America's Toughest Jobs

[056kid]

thats absolutely ridiculous, they turn people loose with little or no safety training and tell them to cut down trees. its a wonder that soo many people get killed now adays, they see it on tv so it must be easy. its also ridiculous to make people hurry through tasks to earn more money, another easy way to get hurt, people dont pay attention for a moment and its over.

I agree about the novices.

The hustling part is just how it is. When you are Slowly say tying off a broke cable, really slowly anything! the boss man has this hallucination that all of these little winged dollar signes that are filing through this window that reads GONE!!!

 

[Bushler]

Moose fishing, Controller Bay, AK, circa 1979.

 

[ak4195]

Moose fishing, Controller Bay, AK, circa 1979.

Nice cast!

Guess that beats the 600lb halibut we caught one year in the SAndman reef area near the Shumagin islands.

ak4195

 

[Zackman1801]

I agree about the novices.

The hustling part is just how it is. When you are Slowly say tying off a broke cable, really slowly anything! the boss man has this hallucination that all of these little winged dollar signes that are filing through this window that reads GONE!!!

i agree that professionals with training can do jobs quickly and safely, but when you take a guy off the street, hand him a chainsaw and say i want that log limbed and bucked in 5 minutes, problems are bound to occur.

 

[slowp]

Was that moose to be used as bait? Or was it the primary catch?

 

[Bushler]

AK, 600 lb. halibut is a whopper! This one weighed 340, troll dressed. Kodiac.

 

[oldirty]

OMG!!!!

anyone happen to see the finale?

damn that boy steven should not be allowed anywhere near another chainsaw. never mind the stihl that he was abusing.



great pics fellas. sick.

 

[1I'dJak]

I gotta say...from these shows, logging down south looks kinda haywire...old timey helmets, no visor, no muff.... maybe some earplugs, chaps over jeans, wedges in the back pocket, no hi-viz...looks like a real cowboy show...I imagine its not all like that...

 

[Gologit]

Walking in

I gotta say...from these shows, logging down south looks kinda haywire...old timey helmets, no visor, no muff.... maybe some earplugs, chaps over jeans, wedges in the back pocket, no hi-viz...looks like a real cowboy show...I imagine its not all like that...

:hmm3grin2orange: Let's see...got my old tin hat, the one with no visor. Got wedges in both back pockets. My greasy old chaps are on over my jeans. I'm not real sure what high-viz is but my whistle and suspenders are orange...that should do it. The other three guys walking in with me look pretty much the same. We're carrying our saws up on the shoulder with no bar guards and some of our gypo jugs are just that...old clorox bottles and such.

Walking down through the brush, headed for the strip, talking among ourselves... "Man, those Canadian guys sure got a lot of government supervision and dumb-ass rules to follow. Must be tough to have some government dweeb telling you every little damn thing to do. What a haywire way to work."

 

[Jacob J.]

I gotta say...from these shows, logging down south looks kinda haywire...old timey helmets, no visor, no muff.... maybe some earplugs, chaps over jeans, wedges in the back pocket, no hi-viz...looks like a real cowboy show...I imagine its not all like that...

Actually, it is all like that. I'm still wearing a tin hat from 1983 when I'm felling timber, I use the inside chaps under my rigging pants when it isn't raining and under my nylon rain pants when it is...

The only High-Viz I ever have on is the one fluorescent orange stripe on my tin hat, because some joker marking trees was using me for target practice.

 

[056kid]

Actually, it is all like that. I'm still wearing a tin hat from 1983 when I'm felling timber, I use the inside chaps under my rigging pants when it isn't raining and under my nylon rain pants when it is...

The only High-Viz I ever have on is the one fluorescent orange stripe on my tin hat, because some joker marking trees was using me for target practice.

What you just explained is hI fidelitry loggin compared to what real south east gypo loggin is, no lid, no chaps, no ppe, no nothin except a saw, an old franklin, and a c 60 with a boom on it..

 

[Gologit]

Actually, it is all like that. I'm still wearing a tin hat from 1983 when I'm felling timber, I use the inside chaps under my rigging pants when it isn't raining and under my nylon rain pants when it is...

The only High-Viz I ever have on is the one fluorescent orange stripe on my tin hat, because some joker marking trees was using me for target practice.

LOL...I got bored one day and cut up a bunch of that reflective tape that they put on trailers. I stuck a few pieces on my hardhat but they didn't last long...too much grease and oil embedded in the metal. The ones on my thermos stuck pretty good, though.

 

[slowp]

"New" safety trends I have seen this year, are chaps. The fallers are wearing chaps. Only a couple guys did before. And they are carrying high visibility falling axes. I noticed they all have their axes painted flourescent orange. Must be new rules. Shovels too. The helicopter rigging crew is the only high visibility group. Plastic hardhats are fashionable also, maybe more so as they don't dent. Dents get fines if the safety guys show up. Elk season starts in a couple of weeks and it is a good thing to not look like an elk. I'd better bone up on my answers to THE HUNTING QUESTIONS.

 

[Gologit]

"New" safety trends I have seen this year, are chaps. The fallers are wearing chaps. Only a couple guys did before. And they are carrying high visibility falling axes. I noticed they all have their axes painted flourescent orange. Must be new rules. Shovels too. The helicopter rigging crew is the only high visibility group. Plastic hardhats are fashionable also, maybe more so as they don't dent. Dents get fines if the safety guys show up. Elk season starts in a couple of weeks and it is a good thing to not look like an elk. I'd better bone up on my answers to THE HUNTING QUESTIONS.

They really fine you for a dented hard hat? Is that the Fed or State people who do that?

My old hat would probably give them a heart attack...it's hard to find a spot on it that hasn't been dented or dinged or scraped. LOL...Maybe a hat that bad would be a felony...and I'd wind up in jail.

 

[hammerlogging]

Damn right its a cowboy show. Thats the way we like it.

All the PPE, high viz, etc, there ain't no doubt that it saves lives. The safety menatlity is good, and what I want with anyone working around me. But on the surface, all cowboy.

I was cutting way down in a hole with some fallers I'd never cut with. I wore a high viz vest cause it was a little tight for all of us until we got that hole opened up into strips. Truth is, the other cutters liked it because we do have to look for each other so we don't kill each other and with high viz, thats all that much easier. But tell me I have to do this or that, different story. Stupid mentality, yes, but in the land of the free and home of the brave, you gotta be careful how you tell someone what to do. Straight up no bs "this is a new rule, period" is probably the best way for me to recieve rules-- I really hate it when an inconfident wus tries to tell me what to do. (i.e gov't beaurocrat with no in-woods experience)

 

[slowp]

They really fine you for a dented hard hat? Is that the Fed or State people who do that?

My old hat would probably give them a heart attack...it's hard to find a spot on it that hasn't been dented or dinged or scraped. LOL...Maybe a hat that bad would be a felony...and I'd wind up in jail.

The state people fine for dented hats. Most guys are not wearing dented hats because they know. I think it is per dent too. My orange vest that I wear so the hooktenders have a better target is getting very faded, not to mention that I wipe my paint messed hands on the right back part, so I probably don't show up so well.

 

[John Ellison]

I watched that tough job show last night. If the camera people had any sense they would have been a little nervous when the guy that wore his chaps down around his knees was falling the tree. The tree was cut up in every direction imaginable and I saw someone standing about fifty feet away in the area ( I think) that they hoped it would go.

Re. Dented hard hats. Is there a three dents and you're out law in some states?
Some guys paint their axe because they can be easy to loose. You would'nt think it would be a fineable of fence to get caught with an unpainted axe, but who knows?

 

[1I'dJak]

Things have been a bit overegulated here, but that`s the way the she goes I guess...A lot has to do with the 45 loggers dying a couple of years ago... you see a faller here, He`s go the full rigging, his vis shirt, helmet with visor & muffs, cutting pants (no chaps allowed), two workable saws, 3.5lb axe with four wedges and wedge pouch, whistle, pressure bandage, radio etc etc...its become a lot more proffessional...on top of it they gotta take the falling course.... but one you pass thru these hoops you`re making at least 5 bills a day...

 

[hammerlogging]

I like your location, I like your timber, I like your country, and I'd jump through more than one hoop for 5 bills a day. The cowboy mentality is juvenile at best, but don't tell us.
There's a balance to be reached in there where practicality meets the ideal.