Some city slicker that wants to play in the forest.

[Sagetown]

When I joined I was 18. I could run 7 minute miles all day long, biked 40-80 miles a week(I had an awesome Pinarello back then), and took 3-6 hours of ju jutsu and karate a week. This all prepared me for working in the Sierras, but none of them even came remotely close to even making my first day comfortable. I thought for certain I was gonna die on the side of the mountain back then. My feet were literally bleeding the first week. And I was thirsty from dawn to sleep. The pack test just weeds out those that have no reason being in a crew. Cardio and endurance are important, but I would prepare for fire fighting by hiking up long trails with alot of elevation on them in heavy boots. Do not wear hiking shoes. I wish I had done that before I joined.

..

My 1st mountain experience was at age 17 in the high Sierras in CA. Like you, I found it altogether a whole new ball game of physical fitness that I'll never forget.

 

[Tillamook]

Interesting read I was surfing youtube recently and found a video I think it was family day or something but its a college course in yarder logging that Oregon State University does. I was just watching it thinking to my self going to colledge to learn how to be a logger Im sure there is some good info to learn but the people that take this course are in for a suprise when they get on for a real logging outfit lol Plus I could just imagine them arguing with the hooker telling him well thats not how we did it in college lol

Here are the videos I found OSU Logging Program Family Day - YouTube OSU Logging Program Family Day - YouTube OSU Logging Program Family Day Tree Falling Demo - YouTube

If these links dont work just do a search for OSU logging family day :msp_biggrin:

I agree move to logging country, find some companys and start trying to get on. I wish I would have started when I was your age or even right out of high school, i'm 27 now. I just starting working on the rigging 3 weeks ago and I love it!!! I am setting chokers, falling trees and pulling rigging. Once you start to get in shape or at least used to the abuse of being cut, gouged, falling down, twisting ankles, getting whipped in the face with brush or vineys, walking or running up and down steep rocky ground all day and much more its really a fun job!!! Its not for everyone they say but it is really something I enjoy! There is no greater satisfaction to me than going out working the sweat and blood right out of you (REAL WORK) and when you kick your boots off and sit down on the couch after a hard days work you really feel like you accomplished something! I have been a volunteer fire fighter for 8 years and they pay for any training I want I have my s130/190 and could go fight wildfire but thats just not my thing and you only get action during the fire season in most cases. When your logging you get action and adventure daily! and no two days are the same from what I have seen. "A bad day in the woods is better than a good day in the office!"

Good luck and keep us posted! If you make it out around Tillamook let me know I can point you in the direction of allot of logging outfits and allot of volunteer fire departments.There is also a wildland firefighting outfit out here that does allot of hiring all the time and they fight fire durring the season and plant trees the rest of the time.

 

[Tillamook]

Also found this on the OSU logging program Welcome to the OSU Student Logging Training Program

I think its kinda a neat program but im not sure how it would be looked upon by the other guys on the crew.

 

[forestryworks]

Also found this on the OSU logging program Welcome to the OSU Student Logging Training Program

I think its kinda a neat program but im not sure how it would be looked upon by the other guys on the crew.

Everybody's gotta start somewhere. And for some folks, a school logging crew will be easier to hire on with than a commercial crew.

 

[slowp]

Looks like they upgraded their carriage since 1990. They used to have a 10 week program that the Forest Service and foreign countries would send folks to. It was called FEI or Forest Engineering Institute. It was a cram course in planning for logging. I think it was the last week, we spent a morning splicing and then went out and worked with the Koller and a Christy carriage. Our class was short. We had rigged up an intermediate support. It lasted for 4 turns and then the trees it was rigged in pulled over. Class over.
They were pretty worried about us getting hurt, which was OK.

I do remember the trees being felled perfectly, in a herringbone pattern, like somebody had taken the time to do it well. I haven't ever seen that meticulous of a job of falling anywhere in the real world. I guess they had to so we newbies wouldn't skin up any of the leave trees. It was a thinning job.

 

[stikine]

FEI was probably the highlight of any training I've had post college and I think the majority of it has great application in harvest planning & engineering. I've used those skills extensively while locating roads and laying out unit boundaries over the years.

You know what they say...knowledge is power...and you really can't have enough in this day and age of competition and slim profit margins.

 

[Gologit]

Im sure there is some good info to learn but the people that take this course are in for a suprise when they get on for a real logging outfit lol Plus I could just imagine them arguing with the hooker telling him well thats not how we did it in college lol




I just starting working on the rigging 3 weeks ago and I love it!!! I am setting chokers, falling trees and pulling rigging. Once you start to get in shape or at least used to the abuse of being cut, gouged, falling down, twisting ankles, getting whipped in the face with brush or vineys, walking or running up and down steep rocky ground all day and much more its really a fun job!!!

:hmm3grin2orange: They'd only say that to the hooktender once. Then they'd either learn to listen or they'd learn the way to town.

Sounds like you're making the best of it. Good on ya.

 

[redprospector]

When I joined I was 18. I could run 7 minute miles all day long, biked 40-80 miles a week(I had an awesome Pinarello back then), and took 3-6 hours of ju jutsu and karate a week. This all prepared me for working in the Sierras, but none of them even came remotely close to even making my first day comfortable. I thought for certain I was gonna die on the side of the mountain back then. My feet were literally bleeding the first week. And I was thirsty from dawn to sleep. The pack test just weeds out those that have no reason being in a crew. Cardio and endurance are important, but I would prepare for fire fighting by hiking up long trails with alot of elevation on them in heavy boots. Do not wear hiking shoes. I wish I had done that before I joined.

I too was told by my parent "Yer smart, stop working with your hands and go to college".I wish I had stuck with firefighting and forestry instead. However,I learned a LOT in 5 years of college obtaining a degree in industrial design, and minor in German and linguistics. Then there were all the girls...

Hahaha! When I was 18 I could outrun a speeding bullet, stop a locomotive, and leap tall buildings in a single bound. But about the time I turned 40 something happened to me. I noticed it when I tripped over an antenna on one of those tall buildings.
When I turned 50 my chest fell, thankfully my wasteband stopped it or it would have gone all the way to my feet.
I can still outwork most of the young guy's around here. Not because I'm still Super man, but because I've learned enough tricks to be able to get more done with a little less effort.

I spent my first 40 years trying to convince everyone that I was Super man. Since then I've been trying to convince them that I'm not.

Andy

 

[redprospector]

That's a good one Andy.:msp_biggrin: The first year I did the test there were a few of us that sort of turned it into a bit of a competition...I think I finished in just under 33 minutes if memory serves me. None of us got DQ'ed, but we were on the verge of running as opposed to walking. In later years (as wisdom set in) I would time it to finish in the 40-42 range, which is definitely more enjoyable.

Haha. Yeah, if it ain't a competition it aint much fun.
The first fire I was on contractors didn't have to have a red card. When I took the tests a couple of years ago they wouldn't give me a red card. I took their classes, and passed all their tests, but the FS said they couldn't issue me a red card because I didn't work for an agency. Said I should contact State Forestry. State Forestry said they couldn't issue me a red card unless I worked on one of their crew's. They said I should go back to the FS. :bang: Went back to FS, they said that I should hire on with a contractor that has a couple of engines, and quit once I had my card. I told them that I didn't do things that way, and that if they decided that they needed any contract fallers they could call me and we'd negotiate a red card then. I guess they never needed any contract fallers cuz my phone didn't ring.
In 2000 I was a C faller. Now I'm just a lowely thinning contractor.

Andy

 

[Gologit]

When I turned 50 my chest fell, thankfully my wasteband stopped it or it would have gone all the way to my feet.
I can still outwork most of the young guy's around here. Not because I'm still Super man, but because I've learned enough tricks to be able to get more done with a little less effort.



Andy

Yup. I still weigh the same as I did in High School. It's just arranged differently. A lot differently.

 

[tramp bushler]

When your young yyou can be quick afoot , but as you season you get Tough . I'de rather be tough than able to run a race . Course I'm not out pullin riggin on a mountain side either .

 

[tramp bushler]

Ok, Tramp, now I know. You must be a Finn.

Nope . Scottish . Highlander actually , got my own castle an tartan . :kilt:

 

[tramp bushler]

Ah Ha . Now it comes out .
Time for a fresh assault :angry2:

It really sucks when the elitest , college edjucates close a guy out because they lack what they see standing in front of them .
Government employees if they in anyway feel intimidated they will close you off . I learned the hard way not to shake their hand . And I didn't even squeeze .

This post is a reply based on Andy's post about being Eliminated from fighting fires .

 

[Gologit]

Ah Ha . Now it comes out .
Time for a fresh assault :angry2:

It really sucks when the elitest , college edjucates close a guy out because they lack what they see standing in front of them .
Government employees if they in anyway feel intimidated they will close you off . I learned the hard way not to shake their hand . Put me on their bad side right out of the chute. And I didn't even squize .

They all need to be fired , have their retirements taken away and black balled . Bullies is what they are . , predators . . Don't know what is right or good and are actually proud of that .

Okay, but what would we replace them with? If we have government we need government employees. I've run across some pretty good ones...and a few idiots, too. I see the same thing in the private sector. Good and bad both.

 

[tramp bushler]

questionable. depends which one. hard to teach something like geology without evolution. I have found forestry programs to be pragmatic, professional, science based, and practical, regardless of politics.

BS .
It's easy to propound a dogma(evolution) when everyone closes their mind to the bulk of the evidence that disproves that dogma .

 

[tramp bushler]

Okay, but what would we replace them with? If we have government we need government employees. I've run across some pretty good ones...and a few idiots, too. I see the same thing in the private sector. Good and bad both.

Since gov. Employment has grown faster than any other sector . And is perpetuated by gov. Empliyees far more than the population base requires , something needs to be done .

In private business , if you don't make it you don't get it . Here on this thread we have young people extolling JOB SECURITY "gov employment" with no real understanding of who pays for their continued perpetual income .
Surely no one thinks a gov employee actually creates welth do they .

 

[Samlock]

Nope . Scottish . Highlander actually , got my own castle an tartan . :kilt:

Acute distaste for authorities, prefer busheling, ability to take cold winters, don't mind working alone, loves the neighbors more the further they live...That's another explanation indeed!

I have lived a year in Scotland in 90's. Central Belt Lowlands it was, yet I had impression that the Highlanders are quite eccentric characters too.

 

[slowp]

Since gov. Employment has grown faster than any other sector . And is perpetuated by gov. Empliyees far more than the population base requires , something needs to be done .

In private business , if you don't make it you don't get it . Here on this thread we have young people extolling JOB SECURITY "gov employment" with no real understanding of who pays for their continued perpetual income .
Surely no one thinks a gov employee actually creates welth do they .

As I said before, there is no job security anywhere. Geesh, maybe I should have come in at 10:00, required purchasers to request that I come out IN WRITING and then wait till the tenth day. Tramp, you have a very narrow and biased outlook when it comes to Gov. Employees. Too bad. By the way, I've seen nothing but downsizing and FEWER employees in the Forest Service. I could probably back this up with figures and facts, but I need to get out and mow the grass. I assume that is the agency you no longer shake hands with? Also, when shaking hands, please realize that the squeeze game really hurts when it comes to feminine hands. I actually yelled at a guy to quit hurting my hand. I thought he was going to break it.

 

[KiwiBro]

You're all wrong.

Everyone knows all the useless, deviant, scheming idjits are in HR. Both private and public sector. That is all. You're welcome.

This thread is like saying all politicians are self-serving and untrustworthy. What a load of...ummm...well...hold on...there could be something to that...bad example.

 

[bigalalexander]

working in the timber

Hello My friend
Many many years ago 1975 I was 15 years old and wanted nothing but to cut timber in the northwest . I grew up in VT . So off I went to northern Idaho to seek my dream . And low and behold I did .! Although I was childhood timberfalling prodigy it just took determination and dont take no for a answer .!!! I still am in the logging business in VT
I did go on to have a carreer as a pilot but the timber called me back . So I built a sawmill and went into the logging and sawmill business . not running the mill now but still logging .
Come to Vt and I will break you in