After thinking it would be a boring slow year, I'm getting calls about starting up operations. As of July 1, the owls are done doing whatever they have to have quiet time to do and logging can start. So, a timber faller/skyline corridor layout guy comes in the other day to let me know they want to start falling on Tuesday and can I come up and paint out the corridor trees. Mind you, this is a guy who is a very fast and good cutter. The others just shake their heads about keeping up with him. I agree to but tell him he might want to get a few more laid out than usual, as I might not be able to make it up there as frequently this year. So, yesterday he flagged in corridors.
I hear the weather forecast and it is for hot weather today. I get up to the unit at 7:30 and it is chilly enough to cause cold hands. I grab paint and Ol'TreeKiller (paintgun) and head up the hill thinking there are probably 8 corridors laid out.
The first few corridors are not bad. Not too steep, not a lot of junk on the ground, I'm enjoying it. Paint trees on way up, paint trees on way down, repeat...Here's part of the hillside.
Around the 6th corridor, I must shed a shirt and swill some water. By Corridor 8, legs are starting to be rubbery, weather is warm, and I see more pink flagging. I keep going.
By corridor 13, the icky old blowdown is prevalent. I have rubber legs and I'm cranky. The corridors are getting shorter but nastier.
Corridor 15! It is very short but I have to crawl through all the stuff THEY toss over the side when building landings. I'm thinking how THEY really need to leave a nice trail through it as I balance on wobbly legs, shooting a long distance at a tree that will need to be cut. You can't tell where the brush ends and the ground begins. I crawl up to the landing and am happy to see that there are no more pink flags. The only injury is a bloody knuckle and I have no idea how I got it. This is the sale I have gotten lots of owies on. It is a cursed sale in that respect. I hobble back down to the rig, taking an easier route. I then drove up the road to look at the area they logged last November, and in snow for part of it. This is the unit that had the hooktender-philosopher on it and I wrote about in An Icky Whiney Day. The weather was just nahsty for that whole section. The top is a 90% slope and there was lots of old little blowdown junk all through it. Doesn't look too bad.
I'll try to get pictures of the cutters and other operations later on. Looks like Twinkle will get a rest, and I will get the paint gun calluses back on the hand.
I hear the weather forecast and it is for hot weather today. I get up to the unit at 7:30 and it is chilly enough to cause cold hands. I grab paint and Ol'TreeKiller (paintgun) and head up the hill thinking there are probably 8 corridors laid out.
The first few corridors are not bad. Not too steep, not a lot of junk on the ground, I'm enjoying it. Paint trees on way up, paint trees on way down, repeat...Here's part of the hillside.
Around the 6th corridor, I must shed a shirt and swill some water. By Corridor 8, legs are starting to be rubbery, weather is warm, and I see more pink flagging. I keep going.
By corridor 13, the icky old blowdown is prevalent. I have rubber legs and I'm cranky. The corridors are getting shorter but nastier.
Corridor 15! It is very short but I have to crawl through all the stuff THEY toss over the side when building landings. I'm thinking how THEY really need to leave a nice trail through it as I balance on wobbly legs, shooting a long distance at a tree that will need to be cut. You can't tell where the brush ends and the ground begins. I crawl up to the landing and am happy to see that there are no more pink flags. The only injury is a bloody knuckle and I have no idea how I got it. This is the sale I have gotten lots of owies on. It is a cursed sale in that respect. I hobble back down to the rig, taking an easier route. I then drove up the road to look at the area they logged last November, and in snow for part of it. This is the unit that had the hooktender-philosopher on it and I wrote about in An Icky Whiney Day. The weather was just nahsty for that whole section. The top is a 90% slope and there was lots of old little blowdown junk all through it. Doesn't look too bad.
I'll try to get pictures of the cutters and other operations later on. Looks like Twinkle will get a rest, and I will get the paint gun calluses back on the hand.
