suspenders...

[Gologit]

I'll agree with Jabob on this one. Grab yourself a fire job if you can get one. Logging, in our area anyway, is still slow and probably will be for the next couple of seasons. There are so many local guys that are short on work, or out of work entirely, that any kind of job gets filled real quick.


LOL...I'll spare you the "old guy lecture" but going back into the service might not be a bad idea either. . Do your 16 and bail...then you can join us starving loggers and still have a pension to carry you through the rough times.

 

[slowp]

Or work for the feds and hall slink with a coffee cup several hours a day....excuse me, that's why I try to stay out in the woods as much as possible. I get in a bad mood when I see such stuff.

 

[mile9socounty]

Well there's a lot out there for sure...a specialty crew in fire like hotshots, helitack, smokejumpers, etc. will get you more fire in one season than you'd see in three there in south county...you have good experience on your books now and you have a lot of options.

You are right there JJ. This last summer I only responded to 7 fires here in South County. All 1/4 acre or smaller. Best fire was the one on Canyon Mtn. That a vodka morning. ICK!!!

I'll agree with Jabob on this one. Grab yourself a fire job if you can get one. Logging, in our area anyway, is still slow and probably will be for the next couple of seasons. There are so many local guys that are short on work, or out of work entirely, that any kind of job gets filled real quick.

I have a fire job once the season comes around. With a company of hollow promises and small paychecks. But it is a job regardless.

LOL...I'll spare you the "old guy lecture" but going back into the service might not be a bad idea either. . Do your 16 and bail...then you can join us starving loggers and still have a pension to carry you through the rough times.

Well next Friday I'm going to give the good ol' recruiter a call and see what options are open for me. Atleast I know if I go back in. It's at a E5 rank.

Or work for the feds and hall slink with a coffee cup several hours a day....excuse me, that's why I try to stay out in the woods as much as possible. I get in a bad mood when I see such stuff.

I agree Slow. Thats why I pack 2 coffee thermos's with me out in the brush. I cleared all but 4 of my 18'er lastnight. It works wonders on a sore back.

 

[Burvol]

What kind of logging equipment can you run?
I might know of something. Might even know a crazy ####er just like you to live with too!

 

[mile9socounty]

Equipment? A saw. Can't find a person around here that will train me on equipment.

 

[madhatte]

JJ, I didn't know you were a 'Shot. My already-considerable respect for you just jumped a couple of notches. I'm a lowly engine slug, myself. I've cut plenty of line, but usually we just call the dozer, backlight, and mop up with the hoses. We get a lot of fires, but most of them are tiny. Good for the OT but not so good for the OG. My red card is barely worth the paper it's printed on.

 

[Old51AVE]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the other type of attachment, the Perry style.. http://www.perrysuspenders.com/persus.html They have everything from leather to logos, check out the Outback ones! I disliked the buttons digging into me, and hated the clips that would pop or bend all to rat shizz so I decided to try the Perrys out! I got mine @ Bass Pro, under their house brand and best part is actually made on this continent, USA no less! We'll see how they fair! http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_22093____SearchResults

Old51AVE :greenchainsaw:

 

[joesawer]

.

.

. Lord willing , I,m gonna fall timber professionally until I,m an OLD MAN , At least 72 years old .. That will give me 22 more years of slammin em on the ground ..............I,ll get me some couple young guys to limb and buck for me ..... :greenchainsaw:

Can I apply for that job? Lol......... I really want to get to the SE one of these years.

 

[tramp bushler]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the other type of attachment, the Perry style.. http://www.perrysuspenders.com/persus.html They have everything from leather to logos, check out the Outback ones! I disliked the buttons digging into me, and hated the clips that would pop or bend all to rat shizz so I decided to try the Perrys out! I got mine @ Bass Pro, under their house brand and best part is actually made on this continent, USA no less! We'll see how they fair! http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_22093____SearchResults

Old51AVE :greenchainsaw:

.


.Those Perries look good I know a guy who has them . They do take a little remembering , like when you have a #2 nature call .......have to get everything re adjusted when completed :hmm3grin2orange:.......I will sometimes sew buttond on pants .They gouge ya alot less ..
.Ya Joe . what do you think about keeping a Big revolver with your fallers pack .. Do you Like Rain ??????? Are you married .. If not what do you think about no chicks being around ??? Devils Club ???? And lastly but most important , BRUSH .. Can you get around in Brush ... I mean head high huckle and blue berry brush with devils club and salmon berry thrown in , and rain .........No , it would be great having you up here .. But I'm deadly serious about the big pistol ....

 

[joesawer]

.


.Those Perries look good I know a guy who has them . They do take a little remembering , like when you have a #2 nature call .......have to get everything re adjusted when completed :hmm3grin2orange:.......I will sometimes sew buttond on pants .They gouge ya alot less ..
.Ya Joe . what do you think about keeping a Big revolver with your fallers pack .. Do you Like Rain ??????? Are you married .. If not what do you think about no chicks being around ??? Devils Club ???? And lastly but most important , BRUSH .. Can you get around in Brush ... I mean head high huckle and blue berry brush with devils club and salmon berry thrown in , and rain .........No , it would be great having you up here .. But I'm deadly serious about the big pistol ....

I like big revolvers. I have always wanted a Ruger Bisley custom set up with a 5 shot cylinder in .45 long colt with magnum pressures. With all the rain stainless steel would probably be the way to go.
Rain makes the trees grow!
No wife......... I am 39 now so I can stand no chicks for periods of time without as much difficulty as when I was younger. Actually in the military there where a few times when I didn't even see a female for weeks or even a couple of months at a time. I wont claim I like it but it does make working seem a lot more effecient.
Never even seen Devils Club but I have heard it sucks.
Brush I don't like but have delt with. I was working on the same Mountian with some Colombia fallers who had worked on Dall Island. The where cussing it and it was not the worst I had worked in. Some jobs where so bad that the trees would not hit the ground. I would cut a trail to a tree then cut it towards the next, then climb up the brush walk out the tree then throw my ax and saw down and climb down and work my way to the next. I resorted to laying on my belly and worming through for a little while but got to thinking about coming across a rattle snake or getting on top of a meat bee nest. The place was infested with both. So I went back to cutting a trail.
On that job I was getting $12 per dead and dieing tree and I could only leave one per acre and they where widely scattered over steep and brush clogged mountian. My worst day I got low thirty something and my best I got fifty.
It was manzinita brush up to twenty feet tall, it is very stiff and brittle and full of sharp breaks that stab and cut. And mountain mahogany and buck brush, very wirey and full of sharp thorns.
It was so thick that usually you had to climb up or find a clearing just to locate the next tree.
It was on that job that I got bit by the Alaska bug. The other faller on that job had worked in Alaska for about 20 years and the stories he told got me wanting to go.
Then hangin with the Colombia fallers some got me wantin to more. They gave me a little crap, but also gave me the number for the guy that was hiring their fallers, but with the industry slowing down he was just trying to keep the ones he had working.
Enough rambling. I just want to get up there and see the country and cut some good timber. And shoot some big bears and catch some big salmon and halibut.

 

[tramp bushler]

Well , you definately passed the brush test

:jawdrop: .. At the moment there isn,t anything going on , but in a month or so I,m gonna start pokin around ..... What I,m doing right now is kind of disgusting as far as timber falling goes . But it,s pretty high up on the Alaska factor ...There are about 6 Alaskas here ... Southeast and to Prince William Sound ...The Kodiak group, Lower Cook Inlet and the Penninsula , The Alutian Chain and the Bering Sea .. The Chuchi Sea and Beaufort Sea and the Arctic Mainland .....Anchorage and the Mat Su Valley , And the biggest land mass , but kind of the most boring , The Interior ...... I like it because it is sunny and there are highways .....We get some fires up here tho in the summer . Southeast doesn,t get any fires to speak of ... .. What are ( Meat Bees ) .. A Bisely is nice . and if a guy really has his heart set on one thats great .. But they are expensive by the time the 5 shot cylinder is on them .. A used Field Grade Freedom Arms 454 is better , and is the strongest revolver on earth ... A Super Redhawk is stronger than a Bisley , so is a regular Redhawk . and you can find the 5 1/2" version in 45 Colt .. They will handle a 335 gr bullet @ 1300 fps plus.which is a good load ...I,m thinking about a 500 Smith & Wesson shooting a 400 gr bullet @ 1300-1400 fps .... I like the 454 Casul alot . a 320 gr Belt Mt penetrator @ 1600 fps is pretty great .Ya can,t break that bullet ....

 

[slowp]

I think I would prefer to work in salmonberry and devil's club over manzanita. We had to cut fireline in manzanita and whatever else is in Collyfonia. It grows about 6 feet tall and does not flex. Nasty stuff. But I have also heard that our devil's club is quite tiny compared to the Alaska species. It grows over my head in the nastier area to the west.

Machetes cut through salmonberry easily. When I tried to be an engineer in salmonberry country (not manzanita), we used machetes to brush out lines.

 

[Gologit]

I think I would prefer to work in salmonberry and devil's club over manzanita. We had to cut fireline in manzanita and whatever else is in Collyfonia. It grows about 6 feet tall and does not flex. Nasty stuff. But I have also heard that our devil's club is quite tiny compared to the Alaska species. It grows over my head in the nastier area to the west.

Machetes cut through salmonberry easily. When I tried to be an engineer, we used machetes to brush out lines.

Manzanita is bad stuff. The only way to really get through it is on a Cat. A Cat with sweeps and rippers, and good screens.

I've seen the fire guys trying to hand cut their way through that stuff. They usually get torn up pretty bad.

Back on topic...Wright's.

 

[slowp]

Manzanita is bad stuff. The only way to really get through it is on a Cat. A Cat with sweeps and rippers, and good screens.

I've seen the fire guys trying to hand cut their way through that stuff. They usually get torn up pretty bad.

Back on topic...Wright's.

That's what the people of your fair state told us to use to cut fireline, brushhooks and pulaskis. We got a bit miffed. Our crewboss demanded a chainsaw. We got one. We made tracks with the saw. They made what they thought was a demeaning comment that Oregon and Washington crews are worthless unless they get a chainsaw. It might have been true. But why mess in that stuff with hand tools if you are serious about getting fireline cut and built?

Nope, it is Welch's with the Y back for me.

 

[2dogs]

I think I would prefer to work in salmonberry and devil's club over manzanita. We had to cut fireline in manzanita and whatever else is in Collyfonia. It grows about 6 feet tall and does not flex. Nasty stuff. But I have also heard that our devil's club is quite tiny compared to the Alaska species. It grows over my head in the nastier area to the west.

Machetes cut through salmonberry easily. When I tried to be an engineer, we used machetes to brush out lines.

I grew up in manzanita so it is like a second home to me. Walking through it you either have to low crawl or stand up tall and push through it. Cutting line is easier with a long bar to reach the ground out in front of you. Hand tools don't work at all. The worst is cutting burned manzanita. It is stiff and pokey. At least it isn't poison oak.

 

[tramp bushler]

I think I would prefer to work in salmonberry and devil's club over manzanita. We had to cut fireline in manzanita and whatever else is in Collyfonia. It grows about 6 feet tall and does not flex. Nasty stuff. But I have also heard that our devil's club is quite tiny compared to the Alaska species. It grows over my head in the nastier area to the west.

Machetes cut through salmonberry easily. When I tried to be an engineer in salmonberry country (not manzanita), we used machetes to brush out lines.

.

. On a crik bottom ,when the fish are running those devils club patches sometimes have big punks in brown fur coats ...... Gettin a sticker or a hundred is nothin compared to them ...:jawdrop:

 

[Greystoke]

I have worked in both places (4 years in Northern CA mostly coastal with a few months in the Sierras, and 4 years in Southeast Ak). They both have some gnarly brush and the devils club in AK is definitely bigger than what I have encountered in Washington, and even some in Idaho, but I will take the old-growth southeast devils club any day over the poison oak in California! As far as the Manzanita? I do remember it being kinda nasty, and another reason why a guy should wear a long sleeve hickory (I still struggle with that one...tore up arms...bloody clubs...every Summer!)

 

[joesawer]

My forearms are solid scars from manzinita.
Evidently there are a few varieties. In SoCal there is some like small trees and are about twenty feet tall and two feet thick at the ground.
It makes really good fire wood. It is full of clear oil that burns out of it and smells just like burning hot dogs.
Cutting manzinita is much easier while wearing suspenders.

Meat Bees are a terrible variety of yellow jackets that eat meat. They will be screwing there stinger in while they are biting a chunk out on their other end.
I am not normally very allergic to yellow jacket. They usually just hurt and I have very little swelling. But every now and then meat bees really hurt and swell me up bad.
It is rumored that they eat the poison from dead rattle snakes and inject it. I don't know how true it is but i do know they eat rattle snakes when you kill them. The ants don't stand a chance. The yellow jackets eat the ants also.
It is easier to run from meat bees and do the meat bee dance when wearing suspenders.

 

[Humptulips]

Well, This thread seems to have went from suspenders to the worst brush to work in
I thought devis club and evergreen blackberries to be pretty bad until I had to put some guylines out into a patch of gorst. That is the worst hands down. If you don't know what gorst is it looks somewhat like a scotchbroom. In the place of any kind of leaves it has very long sharp thorns. An introduced specie, curses on the person that imported it.

 

[madhatte]

Gorse: Ulex europaeus

Quite possibly the most evil plant ever. Not only is it spiny and dense, it also dries out something fierce in the summer and is insanely flammable. Can't say that I like the stuff one bit.

EDIT: spelled the Latin wrong. Guess that's what I get for showing off.