Landing Fire?

[bitzer]

I've heard about the PNW guys keepin a fire goin on the landing and the fun things that can be thrown into it. Since I'm going to be have a crew running this winter I'm thinkin about keepin a burn barrel on site just to warm up to. They are pretty safe and I'd have a grate to throw over the top (not that fire danger is real high when there is 2 ft of snow on the ground). Just curious how many guys do this. I've been alone the last couple of winters and it would have been nice for a warm up, but just more stuff for me to maintain alone. With a crew going though I think the guys would appreciate a place to warm up. That and the truckers would probably like it to.

 

[1270d]

Once I got through the numb fingers there is no way I would stop sawing, hike to the landing to warm up, hike back out and go through the cold hands routine again. Keep cutting till lunch, then a fire would be pretty nice to have. Till the truck warmed up anyway.

We re babies though compared to some. If it -35 or colder we go home.

Hoofing through 2 or 3 ft of snow puts a good deal of heat into the body

 

[4x4American]

Yea thats pretty common, I know of two companies around here that do that, one of those companies also brings a grill with them to keep the crew fed. when you take care of your workers they work the best

 

[bitzer]

Once I got through the numb fingers there is no way I would stop sawing, hike to the landing to warm up, hike back out and go through the cold hands routine again. Keep cutting till lunch, then a fire would be pretty nice to have. Till the truck warmed up anyway.

We re babies though compared to some. If it -35 or colder we go home.

Hoofing through 2 or 3 ft of snow puts a good deal of heat into the body

Yeah you're right. I meant before going out cutting and when you are done for the day. When you're trompin through snow and running a saw for 6-8 hours its pretty easy to stay warm. I just hate that cold wet feeling when you are waiting for the truck to heat up on the way home or when you need to putz on the landing fixing something or whatever. I cut in a couple of 30 below days last year. With the wind chill of course. My guess is you guys get a little colder than I do though.

I've also seen pictures from guys like Rounder who start a little lunch fire while out cutting. I think it would be pretty tough to find dry combustibles to burn while out cutting in hardwoods in the snow. Around here its best to keep extra gloves and whatever else you need to change out when wet and keep moving. Eat on the way to the next tree kind of thing. I pretty much do that anyway.

 

[bitzer]

Yea thats pretty common, I know of two companies around here that do that, one of those companies also brings a grill with them to keep the crew fed. when you take care of your workers they work the best

I like the hot food idea. That's a big help in the winter time. It gets tough eatin half frozen PB & Js every day.

 

[northmanlogging]

burn barrels and bits of broken wood, or bark. started with used motor oil and diesel... probably can't do that anymore:msp_unsure:

The other thing you can do is wire up a coffee can to the exhaust of whatever is running all day. Toss your wet gloves in there or wrap a couple of hot dogs in tin foil few minutes later you have dry gloves and a warm meal, depending on how hot the exhaust gets...

You could also make crud stew and stuff that in the coffee can oven, wraped in tinfoil of course...

Crud Stew:
1/2 # hambooger
1/2 tater diced
couple carots diced
1/2-1/4 onion diced
season to taste (salt, pepper, mrs dash, curry, whatever...)
Maybe a dash of flower or starch to thicken up the sauce a bit depending on type of tater used.

Wrap in two layers of aluminium foil "cook" until you can't wait any longer or juices run clear.
Eat with dirty fingers:msp_razz:

if you have a mostly stationary machine you can use the engine head to cook with too tends to make less of a mess that way as well.

Its best served with a side of envy from all the guys who didn't bring anything warm to eat:msp_wink:

 

[rocketnorton]

burn barrels and bits of broken wood, or bark. started with used motor oil and diesel... probably can't do that anymore:msp_unsure:

The other thing you can do is wire up a coffee can to the exhaust of whatever is running all day. Toss your wet gloves in there or wrap a couple of hot dogs in tin foil few minutes later you have dry gloves and a warm meal, depending on how hot the exhaust gets...

You could also make crud stew and stuff that in the coffee can oven, wraped in tinfoil of course...

Crud Stew:
1/2 # hambooger
1/2 tater diced
couple carots diced
1/2-1/4 onion diced
season to taste (salt, pepper, mrs dash, curry, whatever...)
Maybe a dash of flower or starch to thicken up the sauce a bit depending on type of tater used.

Wrap in two layers of aluminium foil "cook" until you can't wait any longer or juices run clear.
Eat with dirty fingers:msp_razz:

if you have a mostly stationary machine you can use the engine head to cook with too tends to make less of a mess that way as well.

Its best served with a side of envy from all the guys who didn't bring anything warm to eat:msp_wink:

"liked"...

 

[slowp]

The chaser usually keeps a campfire going on the landing. Us old timey Forest Service folks can get a fire going pretty much anytime, anywhere IF we have enough fuel to "get that column built". No burn barrels, just a campfire type thing. Saw gas or diesel is used to get it started, and maybe the crew sent up a buckskin log to chop into kindling. Then chunks of wood, green or not go on to keep it going.

Foresters know what those circular wires are. Some loggers also do not realize that busted up chokers, aerosol cans, metal parts, etc. do not burn and feed those into the fire or bury them in the slash pile. In the 1980s, FS foresters realized they could insist that the purchaser come back out and pick up such things, and the practice slowed, a bit.

One logger told a story about being on a crew in the winter and two tires:msp_sad: were sent down each morning, one for the morning, and one for the afternoon. He was a guy who didn't know that the wires from radial tires would not burn up in the slash pile they torched off to keep warm.

Working in the snowy part of the state, we were having cold weather with beastly wind chills and wearing many layers of clothes. The logger there had a mechanized side, but he torched off the landing pile and fed it, because it kept his equipment warm overnight. Smoke can be a problem when doing that. The mule deer were coming to the landing at night, and even bedding down under the equipment, because it was warmer.

I've not seen fires down where the rigging crew is. They have to move over bigger parts of ground in our second growth thinnings, and usually drink a cold can of soup right out of the can....ick. They aren't or shouldn't be, near the same ground for very long.

 

[northmanlogging]

I've always liked the thick billowing cloud of black smoke coming of a tire... especially when you use two or three of em.


By the way this is still done on private ground but they usually start the fires at night so the fire fighters and police can't see the smoke.

Its not legal or right but its a common practice.

 

[Gologit]

We don't see landing/warming fires much anymore down here. Almost everything is mechanized and the guys would rather stay in their heated cabs than stand around a fire. Once in awhile, like if the processor is down or we're using a knot bumper on big timber, the landing man might build a fire. We always figured that if a landing man had enough time to stand by the fire we probably weren't keeping him busy enough.
The truck drivers waiting to load might congregate around the fire but a lot of them stayed in their trucks, too. Sometimes a Cat skinner would build a fire at lunch time but they'd usually sit in the crummy with the engine going and the heater turned up instead.

Some of the guys carry those little warming coils that plug into a cigarette lighter and heat up soup or beans. 12 volt heated lunch boxes are popular, too. Most of the guys just tough it out with cold sandwiches and luke warm thermos coffee...and cuss a lot.



I've seldom seen fallers building fires, even at lunch time, and I never did it myself. If you stripped out and had to wait for a ride and it was snowing or raining you might build a little squaw fire to dry out your gloves. Maybe you'd experiment with toasting something on a stick...baloney sandwiches always warmed up nice. Peanut butter, not so much.

"Course, I didn't work in the snow as much as some of the guys up north and if I had I might have done things differently. We mainly just kept moving to stay warm. We never took much of a lunch break and sitting around for half an hour, especially by a fire, made it that much tougher to get back out there. And you had to get back out there.

 

[802climber]

An old horse trailer with a woodstove in it? Could even warm up your bar oil while you're at it.

 

[Red Amor]

Look I gotta say I don't know how you blokes do it in shuch cold conditions
I just couldn't function
I shoe now n then in the snow , the horses hate it more n me but ouw low tempretures don't come anywere near yours
You blokes must have BIG GURRARS YEAH

 

[Humptulips]

I'd have to say for cutters never happens. They work a straight 6 and bail in the crew bus at quitting time.
Used to have a chaser once in a while that would have a landing fire but mostly there is not much benefit. You can't stand around the fire and get your work done.
On a few occasions when it was really misreable and I had time I woulf make a lunch fire for the rigging crew, estimating about where they would be.

Story time:
We were working on the upper Wynoochee in early September, still fire season and it had been hot. Well, one day we come to work and about a foot of fresh snow is covering everything. Some of the guys were not the best prepared for snow. It had been hot!
So for lunch they asked me to build a fire. Everything was sopping wet. Hemlock show to boot. Only place I could find a dry place was on the lower side of a big leave tree. Got a pretty nice fire going but unbekownst to me the tree was hollow and the fire started drafting like a chimney. Man it was roaring and I'm down there trying to put it out. On the upper side where I couldn't see the crew was stoking the fire and enjoying the heat. Probably could see that tree/chimney for 20 miles as it belched fire and sparks. Finally I had to fall it and it went right out when it hit the ground. About gave our foreman a heart attack. Apparently there were no FS personal in the valley that day or we would have got chewed on till we couldn't sit.

 

[OlympicYJ]

Hey Hump how ya been!? Where were ya at up the noochee? Who was the forman? Breymeyr was the supe right?

 

[imagineero]

Only time I've ever cut in cold conditions was in new zealand, and it wasn't really all that cold anyhow. Had frost, but only occasionally light snow. We'd get a small fire going in the morning just to get some heat into our bodies but nobody really fussed with keeping it going. There was no landing though. Having a hot meal is a wonderful thing, and I got into the habit of bringing along a small campstove, they only cost a few bucks and travel well. Most of the forestry blocks where I was working are small, and owned by farmers. They're mostly sheep farmers, occasionally dairy. All the flat land is used for grazing and they plant out whatever land is left, the steep ground mostly. Because of the size of the blocks, the crews are also small and you might only be working a block for a week or two, sometimes even only a few days. Many of the farmers would be happy to sell you a lamb for $50 which is a real bargain. They'll usually slaughter, skin and gut it for you, leaving you with a carcass. That's enough meat to keep two men eating breakfast lunch and dinner for about a week in my experience. One of my favorite lunches was lamb stew, which was just odds and sods. Get a big pot and throw in a few diced onions and whatever miscellaneous bits of meet came off the carcass. The neck, shanks, and whatever flaps were leftover after you butchered it up into hindquarters, legs and ribs and backstraps all go in there. Then hardy vegetables like leaks, squash, pumpkin, potatoes, carrots etc, few cans of diced tomatoes, beans, some tomato sauce, chilli, salt and pepper etc, top her up with water and finish it off with some silverbeet when it's ready to serve maybe. Those tougher cuts need a lot of cooking, but they're so full of flavour. If you simmer it up 12 hours or so it melts in your mouth. I'd start it off the night before, and go to bed. In the morning turn it off and take it to the job then reheat at lunch with some crusty bread rolls. Had no trouble getting the boys to throw a few dollars in the tin to cover the cost.

 

[Humptulips]

Hey Hump how ya been!? Where were ya at up the noochee? Who was the forman? Breymeyr was the supe right?

I never worked for Simpsons so not Breymeyer.
Simpson let some timber go back at the end when they closed Grisdale and Mayrs bought it. I believe about 200 million. Then lawsuits by enviros cut that back considerably and left only the really high country sales. The lower sales were saved for Spotted Owls. I was working for Byron Bros. who were contracting for Mayrs at the time. That sale was right near the trail to I think Sundown lake. We logged I think 4 units. Only place I ever was that had some snow in August.
Foreman was Mel Brooks, heck of a guy. I worked with him at 4 different outfits. You might have known him. He was in the Loggers Playday for years. Passed away about 4 years ago.

 

[Humptulips]

Only time I've ever cut in cold conditions was in new zealand, and it wasn't really all that cold anyhow. Had frost, but only occasionally light snow. We'd get a small fire going in the morning just to get some heat into our bodies but nobody really fussed with keeping it going. There was no landing though. Having a hot meal is a wonderful thing, and I got into the habit of bringing along a small campstove, they only cost a few bucks and travel well. Most of the forestry blocks where I was working are small, and owned by farmers. They're mostly sheep farmers, occasionally dairy. All the flat land is used for grazing and they plant out whatever land is left, the steep ground mostly. Because of the size of the blocks, the crews are also small and you might only be working a block for a week or two, sometimes even only a few days. Many of the farmers would be happy to sell you a lamb for $50 which is a real bargain. They'll usually slaughter, skin and gut it for you, leaving you with a carcass. That's enough meat to keep two men eating breakfast lunch and dinner for about a week in my experience. One of my favorite lunches was lamb stew, which was just odds and sods. Get a big pot and throw in a few diced onions and whatever miscellaneous bits of meet came off the carcass. The neck, shanks, and whatever flaps were leftover after you butchered it up into hindquarters, legs and ribs and backstraps all go in there. Then hardy vegetables like leaks, squash, pumpkin, potatoes, carrots etc, few cans of diced tomatoes, beans, some tomato sauce, chilli, salt and pepper etc, top her up with water and finish it off with some silverbeet when it's ready to serve maybe. Those tougher cuts need a lot of cooking, but they're so full of flavour. If you simmer it up 12 hours or so it melts in your mouth. I'd start it off the night before, and go to bed. In the morning turn it off and take it to the job then reheat at lunch with some crusty bread rolls. Had no trouble getting the boys to throw a few dollars in the tin to cover the cost.

Sounds good but you have to translate for me. What is silverbeet?
Like my stew with dumplings on top, anything like that?

 

[OlympicYJ]

Gawd I know Pat and Bob! Pat worked for my dad at Quiggs. He took over dads job as foreman when he left. Then as I'm sure you know when Quiggs went non union him and Bob formed Byron Bros. I'm pretty sure I've heard of Mel before. He handled the logging for Pat and Bob right?

Know of snow flyin up on the 900 pass in July before. I've never seen it personally but heard about it when they were sitting on the main branch by the divide.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk now Free

 

[2dogs]

Sounds good but you have to translate for me. What is silverbeet?
Like my stew with dumplings on top, anything like that?

I love lamb! I cook a couple of springers every year at our family GTG/reunion. When it comes to stew though I prefer mutton.

In Collyfornia you can't burn anything in a barrel. And no tires. (Always bury the wires). Course I don't work on a logging crew but I do manage burn piles during the winter. I can always find room to bring one of my long handled camping fry pans. Everything tastes better heated up, especially PBJ.

 

[Gologit]

In Collyfornia you can't burn anything in a barrel. And no tires. (Always bury the wires).

Wires? What wires? Besides, the wires bio degrade....eventually. On a 40 or 50 year rotation they'll probably be rust dust when that ground is logged again.