Ax Men makes me want to puke

[Buck]

dont wanna be associated with any of em :-\

[Migal]

Dang I thought this was my competition !!! 

[SwampDonkey]

Where I worked on the Charlottes there was a chance of a blizzard right around Christmas time and often the camp was shut down for 2 or 3 days and soon the snow was all gone again and it was like spring time the rest of the winter. ;)

[thecfarm]

I did watch it a few Sundays ago just to see the Swamp Buggy!! I like that rig.I see the Father and son still don't know nothing. The Son is dumb enough to put up with the abuse from his Father. I could treat that poor kid alot better. I call him a kid because he don't have the get up and go to go find a real job and get away from his so called Father. I recognized a few others. Some just don't change.

[bedway]

While channel surfing last night i watched about two minutes of ax men. Way back when we were all looking forward to this show with much anticipation little did we know how bad it would evolve. With all the contrived drama and every other wood having to be bleeped i havent a clue how it stays on the air.

[Rocky_Ranger]

It's just an entertainment ploy; can you imagine how stinking boring it would be for the general public to watch loggers?  You and I would be glued to the set, but most folks would surf off into "The Simpsons" or "Hoarders" or some other reality smack.  I find Shelby at least entertaining from a "redneck" perspective - I am one so I can say that :D

[lumberjack48]

I have to say Shelby is quite the timber feller, BANG-BANG, then used the gun for a wedge, he got it down, hes very entertaining.   :D

I went to work on a yarder in Montana in 66, i was running chockers. They ran it about the same way as these guys on tv. The guy with the beeper didn't wait on till i was out of the way, i ran my butt off. I was the new guy they thought it was funny, i worked two days, then told them where to put their job.  ;D

[Paul_H]

The guy with the beeper didn't wait on till i was out of the way, i ran my butt off. I was the new guy they thought it was funny, i worked two days, then told them where to put their job.  ;D

I worked for a guy like that in 82 that would blow the whistle and say "run or die" to the last man out of the turn.He could take what he dished out and I learned a lot from him and he taught me how rigging backspars.

[Jeff]

Sounds like it would suck to be slow eh?

[Paul_H]

Indeed. ;D

What I didn't like about that job was I was the youngest by 10 years and conversation in the crummy and at lunch revolved around mortgages and bank rates and dirty diapers.Not very stimulating for a 20 year old.
The good part was the teaching and discipline learned from working alongside them.The older guys were early 60's.

The fastest rig up we had with the 90' Madill was 45 minutes from the time we dropped the pad til the spar tree was standing and rigging in the air.Jay had already notched the stumps so we just had to run the strawline and guylines out.

[bedway]

Whats that old saying, i dont need to be fast, just faster than you. :D

[lumberjack48]

 I could see where it would be fun working with a yarder. But everybody has to work together, i love the fast pace.  Back then those Western loggers loved to see us Flatlander's garbing for air and dirt to get out of the way. As soon as he seen me hook the last chocker he'd push the beeper, he's supposed to give you about 30 seconds. When i look back it was all fun and a learning experience.

[Raider Bill]

Are those beepers/wailers / squawkers they use radios that trigger a speaker on the yarder? How do they work?

[Paul_H]

The talkie tooters we used had a mercury switch in them to prevent blowing the whistle accidently.You had to tip the "Bug" near vertical and squeeze the strap.It sent a radio signal to the receiver at the yarder which would trip a solenoid to release the air to the air chime.It worked pretty good most of the time.
You could take the bug off your hip and speak into the end and the donkey puncher could hear you on the phone at the receiver.

The bug is the red object in the pic below the receiver.The receiver shown there is more modern than the ones we had but the bug is the same.

http://www.talkietooter.ca/html/tktr2009.htm

[Raider Bill]

Thanks Paul That's what I thought but being a "City Boy" had to ask. ;)

[Paul_H]

No problem Bill,it was a trip down memory lane.

I could see where it would be fun working with a yarder. But everybody has to work together, i love the fast pace. 

Yes,it was a lot of fun working with a good crew.Hard work and good banter makes the day go by fast.

[Jeff]

My bug is still in operation.

[Paul_H]

Do you have a pic handy?

[Jeff]

I do now, and a video as well.



 

http://youtu.be/_2-tfavoa-4

[Paul_H]

  That's a old school bug,the type used with a length of wire that the whistle punk strung out through the bush to a vantage point where he could hear and relay signals to the donkey puncher.

My brother Don punked whistles one summer but that was the last year(1973) my dad used that system before going to the radio controled system.

[Silver_Eagle]

The sky car's where invented to pull slack from the sky car so the choker setter's did not have to pull the main line from the line machine. The sky car clamp's onto the sky line and then clamps to the main line to pull slack so the setter's just have to donkey from the car not the line machine. When your under the hill a couple thousand feet that line get's heavy quick on not so steep ground.

Here is a link to the manufacture's of the green sky car you see on Ax men. Scotty Baker at Eagle, the inventor is my uncle.

http://www.eaglecarriage.com/pullingcarriages.htm

[LOGDOG]

Those horses on the horse logging team are awesome. Really something to watch. That young, muscular horse they walked out of the trailer in tonight's episode was one handsome, impressive animal.

[SwampDonkey]

I don't watch the show, only have rabbit ears here, but work horses are still common in the north woods (private woodlots) for those that want to go at a slower pace through life.  My uncle's horses were more pets than workers, but that's all he had to cut firewood and logs on the farm and the local reservation land.

[Overlength]

As far as public opinion, might be better to have them think its like AXMAN, instead of showing some of the super duper operations and crews that just make it look easy and appears to be making somebody filthy rich from natural resources.  I think thats what alot of them really don't like about the idea.
  I think it is hard to capture on film what it is really like to just to be there in 3D in person doing something like that. The constent rush you can get from something so big, with the everyday little surprizes. I also worked on large offshore rigs, and placer gold mining with large equipment, along with large sawmill and logging large trees. Kinda like trying to take a picture in the mountains, you really can't capture the huge depth of it. Next adventure, ride logs down rain swollen river? Need to finish building new shed first.

[SwampDonkey]

Next adventure, ride logs down rain swollen river? Need to finish building new shed first.

Saw that a couple weeks ago on PBS. Some old film footage from the 40's in Maine on the river drive. My grandfather did all that and there were times he had to sleep in lean-toos, no warm camp, just the horse. But, that was right up his alley anyway. He had his own camps all over the country, but they were guide camps.  8)