what is the average day for a logger

[vince]

I am just curious what is your average day like as a logger in the back 40. like do you guys live in a camp or do you go home every night. do you guys just cut the trees or do you opperate the vehicles to move them.

 

[John Ellison]

Vince, I dont know about Canada, but I dont think there are any more logging camps in the lower 48. There are still log camps in southeast Alaska. Most of them are float camps. Built on log floats so they can be moved from job to job with a tug boat. Most of the men stay in bunkhouses and eat in the cookhouse but there are usually a few "home guards" who have their family with them and stay in separate housing. I guess you could say they go home at night.
I stayed in camps a lot when I was single, then after I got married we bought a liveaboard boat and was able to follow the work with our home.
A lot of timber is still cut with chainsaws but more and more is being cut with machines.

John

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

It also depends on how large a scale you work on. If you're a gypo, you wake up, fall timber, buck it, yard it, load it, haul it. Then go home at night to the wife and kids. If you work for a logging company, you'll often have your job that you do, be it falling, bucking/limbing, yarding, etc. Alot of guys can do pretty much anything in a logging operation, so it may depend on what needs done that day. Everyone I know around here does their job and goes home at night.

Jeff

 

[Newfie]

There are still a couple of very small logging camps in Northern New Hampshire & Maine that I know of. Not more than 20 man operations. The guys usually go home on the weekends.

This is probably the wrong place to ask anyway. The loggers here spend more time in mental masturbation ( probably not so mental for some of them) than cutting trees.

 

[vince]

K i guess i focused to much attention on where you guys sleep at night. I was wondering like is it like a regular 9-5 job. You show up in the morning and cut tree. and then do you guys have coffee or do you wait till lunch to stop. Also pardon my ignorance but could you explain the jobs. For instance what is yarding. How do I become a logger. I know i need to move east or west but what qualities do you need to do this job.

 

[smokechase II]

Loggers actually have more of a 5am-9pm job, not 9-5.
This guy down by La Pine just can't quit. Takes his family out on Sundays for a fun relaxing day of laying out strips/units. One day he started cutting next to a subdivision called Wild River at something like 3:30am. Awesome. Those folks with the nice homes on a river in paradise called the county cops who after a second visit figured out that there weren't any construction hour type rules for noise that applied to USFS lands next to homes.
In the old days, you'd get up, go to work at what you thought was a sensible hour and meet the second load of logs coming down the hill. Cheeezz.
We had an incidence of a log truck passing an ambulance that was on a run.
You can call a logger most anything you want, but you can't call em lazy.

 

[Billy_Bob]

Around here you start out as a "choker setter". It takes a lot of time, luck, and being at the right place at the right time to become an "equipment operator". I have a friend who is a "rigging slinger" and another who is a "forwarder" operator.

One of my friends will get up about 4am, then drive to work with the other guys in a "crummy". It takes two hours to get to work, then to get home. Some of these guys will sometimes stop off at my place and play pool on my table after work until their wifes (war department) tracks them down and demands they get home. (I tell them they are already in trouble, so staying longer will not matter!)

In the summer around here, due to fire regulations, loggers can only work until 1pm sometimes. Other times they can't do anything which will cause a spark. Search for "Industrial Fire Precaution Level" (IFPL).

Here are some links to learn a little about logging. Also some of the "words/terms" used. Search google.com for specific terms you are interested in learning about. Use quotes for two or more words when searching. Like...
"rigging slinger".

Choker Setter...
http://stepfour.com/jobs/921687014.htm

Rigging Slinger...
http://www.careerplanner.com/DOT-Job-Descriptions/RIGGING-SLINGER.cfm

Associated Oregon Loggers...
http://www.oregonloggers.org

Logger Terms ...
http://www.arts.wa.gov/progFA/woodworks/faWoodworks7.html

TIMBER HARVESTING...
http://www.olympicpeninsulafishing.com/htdocs/timber_harvesting.htm

Article...
http://www.forestnet.com/timberwest/archives/May_01/lucky.htm

Article...
http://www.panelworldmag.com/vserve...4&IssueKey=389&SectionKey=152&ArticleKey=4723

Industrial Fire Precaution Levels...
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/willamette/partnersites/eicc/ifpl.html

Current Industrial Fire Precaution Level for my area...
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/willamette/partnersites/eicc/

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

Yarding is basically hauling the logs out of the property and onto the deck or the landing where they're prepared to be loaded.

As far as becoming a logger, call a logging company and start at the beginning, like Billy Bob said, likely as a choke setter. A friend of mine was a heavy equip. mechanic, which is where he started. He worked on the shovels and skidders and went from there.

Jeff

 

[JimL]

when I worked in the woods, we had 1 guy skidding and 2 fallers, one guy at the landing bucking and loading trucks. We usually worked from the crack of dawn 5am till 6-7pm, some days were shorter, if it was real hot we would cut our 10-12K bdf and go home. that was usually a goal to hit 10k every day as a faller.

depended on the ground we were on also. some ruff ground would only net us 6-8k bdf a day.

 

[Billy_Bob]

My logger friend came over to play pool and I asked him to say what a typical day for him is, here is what he said...

Hi;

I'm a rigging slinger. I get up at 3:30 am every morning, then leave my house at 4:15 am. Then pick up two other guys in the crummy (old van). Then get to the job around 6:30 am.

Then I put my calks (boots) on, grab my bugs (Talkie Tooter), hard hat, and gloves. Usually start work around 7:00 am.

Then we pull 20 ft. chokers around, set them on logs, then pull the hook over, then put eyes of choker on hook. Then I activate the carriage with the bugs. Then you blow three to the yarder which is a go ahead whistle. Then the turn is pulled up to the carriage. We release the carriage. Then I blow two to the yarder (which is a hup ho [makes it go really fast]) and the turn goes to the landing. Then chaser unbales chokers, then they send us the carriage back and we do it all over again for 8 hours.

This is just a quick overview. There is a lot more stuff which goes on. So far as lunch, we eat on the fly - one guy will sit out while the other is working. No breaks, 8 hours straight except for lunch. (I don't typically get a lunch - I'll snack, but don't have time to sit down and eat.) Typically you would start out as a choker setter as I did. Most people want experienced choker setters, but sometimes you can get lucky and find someone who is willing to train a guy.

Well I got to go kick Billy Bob's you know what at pool. Stay out of the Bite! (All loggers say this to each other - It means to stay away from the moving line.)

 

[vince]

sounds like a lot of no sleep and not eating. I would have a tough time with both of those aspects. but what about fallers or is timber knocked down solely by machines now

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

Here where I'm at it's still mostly done by hand. The terrain and diameter dictate it so. Back East, I understand it's common.

My buddy Pat used to work timber, and he always says, "Well, at least every day you get a picnic...rain or shine."

Jeff

 

[Sizzle-Chest]

sounds like a lot of no sleep and not eating. I would have a tough time with both of those aspects. but what about fallers or is timber knocked down solely by machines now

as far as I know, fallers dont like to be called loggers. fallers come in and cut a strip and go on to the next. then loggers come in to haul out the logs. and unless you got flat land and small diameter trees (which is pretty much never the case over here in oregon), fallers do all the cutting

 

[Gypo Logger]

I had a job in the great North Woods, working as a cook for a spell.
I never did like it all that much and one day the axe just fell.
So I drifted down to New Orleans where sometimes I was employed, working for awhile on a fishing boat just out side of Delacroix.
BD

 

[Sizzle-Chest]

I had a job in the great North Woods, working as a cook for a spell.
I never did like it all that much and one day the axe just fell.
So I drifted down to New Orleans where sometimes I was employed, working for awhile on a fishing boat just out side of Delacroix.
DD

She was workin' in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer,
I just kept lookin' at the "side of her face"
In the spotlight so clear.

 

[smokechase II]

Fallers are also sometimes are referred to as cutters.
The other guys cutting in the woods are referred to as knot bumpers up at the landing.
They're new guys who get jokes played on them.
Loggers are approaching the worst people in the world for messing with their buddy.
My experience is that fellers don't mind being called loggers. Just don't call them late for dinner. They are proud of being fellers, but they only look a little ways down on their fellow woods workers.
I actually liked the movie, "Sometimes a Great Notion - (Never give a inch)".
Yea Kesey's book was better, but Fonda, Newman, et al did a fine job of capturing that time. Sorry if I made anyone mad. Please don't ban me for liking a logging movie.

 

[Sizzle-Chest]

Fallers are also sometimes are referred to as cutters.
The other guys cutting in the woods are referred to as knot bumpers up at the landing.
They're new guys who get jokes played on them.
Loggers are approaching the worst people in the world for messing with their buddy.
My experience is that fellers don't mind being called loggers. Just don't call them late for dinner. They are proud of being fellers, but they only look a little ways down on their fellow woods workers.
I actually liked the movie, "Sometimes a Great Notion - (Never give a inch)".
Yea Kesey's book was better, but Fonda, Newman, et al did a fine job of capturing that time. Sorry if I made anyone mad. Please don't ban me for liking a logging movie.

My friends dad did the cutting for that movie. Had to make that one tree barber chair! He was also in that beach football scene. My favorite part is when that blond guy is trapped under the log with the rising tide and newman has to give him mouth to mouth underwater, but the blonde guy starts laughing cuz he thinks its like kissing another guy and dies. Sad, but funny.

 

[Gypo Logger]

She was workin' in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer,
I just kept lookin' at the "side of her face"
In the spotlight so clear.

Then you think of the stake that you squandered,
And the plans that you congured before,
So you make them again in the very same way,
You'll head into town with your hard earned pay,
But you know in your heart you'll be King for a day,
Then come back to the woods once more.
Robert E. Swanson 1943

 

[vince]

never heard of that movie how old is it. would it make a good movie for out at the cabin. And also will my girlfriend never let me go cutting if she see's the movie

 

[vince]

what kind of training do you need to become a feller