preferred equipment

[Humptulips]

Gumboot,
I logged the last timber LP had under contract at Port Alice. They tore the camp out after we left I heard. I was tending hook for a gypo contracting for LP. I can believe you never worked at Soda Bay. There wasn't much good timber there. We were logging on an island in the Bay out of a float camp. Another small gypo. The rest of the time I've never got far from Grays Harbor in WA.

 

[tramp bushler]

...Danners

Just curious. The Danner boots I have are the best shoes I've ever owned. Put two soles on them now but are about shot.

.....If you check out the Hoffman Boot co. web site....I think they have a number of Danner boots as Corks ... Their Line man and the model I think they call the Fire Line ....look like good boots ,, I think they are double vamped ,, If they were corked they would be like the old Danners ....Got to have corks on the coast of Alaska ....

 

[slowp]

More on equipment:

Having a dirty pickup is not necessarily a sign of hating to wash it. That dust, mud, oil is an important tool for communication. One can write cheery messages to others on it, or as we did the other day, draw an arrow in the direction one has taken into the woods, with and approximate distance one can be found. The dirt on the outside will also camoflage any dings or dents one has gotten while say, drivng over fallen trees.

It is important to keep the back full of "stuff". This is not "junk" but is stuff. One never knows when one will need something that is back there. Just yesterday, I was helping a tourista from Switzerland get her rental van unstuck from the snow. She used my shovel, and I, after seeing a bare patch of dirt under a tree, grabbed the pulaski and traffic cone. I stuffed a NO WOODCUTTING SIGN into the cone to plug up the hole, loosened up dirt with the pulaski, and then filled the cone with dirt. I packed it over to her van, threw the dirt under the wheels, and she got out. Now, I need to use the tailgate to teach tourists to read. Very few seem to be able to understand ROAD CLOSED BY SNOW AHEAD.

 

[2FatGuys]

More on equipment:... It is important to keep the back full of "stuff". This is not "junk" but is stuff. One never knows when one will need something that is back there...

We used to have an old Stihl 009 top handle junker in the back of one of our trucks. One of our guys constantly wondered why we didn't throw it out. One day last week, we had to drop our log trailer to relocate the truck. He found out why we carry around that wheel chock that resembles a 009....

 

[tramp bushler]

Wrap handle bar power saws

/ This is a west coast thing .. . I almost can,t run a real saw if it only has half its handle bar ....
How could any one run a fallin saw with out one is quite a ????? Steep ground , no where to stand to make a buck ,,,

I,ve had to face up too many trees holding the saw over my head and running it left handed .......

Heres something many won,t know .,,.,. Almost no fallers from Washington wear a saw pad on their suspenders ...
I have a couple pretty good scars on my neck from working in the riggin and packin a saw with no pad , and I hate burning my shoulder , I wear a pad ..

 

[slowp]

/
Heres something many won,t know .,,.,. Almost no fallers from Washington wear a saw pad on their suspenders ...
I have a couple pretty good scars on my neck from working in the riggin and packin a saw with no pad , and I hate burning my shoulder , I wear a pad ..

They all wear them in this area. And we would be in Warshington.

 

[tramp bushler]

What town /area ??

I haven,t been south of Carrol Inlet since 1982 , and didn,t travel around Washington much when I was there ..... Most of the cutters I worked with from Wash. were from Darrington , Morton , Mossy Rock, Chahalis and some from the Grays Harbor area ...

Unfortunitly in my mental geography Coos Bay is right near Vernonia, PL, Darrington , ect ...

I thot it pretty dumb that they would cut up their guylines , tear holes in their shirt and rain gear and burn their shoulders just so they could think they looked tough ...:crazy1:

Gumboot

 

[slowp]

The area here is Chehalis, Napavine, Glenoma, Morton, Mossyrock, Randle, Packwood, Eatonville, etc. Maybe the ferries and airlines won't let them ship the suspender pads? I've wondered why nobody sews in pads on shirts, that way you'd have both shoulders padded and if one was bottom heavy, the addition of width to the shoulders would help to offset this figure flaw. Same way with packing wire. Why guys don't use packboards, I won't even try to understand. It would be easier on the back AND shoulders. But they'd probably lose or break the packboard.

 

[secureland]

I've been reading this thread, and was hoping that someone could please explain what the suspender pad is used for, and packwire too.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[slowp]

Cutters/fallers carry their saws with the bar resting on the shoulder, bar pointing to the front, sawhead behind. It is easier than packing by the handle.
The pad protects the shoulder and also makes it more comfy.

Parts of the cable used for yarding have to be packed by people. The cable is coiled up and carried on/over the shoulder. It can weigh a lot more than I'd care to carry. They are also packing it through the brush (down timber) so that makes it even more of an adventure. I have a picture of a hooktender starting out from the landing on a beauty day. Of course, I can't find it now.

 

[slowp]

I found it. He was packing the line up the hill-- they had downhill yarding to do. There was a nice trail to follow up to the ridge top for that setting. I've been along with the guys and they were packing rolls like this or blocks up a 90% slope. This is a previously posted picture.

 

[secureland]

Nice picture... I didn't realize you guys got rain in the PNW.

 

[2dogs]

Nice picture... I didn't realize you guys got rain in the PNW.

Those WA people are hogging all the rain! We need it down here in Collyfornia bad. The cows are going to be lining up at the soup kitchen here pretty quick and they aren't even Catholic.

 

[Humptulips]

Slowp,
I've been tempted to use a packboard a few times when packing things like tree jacks. Mostly though coils, haulback blocks, straps and stuff like that fit real well on the shoulder and pack pretty good. You can also get rid of them better if you start to go down which can save you a blown knee or the like at times.
A few times in years past (not anymore) I used to hook two 15 inch youngs together at the goose neck and take off with them, usually when I had an audience. No sane person throws 150 pounds on their back and takes off unless trying to show off. Young and dumb!

 

[slowp]

Those WA people are hogging all the rain! We need it down here in Collyfornia bad. The cows are going to be lining up at the soup kitchen here pretty quick and they aren't even Catholic.

That picture was taken in the lovely month of November. We had horizontal sleet and rain that day. But the worst day was Veteran's day. That hooktender and I were up on top of the ridge. On the way up, we discussed the need to embrace the weather. They were short handed because one guy quit due to the weather. The hooktender was looking up at the wildly swaying trees and trying to get me to do the same. I didn't dare or I might have run away from fear.

On my way home, a big tree was across the short route. I tried to cut it out but it had a break in it, and the wood kept shifting and getting Twinkle stuck. I'm not a very good bucker either. I had my saw stuck with every wedge in the tree. I got the one cut through, then the next cut was doing the same thing and the wind was starting to blow again.... I gave up and went the long way around. I left a note for the crew but they had chains and chokers and guys who knew how to cut so they ignored the note and got the tree neatly out of the way. I tell people it is good to have logging going on all year because they clear the roads.