# Lurker



## Meng (Nov 12, 2014)

I've been listening here and decided to take part, if you'll have me.
Fell timber all over the BC coast and Alaska for over thirty years. 
Retired from falling five years ago. I still work doing different things.

Be nice to swap some experience and stories.


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## Meng (Nov 12, 2014)

circa 1982 Queen Charlotte Islands


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## 2dogs (Nov 13, 2014)

Impressive!


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## OlympicYJ (Nov 13, 2014)

Welcome aboard! Probably get more replies come mornin. I'm just a lowly forestry student myself lol

Wes


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## 1270d (Nov 13, 2014)

Welcome. How did you take that one apart?


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## treeslayer2003 (Nov 13, 2014)

welcome


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## HuskStihl (Nov 13, 2014)

Is that too big to be considered a "bear trap"?

I do Air-Hogs Bonsai heli-logging, so we should have some cool stories to swap!


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## rwoods (Nov 13, 2014)

Meng, be forewarned there are at least two that are allowed to frequent here who are as far from being loggers as Barney Fife and Otis Campbell were. One has already introduced himself and I am the other. Look forward to hearing some of your stories. Ron


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## HuskStihl (Nov 13, 2014)

rwoods said:


> Meng, be forewarned there are at least two that are allowed to frequent here who are as far from being loggers as Barney Fife and Otis Campbell were. One has already introduced himself and I am the other. Look forward to hearing some of your stories. Ron


Ron, that's really not very fair to Wes


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## madhatte (Nov 13, 2014)

Uff Da!


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## OlympicYJ (Nov 13, 2014)

HuskStihl said:


> Ron, that's really not very fair to Wes



Well I have logged... lol


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## HuskStihl (Nov 13, 2014)

OlympicYJ said:


> Well I have logged... lol


That's why I thought Ron's mean spirited attack on you was so unjustified!


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## OlympicYJ (Nov 13, 2014)

Jon I thought you meant Ron should have included more people in the non professional logger category besides yourself and him... which I would fit... I just lay it out and somebody else whacks it down... maybe I be a semi-logger? haha


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## treeslayer2003 (Nov 13, 2014)

you guys are fine, good friends.


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## OlympicYJ (Nov 13, 2014)

I've been a little slow on the uptake today. I see where you were headed Jon haha


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## HuskStihl (Nov 13, 2014)

Sorry for the confusion, see the 45 second mark for a full explanation


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## Meng (Nov 13, 2014)

My request for conversation was aimed at that Alaska guy and Geo.


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## Meng (Nov 13, 2014)

Now I kill trucks


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## treeslayer2003 (Nov 13, 2014)

Meng said:


> My request for conversation was aimed at that Alaska guy and Geo.


if you mean tramp bushler, he not been on lately. i think some one said he was workin on an oil field.......not sure bout that.


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## rwoods (Nov 13, 2014)

Meng, I was having a little fun with HuskStihl. I'm going to hush as I have nothing else to swap but I'm keeping my line open so I can hear more of your experiences. Ron


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## OlympicYJ (Nov 13, 2014)

Where at in BC are you working now meng?


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## Gologit (Nov 13, 2014)

Meng said:


> Now I kill trucks



Good load.


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## Gologit (Nov 13, 2014)

rwoods said:


> Meng, be forewarned there are at least two that are allowed to frequent here who are as far from being loggers...



Maybe so. But in your _next _ life...


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## rwoods (Nov 13, 2014)

Gologit said:


> Maybe so. But in your _next _ life...



Based upon my casual observations, to survive I would have to return at least 10x tougher and start young. Ron


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## treeslayer2003 (Nov 13, 2014)

Ron, just so ya know you would be welcome on my job any time.


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## rwoods (Nov 13, 2014)

Mike, I could guard your lunch. Well, at least until I got hungry. Ron


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## treeslayer2003 (Nov 13, 2014)

lol, you and dad can have snack and BS while get a load out.......hey it happens all the time lol.


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## HuskStihl (Nov 13, 2014)

Ron is *not* welcome on my job, but I basically think of him as one of you pro boys. (I however proudly accept Barney Fife).


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## rwoods (Nov 13, 2014)

Jon, how many times do I have to tell you the ladder goes in the bucket - you'll get more reach. 

I hope Meng soon gets back to posting. Watching reruns of _Yukon Men _and _Alaska, The Last Frontier _is getting old.

Ron


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## Gologit (Nov 14, 2014)

HuskStihl said:


> Ron is *not* welcome on my job, but I basically think of him as one of you pro boys. (I however proudly accept Barney Fife).View attachment 379561



I'll add that picture to my "Don't be this guy" file. I've been doing saw classes for the Land Trust and a couple of other trail groups. The people are enthusiastic, resourceful, determined and inventive. It's the inventive part that I worry about.


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## HuskStihl (Nov 14, 2014)

Gologit said:


> I'll add that picture to my "Don't be this guy" file. I've been doing saw classes for the Land Trust and a couple of other trail groups. The people are enthusiastic, resourceful, determined and inventive. It's the inventive part that I worry about.


You have full license and permission to do so! Just make sure they know I was wearing steel-toe Crocs! I'm most embarrassed about the lack of hearing protection


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## Gologit (Nov 14, 2014)

HuskStihl said:


> You have full license and permission to do so! Just make sure they know I was wearing steel-toe Crocs! I'm most embarrassed about the lack of hearing protection



Please tell me that you're kidding and that really isn't a picture of you. Please.


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## treeslayer2003 (Nov 14, 2014)

i think it is


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## HuskStihl (Nov 14, 2014)

Of course it's me! Of course, that was long before I met y'all and got learned up proper!


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## Meng (Nov 14, 2014)

OlympicYJ said:


> Where at in BC are you working now meng?


Hello OlympicYJ, right now I'm off work. In between jobs or a chosen mini-holiday. I'm not young so I'm pretty much 
working when I want to anymore. It's right in the middle of the rut here so I've been doing a bit deer hunting. Both of 
those pictures are from the Charlottes, where I live. Most of my falling career was with helicopters, a few different companies 
and machines and many different places.

Thank you all for the welcome.


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## Meng (Nov 14, 2014)

Two point Black Tail buck a couple of summers ago, these islands are covered with deer. The season limit
is fifteen unless you're a native then there is no limit, there's thousands of them.


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## Meng (Nov 14, 2014)

Getting out at Christmas shutdown.






The same airplane at the same camp six months later. Glassy water landing and someone made a mistake.
The only people aboard were the pilot and Old Howard the grapple snapper. It didn't look this bad before
they tried to lift it out of the water with the Skycrane and a strap broke and the airplane got dropped from
about a hundred feet. Funny thing is the insurance guy was overseeing the salvage and the major damage rested on his shoulders.


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## Meng (Nov 14, 2014)

treeslayer2003 said:


> if you mean tramp bushler, he not been on lately. i think some one said he was workin on an oil field.......not sure bout that.


Working in the patch. I did that a few winters ago doing well service driving a cement bulker into rigs. Three in the morning it's forty below up some rig road a hundred miles off the highway alone and chaining up. It's no life for a timber faller from the coast.


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## rwoods (Nov 14, 2014)

I'm still at the lake. 40 below is too cold. Meng, thanks for not ditching this thread due to our shenanigans. Ron


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## Meng (Nov 14, 2014)

I have absolutely no problem with shenanigans Ron, thanks for your reply. If anyone here has a problem with the kind of photos I'm posting let me know and I'll knock it off. Just trying to give you guys a look at what life in this part of the world is like. I started taking pictures too late in life to capture much of fallers world but I do have a few.

Seaspan from Vancouver taking a barge load of wood from Juskatla down south. Picture is from earlier this year. Self loading and dumping barge, they come with their own boom boats and crews, just pull bag booms of wood out to them and they do the rest. Taken from the fuel wharf about a five minute walk from my house.


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## treeslayer2003 (Nov 14, 2014)

pics are always welcome


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## HuskStihl (Nov 14, 2014)

Especially awesome pics with cool stories. I'd apologize for shennanigans, but as a son of Clan Shennan, sept of Clan MacDonald, and probable kinsman of RandMac, I'm somewhat prone to them


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## hammerlogging (Nov 14, 2014)

Hi Meng. Awesome contributions, thanks for sharing.


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## rwoods (Nov 14, 2014)

Meng, good to see we have something to offset some imports. 

hl, that barge looks a little too big for the Nantahala or French Broad. 

Did you ever find the machinery you were looking for a few years back? I thought of you last night when surfing the surplus auctions. Came across some nice ultra low mileage conventionally configured Oshkosh 8 x 8 truck tractors but they were about 9 feet wide which I assume would cause some issues with the DOT. Looks like they could be good for some of the country Meng has shown. 

Ron


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## Meng (Nov 15, 2014)

Our daily, weather permitting, airplane to the coast. I have no idea how many hours I have riding Beavers and Otters into some camp, somewhere to do something, hundreds I'm guessing.







Or standing on some dock with gear piled waiting for the crew boat to come make me vomit, again.
Logging in BC and Alaska.


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## Meng (Nov 15, 2014)

Big league crew boat put thirty guys on it. Going into McClinton Bay.


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## rwoods (Nov 15, 2014)

Great pictures. I'll take a plane ride over a boat any day. I once got seasick in a canoe. Ron


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## Wayne68 (Nov 15, 2014)

Meng those are great pictures. Here's a few pictures from a couple years ago when I logged a frozen swamp in Ontario


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## treeslayer2003 (Nov 15, 2014)

is that some type of maple?


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## Wayne68 (Nov 16, 2014)

Thats correct. Those were soft maple, we also cut a bunch of ash in there. I believe that most of that maple went to local furniture and cabinet makers. A lot of those trees got big in there because you could only cut in there when it was all froze over. We used a bombardier skidder on tracks to make the trails, it was a cool little machine I will try to find a picture of it. It even got used a few times to pull out the big skidder when it broke through the ice


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## Wayne68 (Nov 17, 2014)




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## treeslayer2003 (Nov 18, 2014)

we have some big soft maple here.......no grade market, it goes for pallets or i think every 5th tie can be maple. there is one of those little machines close by, owner says under carriage costs more than its worth.
ash grows in swamps here as well.......its funny to me when mountain guys talk about ash lol


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## Wayne68 (Nov 18, 2014)

Ya those little machines are expensive to fix. We blew a track off in the bush one day and had to do a temporary fix on it back in the swamp just to get it to the landing so we could float it back to the mill for a proper repair. I think the repair list for that mishap must have been rather high because I never saw it back in the bush that year . Ash is a pretty good mover up here


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## SliverPicker (Nov 18, 2014)

I used to be a shutterbug for a living in a previous life. Those are some good shots. Great light!

In your 1982 photo, how exactly, did you tackle that deadfall?


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## coltont (Nov 22, 2014)

Treeslayer you say ash in the swamp? Is it real brown and wide rings or is it white?


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## treeslayer2003 (Nov 22, 2014)

white ash.......not swamp exactly, sandy creek bottoms is where ya find it here. hardly ever find one up on the hill. they are usually all white with little or no heart. problem is with all the new regs and wide buffers, i hardly ever get to cut one now.
no EAB here yet either.


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## coltont (Nov 22, 2014)

Man we have eab to beat the band here........trees are almost past their prime...Brown almost punky. No live limbs anymore. We have 0 regulations or restrictions when selling to the sawmill. If you can find one that's still white they are paying good money.


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## treeslayer2003 (Nov 22, 2014)

its a dam shame.........you prolly don't remember the bad gypsy moth years........lot of dead white oak


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## coltont (Nov 27, 2014)

No I don't remember when they hit really bad here but there's still damage from them going on now. The state does allot of timber sales that are gypsy kill. Seems like they always let the timber go about 2 years to long after its killed.


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## KYLogger (Nov 27, 2014)

The Feds just opened a unit of ice storm damaged stuff from 2009.......If you want to screw ANYTHING up, just let the gvt. take control!


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## KYLogger (Nov 27, 2014)

Oh yeah, and welcome Meng! Great pics, keep em' coming.


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## coltont (Nov 27, 2014)

The Pennsylvania DCNR & Game Commission own so much huge timber that is getting big old and falling over and rotting it's pathetic. They dont seem to manage it to much.


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## KYLogger (Nov 27, 2014)

They're scared to death of the hippies.......tree huggin', patchouli smellin', granola crunchin', hippies......................dang hippies.


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