Sending Down the Saw

[slowp]

He is a very strange dog. If he hadn't come prenamed, I'd call him Strange. He hangs out in the bedroom for some reason. I think I scared him when I put mouse traps on the couch to keep him off. He did pile the pillows up neatly though. I'll make THE vet appt. next week as I think he has romantic intentions for the young black lab "Olive" next door.

 

[turnkey4099]

He is a very strange dog. If he hadn't come prenamed, I'd call him Strange. He hangs out in the bedroom for some reason. I think I scared him when I put mouse traps on the couch to keep him off. He did pile the pillows up neatly though. I'll make THE vet appt. next week as I think he has romantic intentions for the young black lab "Olive" next door.

Strange? A steal from Patrick F. McManus? He had a dog by that name in several of his yarns.

Harry K

 

[windthrown]

That area (I lived down there for over 20 years myself in Monterey and Gilroy and Campbell) is a mix of forests/trees and open areas, called chaparral. The chaparral has grass and shrubs. Of late scotch brooms have invaded the coastal mountains from San Diego to BC, and it is nearly impossible to get rid of. Mow it down and it just grows back. Wildfires whip through that stuff like crazy. So logging would not be very effective for fire control, and people that live in the woods live there becasue its the woods. There are a mix of mostly oaks and bay trees, Monterey pines and doug firs and scattered redwoods. Not very commercially loggable. Also ceanothis and manzanita, and madrones grow there too. And non-native 'weed' trees like eucalyptus. Not as dense as the forests here in the PNW, but even with no trees around, the shrubs and grasses can burn your house down just as fast. I saw some HUGE wildfires take out whole neighborhoods in San Diego, where there are few trees and mostly grass and bush. And houses with shake roofs... (flamable rooftops in a fire zone? What were they thinking when they built those houses, anyway? ).

Keeping the house clear of trees and shrubs and grass is a good idea. I do fire control here, and we have no trees within 200 feet of the house. More to defend it from windthrow, but also to protect us from fires. We also mow the anual grasses this time of year when the seeds have set to keep the foxtails down, and for fire control. We are liable if a fire starts in one of our pastures that are dry and not mowed. We are also liable if a fire starts in one of our slash piles and something like lightning strikes. I am torching off all of last fall's slash piles from thinning last year. Burning this week in the light drizzle, keeps the fires under control. We also do a lot of brush control, and mechanically remove and spray the scotch broom. But that stuff keeps coming back, with the hawthorn and blackberries. And the grasses. And the trees. Tress here are rather invasive, especially the firs. And once the trees row, they need to be thinned, and the shrubs under them need to be cleared. Its an endless task. And the stumps, and nurse logs. Its all flamable, really.

Would it be too simplistic for me to think that if more was logged the fires would not be as large or severe?

What else can be done to get rid of all the undergrowth that burns so easily, or do I not understand it correctly?

Wouldn't it make sense to get rid of all trees over say, 15 feet tall, within 100 feet of all structures? Yes, I KNOW living in the woods is nice and all but come on.

Yes, I am a flat-lander but do have a cabin up in the woods up Nort and lived in the L.A. area '76-'81 and remember spending time in Lake Arrowhead/Big Bear/Crestline. Some of those places you could reach off the deck(s) and touch a large tree...:jawdrop:

 

[slowp]

Strange? A steal from Patrick F. McManus? He had a dog by that name in several of his yarns.

Harry K

Yes it is. Actually, after discussion by beers, it was brought up that his dog's original name was Stranger, but shortened to Strange, as it described the dog better. But a used dog comes with a name so to lessen the trauma of the new home, I'm not changing it. This dog is so strange--doesn't want to check out or roll in road kill, same with different kinds of poop.

Hey Gologit! The mill rep I met with the other day has 5 antennas on his pickup. That's more than our cops. So he shouldn't be asking me any questions, right?

 

[2dogs]

It sounds as if Ax Men will be back next season eh?

 

[Burvol]

And it was a foggy, drizzly day here. I have the furnace going! I needed Darryl from the show to cut blowdown. All I see down the road I'm working on is more blowdown in the road. Can't turn firewood cutters loose, and not worth enough to put on a log truck.

I'd be more than happy to drive up and cut some blow down with ya, I'm only an hour and half away if the road through Trout Lake is open. But, wages would probably be too much for the State, unless it had to go, and I'm fairly reasonable! I cut a lot of DNR timber last year. Maybe you could better explain the Basil inch thing on here. I confused a few people.

 

[treemandan]

If you are still talking about the lameness of that Tv show although I have never seen it I might know why people feel its lame. CENSORSHIP! They say" Nope! You can't do THAT on TV, it will get people upset." But that is just my feeling because if they filmed my set up they surley would be stricken!

 

[Gologit]

Hey Gologit! The mill rep I met with the other day has 5 antennas on his pickup. That's more than our cops. So he shouldn't be asking me any questions, right?

Yup. There's a correlation between the number of antennas on the pickup, the sense of self-importance of the person driving the pickup, and the amount of actual practical knowledge he has. It's also been noted by more than one observant logger that the more antennas on the pickup the more serious the demeanor of the driver. I guess all those antennas preclude common civility...or even a smile. We tend to remember things like that when they've got themselves stuck or backed over the bank trying to turn around someplace slightly shorter than their pickup.

We had one get stuck in an old landing where he had no real reason to be. He called on the radio (naturally) for a Cat and when the Cat showed up he hollered at the Catskinner to get off the Cat to hook onto his pickup because the mud was deep and he didn't want to track mud on his new boots and into his new pickup. The Catskinner drove off and left him right there. I guess somebody must have pulled him out eventually because we used that landing the next week and there wasn't anybody there but us. The guy with the many-antennaed pickup never did come back.

Once we get to know them and give them a type-rating and decide how seriously we have to take them we usually quit running them up the bank on switchbacks and oreo-ing them when we park trucks and Cats and stuff. Sometimes, anyway.

 

[slowp]

If you put your rig in 4 wheel drive and can thump over down trees, the branches will scrape the mud off the undercarriage and keep the extra weight off, thereby increasing fuel economy. At least that's what I told our fleet manager after he mumbled something about maybe I shouldn't get a new pickup. Actually, I agree with him but I would like a shorter wheelbase.

 

[Gologit]

If you put your rig in 4 wheel drive and can thump over down trees, the branches will scrape the mud off the undercarriage and keep the extra weight off, thereby increasing fuel economy. At least that's what I told our fleet manager after he mumbled something about maybe I shouldn't get a new pickup. Actually, I agree with him but I would like a shorter wheelbase.

Yup...pickups are just another tool. They're not a fashion statement. Well, not after the first season anyway.

 

[turnkey4099]

It was back to 'throw stuff at teh TV" again last night. All it was a re-run of clips of the staged screw-ups from past episodes plus repeated announcements that there were still 2 more episodes to go.

At least they were shamed enough not to re-run that asinine 'drag the big log up the hill in 45 minutes' abortion.

Harry K