# Stuff they don't show on AxMen



## Gologit

Everybody agrees that a lot of what we see on AxMen is staged and doesn't really show logging the way it is.
But there's a lot of stuff that they _don't_ show, too. I can think of a few. Maybe the some of the Left Coast knuckledraggers can add to the list.

They don't show:

1. Getting up early in the morning. Early is any time between midnite and 
3 a.m. After that you're sleeping in.
2. The two hour, or more, ride to work. For no pay.
3. The sound of five guys snoring all at once in the crummy. You better 
hope the sixth guy doesn't start to snore...he's supposed to be driving.
4. The fallers having to drive their own rigs. If they team up only one guy is 
snoring. Usually.
5. The whole crew up and running _before_ sunrise. Those guys show
up for work in the middle of the morning, drink coffee and eat DingDongs
for an hour, get a little pep talk from the boss, and _then_ they might 
do a little logging.
6. How an outfit can make money by following the practices in #5.
7. Trucks waiting to load...with the drivers all standing by the warming fire 
telling truck driver stories.
8. The guy on the loader yelling for more trucks.
9. The fallers packing in, how long it takes, and what they're carrying.
10. The fallers packing in on steep ground, finally getting to their strip, 
cutting for an hour and then getting blown out.
11. The fallers keeping everything in lead for the landing that's being used
and then getting yelled at because the top half of the set is going to
a different landing and now the Cat skinners and skidder guys are all
pissed off.
12. The faller's reaction to #11.



That's enough for now. Somebody else can add on to it or maybe I'll pick it up again later.


----------



## slowp

The forester showing up late, because the oh _____ light was lit up on the phone and there were endless calls to return and upper management types to soothe. Besides, we get to sleep in. We need our beauty sleep.

The creative parking that the forester has to resort to because she is way later than the crew.

Chaining up all four wheels to get into a unit in deep snow. This includes the correct camera angle to film the drop of water that gets in your ear. The language that this sparks might fit right in on the show.

What might be entertaining, or maddening would be to show what goes on in a planning meeting. Or it might make *everybody* snore.


----------



## chucker

Gologit said:


> Everybody agrees that a lot of what we see on AxMen is staged and doesn't really show logging the way it is.
> But there's a lot of stuff that they _don't_ show, too. I can think of a few. Maybe the some of the Left Coast knuckledraggers can add to the list.
> 
> They don't show:
> 
> 1. Getting up early in the morning. Early is any time between midnite and
> 3 a.m. After that you're sleeping in.
> 2. The two hour, or more, ride to work. For no pay.
> 3. The sound of five guys snoring all at once in the crummy. You better
> hope the sixth guy doesn't start to snore...he's supposed to be driving.
> 4. The fallers having to drive their own rigs. If they team up only one guy is
> snoring. Usually.
> 5. The whole crew up and running _before_ sunrise. Those guys show
> up for work in the middle of the morning, drink coffee and eat DingDongs
> for an hour, get a little pep talk from the boss, and _then_ they might
> do a little logging.
> 6. How an outfit can make money by following the practices in #5.
> 7. Trucks waiting to load...with the drivers all standing by the warming fire
> telling truck driver stories.
> 8. The guy on the loader yelling for more trucks.
> 9. The fallers packing in, how long it takes, and what they're carrying.
> 10. The fallers packing in on steep ground, finally getting to their strip,
> cutting for an hour and then getting blown out.
> 11. The fallers keeping everything in lead for the landing that's being used
> and then getting yelled at because the top half of the set is going to
> a different landing and now the Cat skinners and skidder guys are all
> pissed off.
> 12. The faller's reaction to #11.
> 
> 
> 
> That's enough for now. Somebody else can add on to it or maybe I'll pick it up again later.


 !! kinda sounds like a typical minnesota deer hunting trip with the whole family.... lol


----------



## Gologit

slowp said:


> The creative parking that the forester has to resort to because she is way later than the crew.



Yup...we can add another "never seen on AxMen" here.

13...The crew's reaction to the forester showing up late, parking in the truck turn-around and blocking traffic, the forester's reaction to being told in no uncertain terms to move their pickup, and then the crew's reaction to having to tow the forester out when they get stuck parking some place they shouldn't.

14. The Cat skinners's evil grin watching the forester crawl around in the slush/mud/snow hooking up a chain to the front of their pickup and then watching the forester's terror stricken wild eyed hands clenched to the steering wheel reaction to being towed sideways. And then getting out and unhooking the tow chain again.

15. They don't show the forester getting dirty. I've actually seen some who do.


----------



## Humptulips

I don't think I've ever seen a nice good sized turn just cable up and sail to the landing smoothly. It's always a wimpy turn, an upender, a long end, some kind of hangup or a death defying situation.
Believe me those nice turns going in smoothly happens one time after the other. Doesn't fit in with the soap opera I guess.


----------



## Burvol

Oh yes, I just picked up that dead grouse that flew off that Pete's hood!

No, pooping by the big tree in my strip is not gonna make me trade strips LOL. Come get your chit. 

Don't call it a Piss Fir, the foresters like to hear "Grand Fir"


----------



## slowp

Burvol said:


> Oh yes, I just picked up that dead grouse that flew off that Pete's hood!
> 
> No, pooping by the big tree in my strip is not gonna make me trade strips LOL. Come get your chit.
> 
> Don't call it a Piss Fir, the foresters like to hear "Grand Fir"



Oh no. You have brought back a disgusting memory. We were walking down to look at something and came upon a "land mine". The maker of the pile stops and starts talking about the contents, going on. Finally the other guy, who was in charge told him to go get a shovel, and bury it. Not a pleasant subject.


----------



## RandyMac

Hmmmm...sounds like a Cornbacked Rattler sighting. They are supposed to be safety flagged with contrasting paper.

Crummy rides LMAO!!!
how about taking a leak out the door, 'cause that onery SOB drivin' the thing won't stop. A three week old crummy will smell just like a three year old one. It doesn't matter who is on the crew, there will always be one that lives on beans, won't shut the #### up, won't buy beer, will steal your last dry gloves and digs through your lunch.
A flat will only happen, on the way home. The driver will either poke along at subsonic speeds or be tryin' out for Daytona. Some equipment operators get fussy about sitting with the riggin' crew, 'cause they might get dirty, this applies mostly to loadermen.
What is a Forester?


----------



## slowp

RandyMac said:


> Hmmmm...sounds like a Cornbacked Rattler sighting. They are supposed to be safety flagged with contrasting paper.
> 
> What is a Forester?



A Subaru. :biggrinbounce2:

They don't play the truck driver chatting heard on the CB. Those guys are experts on everything! They are usually solving a world crisis right when I need to call out a mile marker.


----------



## Humptulips

RandyMac said:


> A flat will only happen, on the way home.



Boy, ain't that the truth.
When I was driving the crew bus at Port Alice I swear we had at least one flat every day and often two, a few times three. Only 12 miles to work but the worst road I ever drove. Took an hour to drive one way.


----------



## Tony Montana

Well they didn't show all the work that the cutters put into keeping their gear all in order for the next day . From sharpening chains , to fueling up saw jugs and pick-ups and working on odds and ends and drinking all the coffee at the sawshops.


----------



## Tony Montana

A BIG one they don't show is the actual cost of running a logging business. 
They are fond of saying how much all this timber is worth , but what does it cost to get the timber to the mills ? And I'm not talken just the obvious stuff like fuel bill and equipment payments .
Or payroll or L&I and other taxes .
I know that company owners don't like talking about this stuff , but I'm very POed about some certain rate incresses that are going to have an impact in the near future .


----------



## adam32

Don't forget the hippies tying themselves to trees, burning up equipment, or laying in the road in front of the trucks! Or the tweakers out there stealing diesel and batteries!!

They should show all the EIR's and planning involved before the first tree is even cut...


----------



## ryan_marine

It is no wonder the equipment breaks so much. I have never seen preventive maintenance. Oil change, grease the fitting, or safety checks. 

Ray


----------



## Humptulips

ryan_marine said:


> It is no wonder the equipment breaks so much. I have never seen preventive maintenance. Oil change, grease the fitting, or safety checks.
> 
> Ray



To be fair, that wouldn't exactly be very interesting TV, watching someone change oil.:biggrinbounce2:


----------



## FSburt

Oh that stuff would bore someone to tears who did not know anything about the woods. What would be interesting is they should show how much time is spent catering to environmental groups. 





adam32 said:


> Don't forget the hippies tying themselves to trees, burning up equipment, or laying in the road in front of the trucks! Or the tweakers out there stealing diesel and batteries!!
> 
> They should show all the EIR's and planning involved before the first tree is even cut...


----------



## treebogan

They don't show the True Freindships that are build up between guys in the Bush,mainly because these idiots arn't actually individualy competent and blame mistakes upon one another.

Bunch of Woman.


----------



## dancan

16. The trucker being pulled over by DOT , overweight , ill equipped and log book not up to date .
17. The logging contractor stopped by DOT without permits hauling oversize equipment .
18. Driving the porter up the paved road to get to the next job to save a buck .


----------



## slowp

treebogan said:


> They don't show the True Freindships that are build up between guys in the Bush,mainly because these idiots arn't actually individualy competent and blame mistakes upon one another.
> 
> Bunch of Woman.



Nope. If they were a bunch of wom*e*n they'd work better together and might even help each other with the heavy stuff. 

Quit insulting my gender please.


----------



## Thorcw

Seriously what is a faller's gross pay and how does it compare to a rigging worker or equipment operator?


----------



## Gologit

Thorcw said:


> Seriously what is a faller's gross pay and how does it compare to a rigging worker or equipment operator?


 
That's kind of like asking "how high is up" but I'll try.

Fallers usually get paid either by the board foot (called busheling) or they get a flat rate per day. Rates vary and generally aren't discussed but you can usually figure on around 250 to 400 dollars a day. That's a very rough figure...some make more, some make less. A faller's day out here is usually 6 hours or 6 1/2.

If you're busheling and you're in big timber and the boss is square with you on the scale you can make some bucks. If you really hustle all day long and if you're good you can do alright. If you're day waging you still have to hustle because they'll expect a certain amount of wood on the ground. The amount varies from place to place and outfit to outfit and it's never actually written down. But... the siderod will let you know if you're not meeting his goals. He'll let you know quick, too.

300 or 400 bucks bucks for 6 hours sounds like a lot until you figure in what a faller has to do to earn it. Most fallers are independent contractors. That means they supply their own saws, tools, parts, gas, oil, clothes, boots, and whatever it takes to do the job. They provide their own transportation, gas, oil, tires, vehicle insurance etc. They provide their own health insurance, too. If they're working too far from home to commute, which is very common, they're responsible for their own lodging. Some guys use travel trailers...another expense. The wage they get is usually a gross wage...that means that the faller is also responsible for paying his own taxes. No vacation pay, holiday pay, sick leave, or retirement program.

Add to all of the above the fact that a faller is always working himself out of a job. There might be several days, even weeks, between jobs...especially for a newer guy just starting out. There are always more fallers than there are jobs...always.

I don't know what the guys in the rigging make but I do know that they're usually hourly employees. Most outfits have some kind of benefit package but it usually doesn't amount to much. As employees they're eligible for WC if they get hurt and unemployment money when they're not working. Transportation is usually provided if you don't mind riding to work with five other guys. Maybe six if they're small.

Equipment operators? Like Cats, skidders, loaders etc.? They make more money than the rigging crew and are usually hourly employees. I don't know what everybody is paying but I'll take a guess and say 15 an hour for a green skidder operator on up to the high twenties for a good loader man. They work some long hours and they're usually paid overtime. Loaders get the most hours of anybody but it takes a long time to work your way into a good loading job with a reputable outfit. Loaders routinely work sixteen hours a day...it depends on the work load, how many trucks are coming and at what time, weather...all the usual stuff.

Hope this gives you some idea of what you need to know. It ain't like working at 7-11...way too many variables.


----------



## slowp

I have heard that operators have to pay higher wages in Warshington than in Oregon. Around here, the rigging crew wages seem to be between $16 to $19 per hour. A hooktender makes more and has more responsibility. There's still the commute, but a crummie is usually provided. Some of the crews travel two to three hours one way, from their shop. 

These rates are the same as they were in the 1980s. Back then, those were excellent wages and the guys made way more than the foresters. Now it is the other way around. Well, not way more but we make more.


----------



## Gologit

slowp said:


> I have heard that operators have to pay higher wages in Warshington than in Oregon. Around here, the rigging crew wages seem to be between $16 to $19 per hour. A hooktender makes more and has more responsibility. There's still the commute, but a crummie is usually provided. Some of the crews travel two to three hours one way, from their shop.
> 
> These rates are the same as they were in the 1980s. Back then, those were excellent wages and the guys made way more than the foresters. Now it is the other way around. Well, not way more but we make more.


 
 Yeah, but we don't have to spend our days filling out forms in triplicate, trying to stay awake in meetings, living in constant fear of being transferred to Snake Knee Alabama, or shave every day. We don't have to wear Pickle Suits either. So pffffft.


----------



## Jacob J.

Gologit2694030 said:


> Hope this gives you some idea of what you need to know. It ain't like working at 7-11...way too many variables.


 
I can't really improve much on what Bob said, but the last job I contracted I was paid "by the load", meaning the truck load. It was a "straight falling" job, which is where you send the trees straight down the hill,"butts up" toward the landing. I was paid $95/load and it was steep, ugly ground and the trees were scrawny- 90 to 100 sticks a load. So to get my four + loads, I was running 6 1/2 hours and getting 425-450 sticks. It was a solid hour each way to the job and I was running my own numbers. 

I pocketed about $165/day after expenses, taxes, smashed saws, lost hardhats, smashed gas jugs, broken wedges, lost axes, a falling partner who would eat me broke when we went to Taco Bell, flat tires, blown jacks, chipped windshield, rocked out chains, lost Spencer tapes, and a shot to the eye from a high-speed Fir cone. 

Not too shabby for a ten-hour day. Of course I do better now, as a government slug.


----------



## Gologit

Jacob J. said:


> I pocketed about $165/day after expenses, taxes, smashed saws, lost hardhats, smashed gas jugs, broken wedges, lost axes, a falling partner who would eat me broke when we went to Taco Bell, flat tires, blown jacks, chipped windshield, rocked out chains, lost Spencer tapes, and a shot to the eye from a high-speed Fir cone.


 
 I forgot to mention that stuff. JacobJ said it right.


----------



## slowp

Sometimes, Snake Knee, Alabama can turn into an interesting adventure. Like Third World, California. I still have my bear load shotgun shells and when the power goes out frequently equipment. 

The meetings are a downer.


----------



## Country1

Post is a little old, but very interesting stuff!

I respect the hell out of you guys and girls!
Your kind of work ethic is what makes America great! Just wish their was more of us...


----------



## Chuck Rock

Gologit said:


> Everybody agrees that a lot of what we see on AxMen is staged and doesn't really show logging the way it is.
> But there's a lot of stuff that they _don't_ show, too. I can think of a few. Maybe the some of the Left Coast knuckledraggers can add to the list.
> 
> They don't show:
> 
> 1. Getting up early in the morning. Early is any time between midnite and
> 3 a.m. After that you're sleeping in.
> 2. The two hour, or more, ride to work. For no pay.
> 3. The sound of five guys snoring all at once in the crummy. You better
> hope the sixth guy doesn't start to snore...he's supposed to be driving.
> 4. The fallers having to drive their own rigs. If they team up only one guy is
> snoring. Usually.
> 5. The whole crew up and running _before_ sunrise. Those guys show
> up for work in the middle of the morning, drink coffee and eat DingDongs
> for an hour, get a little pep talk from the boss, and _then_ they might
> do a little logging.
> 6. How an outfit can make money by following the practices in #5.
> 7. Trucks waiting to load...with the drivers all standing by the warming fire
> telling truck driver stories.
> 8. The guy on the loader yelling for more trucks.
> 9. The fallers packing in, how long it takes, and what they're carrying.
> 10. The fallers packing in on steep ground, finally getting to their strip,
> cutting for an hour and then getting blown out.
> 11. The fallers keeping everything in lead for the landing that's being used
> and then getting yelled at because the top half of the set is going to
> a different landing and now the Cat skinners and skidder guys are all
> pissed off.
> 12. The faller's reaction to #11.
> 
> 
> 
> That's enough for now. Somebody else can add on to it or maybe I'll pick it up again later.


 The 2012-2013 S of Ax Men has alot of staged stuff going on.This is something I noticed.The S&S boat that got swung over wasn't even the same boat.If you got demand on cable watch the 1st show when they put the boat in.The boat has basically no rust on the outside and The Logzilla writing is different at the end of the letters is a different accent.To catch this you have to go back and forth from E1 and E6.If you look close enough you'll see what I mean.Even the air pockets those square openings and the paint job is different on those long tubular things that goes on the water first.Its a silver paint job with a little bit dark blue on E1.On E6 the paint job its a silver and a super dark blue looks like they put 3 new coats on it its so dark looking.Even the engine is different E1 its white and silver and has a number 80 on it.On E6 its white and black on the back and it has a number 60 on it.Also on E1 there is actual rails on the boat.On E6 there are no rails.And the boat console on E1 has a different shape and paint job than E6.Nice boat prop though better not tell Jimmy.lol


----------



## Chuck Rock

Gologit said:


> Everybody agrees that a lot of what we see on AxMen is staged and doesn't really show logging the way it is.
> But there's a lot of stuff that they _don't_ show, too. I can think of a few. Maybe the some of the Left Coast knuckledraggers can add to the list.
> 
> They don't show:
> 
> 1. Getting up early in the morning. Early is any time between midnite and
> 3 a.m. After that you're sleeping in.
> 2. The two hour, or more, ride to work. For no pay.
> 3. The sound of five guys snoring all at once in the crummy. You better
> hope the sixth guy doesn't start to snore...he's supposed to be driving.
> 4. The fallers having to drive their own rigs. If they team up only one guy is
> snoring. Usually.
> 5. The whole crew up and running _before_ sunrise. Those guys show
> up for work in the middle of the morning, drink coffee and eat DingDongs
> for an hour, get a little pep talk from the boss, and _then_ they might
> do a little logging.
> 6. How an outfit can make money by following the practices in #5.
> 7. Trucks waiting to load...with the drivers all standing by the warming fire
> telling truck driver stories.
> 8. The guy on the loader yelling for more trucks.
> 9. The fallers packing in, how long it takes, and what they're carrying.
> 10. The fallers packing in on steep ground, finally getting to their strip,
> cutting for an hour and then getting blown out.
> 11. The fallers keeping everything in lead for the landing that's being used
> and then getting yelled at because the top half of the set is going to
> a different landing and now the Cat skinners and skidder guys are all
> pissed off.
> 12. The faller's reaction to #11.
> 
> 
> 
> That's enough for now. Somebody else can add on to it or maybe I'll pick it up again later.


 On the 2012 and 2013 S I noticed this.The s a s boat wreck was fake.It was a prop boat.from e1 to e6 you can see this.


----------



## twochains

Is anybody going to mention the rides home in the "crummy" during the summer? OOOSH! Stinky! Yep, sure my boots get rank, but some people smell like chemical burn! Be tryin to hang yer head out the window, hot boxin smokes, tryin to keep your own smells to yourself! :hmm3grin2orange: 

I love the lifestyle actually! We were cutting a tract of pine, the land owner for some strange reason was calling my boss "Lonnie"...his name is Dewanye :msp_rolleyes:. So from then on, I roll out the truck and I'm like, "Mornin' Lonnie"! :hmm3grin2orange:! Or if something breaks on his equipment I will be like, "What the hell did ya do now Lonnie?" I get a kick out it. I like walking by the operators and flippin' them off and just keep walkin'! They told me this morning that if I didn't flip them off several times a day that something was BAAAD wrong! Ya gotta love it! I like to arrive and jump out and say "Mornin' f#$%ers"! :msp_w00t: "What are you Patsies gonna do 2day...sit in your cabs with the heaters on?" LOL!


----------



## TreeGuyHR

I hardly deserve to comment on this thread (I've just done some urban logging around Portland, OR clearing lots, and that was just for a year in the 80's). But I do know a guy that worked for a while at the end of the "old growth era" in the Mt. Baker Snoqualmie NF and private lands in WA state. He learned from the old guys, and quick -- made his way to the first tier they sent out to cut the most valuable trees, and got paid scale -- so if you broke a 12 ft. cedar, you got docked and chewed the hell out, maybe fired. 

Now he may tell some tall tales, but some good ones that might be true. 

One was he said he cut some of the last stands of Weyerhaeuser OG noble fir near Mt Ranier. The Japanese buyers were right there watching, selecting the trees and logs that they wanted. They did not want a single ding in those logs, and even wrapped them for transport (don't remember how). They were going to use them for temples.

Another was on a USFS sale, he decided not to cut some OG cedar on a ledge because they would just fall down, splinter, and be left; he figured why not leave them for wildlife and their own sake (he was starting to get some un-timber beast ideas there). So he did. Got sent back up by the District Ranger and told to fell them over the cliff, where they smashed to bits and were left.

One more -- he was with a guy who had forgotten his falling ax, and was way down the hill; so he bet a couple guys that he could fell an 8 ft. hemi (leaner) without one. He took his time, tapped in wedges using other wedges, side hilled it just right, and collected a days wages from several guys.


----------



## closetoreality

when the rear shaft strips out the yoke in your skidder and your stuck with 2wd 1/2 mile in the woods.


----------



## KYLogger

The twenty pounds of mud caked to your boots, and the 300 caked on the crummy. The wet feet all day, the soaking wet clothes, equipment that wont start when it's freaking cold, machines with tracks that don't get cleaned out the night before and freeze (when it's that cold) the vienna sausage, cracker and gallon jug of water for dinner. 

Want me to go on?:msp_razz:


----------



## Gologit

KYLogger said:


> The twenty pounds of mud caked to your boots, and the 300 caked on the crummy. The wet feet all day, the soaking wet clothes, equipment that wont start when it's freaking cold, machines with tracks that don't get cleaned out the night before and freeze (when it's that cold) the vienna sausage, cracker and gallon jug of water for dinner.
> 
> Want me to go on?:msp_razz:



Sure.


----------



## 2dogs

I held my nose and watched most of Axe Men tonight. I know the Canadian guys are a big company and I also know they are on the show for fortune and glory. Still, why did the Turtle have to climb the hill? He didn't take any strawline or anchor straps or pulleys. There appeared to be a road at the top too. Is he just a side show guy hired by the producers?

I also have to say I do not enjoy watching S&S knowing Jimmy is dead. I hope James has found some sort of job to support himself.


----------



## 056 kid

KYLogger said:


> The twenty pounds of mud caked to your boots, and the 300 caked on the crummy. The wet feet all day, the soaking wet clothes, equipment that wont start when it's freaking cold, machines with tracks that don't get cleaned out the night before and freeze (when it's that cold) the vienna sausage, cracker and gallon jug of water for dinner.
> 
> Want me to go on?:msp_razz:


Move them faster and the mud will come off. Forward a small river. Grease your boots. Wear some damn wool. Propane torch for the oil pan. Who cares about frozen tracks, and fat rolls in a can are delicious. 
Now cheer up.


----------



## roberte

Anyone bring up the yellow jackets up the shirt and pants legs. Ouch


----------



## dbl612

slowp said:


> Nope. If they were a bunch of wom*e*n they'd work better together and might even help each other with the heavy stuff.
> 
> Quit insulting my gender please.



most female workers on construction sites are so competitive they would rather kill each other than help each other. not insulting your gender, just the facts.


----------



## Gologit

dbl612 said:


> most female workers on construction sites are so competitive they would rather kill each other than help each other. not insulting your gender, just the facts.




That may be true about construction in Connecticut, where you're from, but it isn't always true about logging in our part of the world.

As logging becomes more mechanized we're seeing more women working in the woods. Most of the ones I've been around are no different than the guys...they just want to do the job the best they can, get their pay, and go home. Most of them come from logging families and there are a lot of them with a good back ground and understanding of the business. Being competitive is fine but in this business you either help each other or you get to go home early...and stay there.

And besides, sometimes they bring cookies to work. I never saw the guys bring anything except stale pastry and Donettos.


----------



## dbl612

Gologit said:


> That may be true about construction in Connecticut, where you're from, but it isn't always true about logging in our part of the world.
> 
> As logging becomes more mechanized we're seeing more women working in the woods. Most of the ones I've been around are no different than the guys...they just want to do the job the best they can, get their pay, and go home. Most of them come from logging families and there are a lot of them with a good back ground and understanding of the business. Being competitive is fine but in this business you either help each other or you get to go home early...and stay there.
> 
> And besides, sometimes they bring cookies to work. I never saw the guys bring anything except stale pastry and Donettos.



all for having women in the workplace. whats a donetto? things are very different east to west.


----------



## Gologit

dbl612 said:


> all for having women in the workplace. whats a donetto? things are very different east to west.



Yup...they usually smell better than we do, too. 

Donettos are those little donuts that come six to a bunch, chocolate covered, cinnamon, or white powdered sugar coating. They have about the same nutritional value as cardboard but taste slightly better. They also have a shelf life roughly the same as nuclear waste.
On the way to the woods in the morning it's almost a traditional imperative that the crummy stops at a 7-11 so the crew can stock up on coffee, snoose, smokes...and Donettos.
Donettos are one of the basic food groups...the others being caffeine and nicotine. And jerky.


----------



## k5alive

anyone ever get harassed by a sharpie while napping in the crummy? :msp_razz:


----------



## Goose IBEW

Learn something every day. I now know that my truck was once referred to as a crummy.:msp_wink:


----------



## SliverPicker

How about the filth after living in the back of your pickup falling trees for four days? Eating tailgate spaghetti for supper (again)? Or waking up two consecutive days in July with your truck doors frozen solid shut? Or having your 6 gallon water jug frozen solid by morning and that's having the jug in the truck with you all night!? Or hand slashing for 10 solid days after the timber's all on the ground? Or cutting trees and not talking to or seeing another soul for three days? Or truck drivers trying to tie up their loads while you are still loading them *!#*!

Or lying in the back of your truck at night listening to the elk bulge all summer long. Or the the 22 moose I saw last summer? 

I have a B.S. (ain't that an appropriate name) in Forestry, but never found a job in the field. This is kind of Plan B, but its the Best Job I ever had!


----------



## Bill S

Goose IBEW said:


> Learn something every day. I now know that my truck was once referred to as a crummy.:msp_wink:




Years ago they were called Candy Wagons, flat bed trucks a heavy tarp over the top with benchs on three sides and. a wood burning stove in the center.
We even got paid a extra hour a day for traveling,


----------



## roberte

Bill S said:


> Years ago they were called Candy Wagons, flat bed trucks a heavy tarp over the top with benchs on three sides and. a wood burning stove in the center.
> We even got paid a extra hour a day for traveling,



ahhh , the good ol days. now its scr.w you and you thank them for it


----------



## ft. churchill

How come ya never see the fallers at work on that show, runnin' big saws in big timber. It would be interesting to show the drama of a leaner get pulled just so and dropped right where it needs to go. I guess pictures of real men killing trees would be too politically incorrect for the masses to handle.


----------



## Bill S

ft. churchill said:


> How come ya never see the fallers at work on that show, runnin' big saws in big timber. It would be interesting to show the drama of a leaner get pulled just so and dropped right where it needs to go. I guess pictures of real men killing trees would be too politically incorrect for the masses to handle.





There are patches of old growth timber in Nat. parks but little remaining, I'm speaking of this area in NE Ca. Hundreds of millions feet was taken out in six short years,one bunk loads was the norm, stands of ponderosa pine eight feet thick a pair of fallers could make a days wages and hardly move using two man saws
Mercury and Maul weighing about 130 lbs each.It wasn't that bad Red River was still using crosscuts.
Big saws are for logging shows a 327 chev. for a powerhead and a bar thick enough to chop a tree down.
My chief objection is not how they act or all the out of sequence camera shots
because that might actually happen if they were all idiots, but never and I mean never have I ever seen a man quit or fired walking away from a landing down the logging road to the highway when he could have walked a couple hundred feet and got a ride with a loaded truck going in.


----------



## imagineero

One of the worst things about my short stint logging in new zealand was the trip in the crummy. They don't call them crummys over there though. It wasn't too bad of a drive, generally not much more than an hour, but a lot of it was over unpaved roads and the truck was always full. The worst part by far was the smell. Pretty much everyone except me was a smoker, so it was a smoking vehicle :-(

I ended up buying myself a road/trail bike, and riding to work. It meant I could sleep in a bit later, get fresh air on the way to work and (best of all!) get out of there earlier while the other guys were hanging around talking. I also used to ride it deep into the woods. I'm surprised more guys don't do this. 

Shaun


----------



## HoosierKid

*Behind the scenes from season 2*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4P3IY4T6VEE


----------



## mikey517

HoosierKid said:


> http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4P3IY4T6VEE



"This video is private. Sorry."

Am I doing something wrong??


----------



## HoosierKid

*Try it again*

See if this works
Axemen behind the scenes - YouTube


----------



## cat-face timber

How about working in the Landing and the Truck Drivers not yelling HEADACHE and here comes the wrapper.
Here, it was either wading in Dust calve deep, or 2 feet of hail.
Working on a landing and the lightening is so close you can smell it.
Truck Drivers taking ####s everywhere.
Taking a dip of snuff, pulling out a curly hair and not actually caring.


----------



## deepsouth

Gologit said:


> Yup...they usually smell better than we do, too. :. .



You haven't smelt my mother in law.... When she drops her guts.... Breathing apparatus is needed, sewage plants smell like fields of roses and on it goes. I don't think even after a huge session on overproof bundy rum (think about 115 proof) I can smell that bad.....

She's from a farming family and also had some army time....


----------

