Dull Saws

[Deadwood]

I'm sorry Rebocardo, I did not make my post very clear. We work for the railroad in Central Maine, not some logging outfit. I am not sure what the logging outfits pay per hour around here, but I would think it would have to be close to that in order for us to pay Maine taxes...the highest in the nation right now!

[rebocardo]

OIC

Last time I checked the Bangor newspaper help wanted ads in 2001 you were lucky to find a $12 an hour job. RR jobs almost sounds union?
 
Yea, a funny thing about taxes. NH next door has one of the lowest tax rates (even taking in account the property tax) and just about the highest median income per household. Plus, always a balanced budget.  Then again, Maine has the safest schools and and it seems just about everyone owns a shotgun. Mass. is known as Taxachusetts, has some of the heaviest and restrictive gun laws, and when the FBI tried to sell "hot" guns in Boston for $50 and then $25 they could not even sell them for that on the black market because the criminals already had them or could get them for free.

I don't know exactly what that means except I guess you can't have everything 

> And thus the crux of many of our problems and future problems ............(IMO) 

Yea, probably, then again if I was not forced out of the construction day labor market, I might not have gotten involved in the tree service business and sawing 

So, I try not to hold it against the Mexicans. Many are just feeding their families and have no prospect of anything else other then starving waiting for them in Mexico. Only a few are lucky enough to get a job at a GM Mexican border plant to work for the eqiv. of $2.50 an hour without bennies and breaks.

Which is probably why they would change a dull chain if you asked them to and you probably would only have to ask once (in translated Spanish).

[Deadwood]

Oh yeah, we're Union because there is no way I would ever work non-Union.

As for the Mexican equasion, I think history has blown that bias out of the water a long time ago. Sure there are a lot of Mexicans moving into the country, but they are taking the jobs that no one else wants...just like the Irish did when they came to New England and started building the railroad lines. No one wanted to do that, or fight fires, or become cops. All those jobs no one wanted back then, but over time they have converted them into respectful jobs. Then there is the Chinese that came over and helped build the railroads out west, or the Swedes and Fins that helped become the great farmers of the mid-west...

I think you see my point. In the long run, these groups came over in waves, and ultimately the nation was better for it. Who knows, but in thirty years when it seems we are being overun from a great influx of Australians, we'll realize it's just part of our history.

[SwampDonkey]

When I was in northern BC, just about all the helicopter pilots that taxied us into the deep bush were from NZ, Australia and Russia. One of the Russian pilots was a bit of a dare devil and it soon caught up with him. Luckily no one got killed, but the trip to the ground wasn't fun non-the-less. He lost his license pronto. Anyway, I figured since we were operating in romote areas none of the 'home boys' wanted the job, so the company had to hire from outside the country. And I must say the guys and yes gals who taxied us to/from the bush were all top notched. When you can toe in to a landing with just the front of the skids on a snow bank or beach log in high tide and land in that swamp with out the tail rotor hitting those little bonsai cedar trees, I'de say you were pretty good. Sometimes they had to do it twice with a 4 man crew (2 men at a time) because those GUTLESS Sky Rangers didn't have the muscle to lift vertically. I liked the 'angry egg', hughes 500, better. Sometimes we had to do some hacking in the swamps to clear a pad, but we and they got'r done. I worked in the bush with Polish, Phillipeano, Mexican you name it, all good workers. My thoughts about the company we were working for aren't all that fond  , but it was all experience.


Me and Arnel rummaging through this pile of residue and waste for wasted wood fibre on a logging site.


Sky Ranger takes off the top of Sommerville Island, BC facing Porcher Canal and the Mysty Fjords National Monument and Wilderness in Alaska

[sawguy21]

You liked that 'angry egg' transmission howling right behind your head??? Off the topic but that 206 paint scheme looks familiar. Was that an NMH or VIH machine?

[SwampDonkey]

V         I       H

[sawguy21]

  Picture must have been taken after 2000. VIH took over most of the a/c and some bases, including the main hangar in Prince George where I worked, after NMH went broke. I was not aircrew so I lost my job.

[twostroke_blood]

The Irish came here legally. Mexicans run across the border under the cover of night, or worse yet others profit from their illegal entry. Yes they do jobs that lazy Americans wont do, but lets not talk about unemployment with a strait face while illegal aliens work, and " American Citizens " lay on the couch collecting welfare checks.

[SwampDonkey]

Picture must have been taken after 2000. VIH took over most of the a/c and some bases, including the main hangar in Prince George where I worked, after NMH went broke. I was not aircrew so I lost my job.

Actually it was 1996.