30:10 AM
Also many woman mill workers, foresters and wildland firefighters.



When I was working for the US Forest Service, in 1970, I was in charge of a fire crew working on some wildfires in the Salmon River area. We had been on the fire line for 3 days and they choppered us back to base camp for a shower and some real food. The base camp had a large Army octogon tent with 8 shower heads. I was in the second batch to get my shower with about 4 of my crew members. We were about done with our shower when 5 lady firefighters came in, disrobed and started soaping down. I guess my boys were real dirty cause they soaped up again and again and again, until I finally rinsed off and told my boys it was time to go. That was the first year that I ever saw female firefighters and after that encounter, we had no trouble getting volonteers for fire duty.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Tombstone on July 04, 2009, 08:21:53 AM
hmmmm.....I am in the wrong line of work! :D nhlogga I like that idea, I will toss her the grease gun!
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Phorester on July 06, 2009, 09:11:22 PM

PAPPY,  ".....after that encounter, we had no trouble getting volonteers for fire duty."

I'll bet you also had the cleanest firefighters around too.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: logger t on August 14, 2009, 02:41:26 PM
me and wife and son all work together on our small logging job i run our jd 544d feller buncher my son runs our koering 266dl delimber  wife runs our jd 648-d grapple or our  520 timberjack clamp bunk skidder she easer on them then we are she said we couldnt do it without  her
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Ron Scott on August 14, 2009, 07:32:19 PM
Well done!
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: sziva on August 15, 2012, 02:54:08 PM
Quote from: logger  t on August 14, 2009, 02:41:26 PM
me and wife and son all work together on our small logging job i run our jd 544d feller buncher my son runs our koering 266dl delimber  wife runs our jd 648-d grapple or our  520 timberjack clamp bunk skidder she easer on them then we are she said we couldnt do it without  her

I look for informations to timberjack 520, because we have got 520 but we havent got handbook!

Can you send me pictures your machine?
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: stoneeaglefarm on August 15, 2012, 04:41:13 PM
My wife can has worked with me in the woods, She can drop trees, limb, and is a good tractor operator besides being pretty she can do firewood as quick as me and is not afraid of getting her hands dirty. Just lucky I am.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: logman81 on August 15, 2012, 05:19:10 PM
Yup I too have a wife like that best worker I ever had.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: c_silva88 on August 15, 2012, 05:41:08 PM
my oldest daughter is always asking me to get a chainsaw for her so she can help me cut wood. she helps load my truck. once i get my skidder on my new lot im gonna teach my  girlfriend to run it.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Autocar on August 15, 2012, 07:09:12 PM
My wife has set in the saw booth and sawed all day, I cut she skidded timber and has helped change 24.5x32 twenty ply tires. Just this past week she came to the job with the tool truck and I had blown a hyd. line on the Prentice, a good girl for sure. And I cut for a fellow years ago and his wife skidded for us. At the end of the day he would ask her how many feet was on the landing and she would tell him and after it was scaled it was never off more then a few hundred feet.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: James Arsenault on August 15, 2012, 07:29:49 PM
My mother worked in the woods with my father off and on for years. She always yarded, never chopped/felled. I don't ever remember her using a chain saw. When Dad sold firewood commercially, Mom did run the wood splitter.

I remember her having biceps like a man.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Ed_K on August 16, 2012, 06:59:43 PM
 Rita has her own saw,helps me with cutting grapevines.last job was 15 ac.She hepled replace center pins& bushings on the taylor.(Never again in the woods) ;D .Yrs ago she ran a JD scraper and did dozer work,(liked the JD 850 best hated my TD6).
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Woodhauler on August 16, 2012, 07:53:23 PM
My mother peeled 4ft popple with a bark spud so they could haul it to rumford,maine in the early 60s! This with 2 little boys on the yard with her! Dad cut and yarded it!
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: treefarmer87 on August 16, 2012, 09:56:01 PM
i know of 3 or 4 women who do hauling around here.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: lumberjack48 on August 17, 2012, 04:49:21 PM
The wife peeled pulp, we peeled it tree length in the woods. Professorial skidder operate'er 16 yrs, fell timber, bucked up on landing, limb an top, changed oil / grease skidder, cut cable off, retie, fix skidder tires, pulled the Funk power shift 2 times and put back in, free hand saw filer. She gets mad when i brag about her, i can't help it, she was very good at what she did. She still talks about her logging days. [she loved the woods]

Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: lumberjack48 on August 31, 2012, 04:59:54 PM
We found a few pictures we thought were lost of the wife running skidder. She weighed in at 102 lbs when driving the S8 IH, she learned on a C5-B TF, all so run my C5-D and my dads C5-D.



 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21649/Eunice_on_wood_pile.jpg)
Here she is holding her choppers standing on a Basswood Saw Bolt pile. See those noodle like chokers, thats from her hook-en left hand and me hook-en right hand, that didn't happen again.



 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21649/Eunice_2.jpg)
         Here shes decking Aspen tree length



 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21649/Eunice_3.jpg) 
        Here shes using the brake, throttle and lifting the blade while pushing butts even



 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21649/Eunice.jpg)
       Here she giving me heck for not doing something right



 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21649/Eunice2C_drag_of_Birch.jpg)
      Heres a nice drag of Birch saw bolts



 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21649/Eunice2C_by_pickup.jpg)
  The wife , firewood in the pickup, you can see my 50 gal fuel tank and saw rack behind cab,
    these are all pictures before i got hurt.




Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Mark Wentzell on August 31, 2012, 05:14:46 PM
Sounds like quite the lady. You both must miss the woods.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: barbender on September 01, 2012, 12:47:00 AM
Really nice pics LJ48.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: lumberjack48 on September 01, 2012, 12:58:03 PM
barbender thank you,  that was on the north east side of Little Ball Club lake, not far from your house. I logged 4 Federal blocks over there, one block i cut up to the lake, the east side.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: Ron Scott on September 02, 2012, 07:45:49 PM
Great pictures showing how its done. I have a female faller on one of my hardwood sawlog jobs right now and she out cuts her husband, so he's doing the forwarding. :D
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: barbender on September 02, 2012, 10:16:51 PM
I want to get back and look at that area, Duane. Right north of the area you cut there is an area of beautiful pine, I fear it blew down in our July storm :( 
You probably can't even get back to it on the forestry trails yet.
Title: Re: Women in Logging
Post by: tlandrum on September 03, 2012, 12:00:25 AM
my wife has run the skidder when she had to,sorted with the 210,but her main job is driving the log truck. its funny when the men at the pulp yard or mill make excuses for why the load she is hauling is so much bigger than what they hauled in.