Logging Story

Autocar · October 26, 2013, 04:10:22 PM

Something a little different I would tell about a logging job from 17 years ago.It was the winter of 96 and a veneer company from Columbus Ohio contracted us to cut and skid a job near Chelsea Michigan. It was cold and the ground was like cement,the property was owned by the city of Detroit and was used as a summer camp for kids. There were know motels around so the care taker said we could stay in one of the cabins. As he showed us the job he also showed us a power line that ran across the property that feed electric to the place. Myself and another cutter would cut timber daylight to dark. The second day is was getting dark and I had put my saw down when the other fellow hollered at me to come and beat on this wedge the direction he had the face cut on was nice and open and would do less damage to the surrounding trees. He was tired and I was also I started swinging it was a big long body walnut and we finaly tip her over tearing down the power line and breaking off one old pole. So, so much showing us the power line cut. There wasn't a resturant any where so we were eating blogna sandwiches and this made our moods not so good. As the job moved forward it got so hilly that our 540 grapple skidder wouldn't pull the log length logs up the grades because the ground was frozen so hard and you couldn't get any traction. So six the next morning our skidder operator left Michigan drove to Circleville Ohio brought a set of ring chains arriving back at the job after dark. So we worked till eleven that night to put one chain on, we crawled into our sleeping bags at ten degrees in the cabin with our carharts,hoods and anything else we could wear at that time I was wishing we had remembered that dang power line. The next morning we worked and finally I drove to a area farmer and used his cutting torch to get the other side on,I don't remember anymore what the problem was.We cut walnut and red oak probably some white oak but was after the red oak for the Japanese and the walnut was a bonus. We walked out on the landing when the Japaneae buyer was there and here they were cutting four to five feet off the butt logs saying they didn't want the root flares. This fired myself and the other cutter up because we were cutting them right on the ground picking up board feet for us and the company in Columbus. Needless to say the rest of the red oak was cut about three feet off the ground I remember thinking what a waste to do this and to leave all that nice wood on the landing. We were able to pull the grades after the chains were put on and the tail ends of the logs were worn at a angle because the gravel and frozen ground acted like a sander. We finally had enough blogna and we drove a long way to this resturant and how great it was to be warm and some good food. I remember these two girls that were gay I had never seen a gay person before I could hardly believe what I was seeing ;D We cut the last tree late on a Sunday afternoon so I went to get the Autocar to load the skidder and it wouldn't even turn over from setting in the cold wind for the week or so we were up there. By this time the power company had finally replaced the pole and had the power back on after leaving it off for seven days. I pluged the torpedo heater in and then I found out the fuel was like glue. It was midnight when she started and I left Michigan and was tickled that the truck had a good heater. I had many intersting logging jobs in Michigan but this one came to mind today because the wood stove has the house so toasty. We were paid by the board feet so all the butts that were cut off got scaled the company in Columbus never questioned our cutting bill. I remember the power company sent us a $1500.00 for the power line screw up and the nice old man that said we could use the cabin we got a nine hundred dolar bill from him :D. Hope you enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed working it.

snowstorm · October 26, 2013, 06:45:08 PM

good one bill

shortlogger · October 26, 2013, 06:48:12 PM

Good story
That's logging if it can go wrong it usually does , always seems like a struggle .
Makes you wonder why a person would crave it so much ?
but many of us do despite the trouble .