Total of our experience-Logging and working in the woods

[Ohio_Bill]

Started working for my neighbor when I was 13 which was 48 years ago.  Old circle mill that was powered by a Huber tractor that we dumped gas in that cost 25 cents a gallon. Loaded log trucks by rolling log up planks with cant hooks. Have had a band saw for 14 years. Things have really changed .

[jwillett2009]

Starting working in the woods with my dad at around 14 or 15, spent 10 years as a production foreman in a 1000000 bf /week mill and just recently bought a house and woodlot for my return to the industry after almost 10 years away. I am running my small woodlot and fooling around a bit on the weekends with a alaskan csm. I work as a electrical technologist designing and commissioning foresty product type factories.... tissue and paper towel mills, pulp mills, disolved pulp, sawmills, osb and MDF plants.... guess sawdust flows through my veins.

[midwestlogger]

My dad sat me on a 450 JD crawler at the age of 8 to pull cottonwood trees out of the mississppi river bottoms when his crew didnt show. 26 years later still in the woods running my own 1 man show .When u do what u love its not hard to get out of bed to go to work. Won't say its not work when the temp is in the upper 90's fumes from the saw not movin and your 150 feet down the side of a bluff. Oh and your water jug is on the skidder at the top of the bluff! Its work but, would'nt trade it for nothing.

[Lumber Jack]

Started going to the log woods with my dad when i was 4 an been the buisness ever since. 
We have a family owned business an my sawmill comes in pretty handy.

[Bearden99]

I started 60 years ago when we took 3 chain saws to the woods so we would have one that would start. Family firewood was it until 2 years ago when I got my Cook Saw Mill.  Lovin' it.
Bearden99

[thecfarm]

Bearden,looks like you have a helper in your avatar. Welcome to the forum.Who's your helper and what have you got for a mill?

[John Mc]

I'm betting our experience numbers are getting skewed a bit over time. I'm thinking I answered this survey several years ago, not long after it first came out. The longer this survey runs, the more it will underestimate the experience of our members.

The thread does make interesting reading, though.

[rfm7fxfox]

Id have to say I have about 14 years of being in the woods, but even longer if you count firewood. Started out helping load my fathers old ford around the age of 5 started cutting and splitting firewood around 8 years old to help my father and my grandfather. Started cutting tops and firewood poles around the age of 12-13.  Id follow my father around through the woods and after he'd fell a tree id run out and slash up the tops. About the age of 14-15 I started running a Timberjack 460 and ever since then I had the itch to me in the woods. Ive always wanted to follow in my fathers footsteps and work in the woods. To me he's kinda like my hero, such a hard worker, never complains about the job, doesnt let anything stop him he's a very knowledgeable man and totally at home in the woods. I remember when I was younger it was a very very cold day (below zero), he was wedging a big oak, he hit the wedge with his axe and it broke causing part of it to fly outa the cut and hit him square in the nose, broke his nose bad, grabbed a handfull of snow cleaned the blood off his nose, used some duct tape to make a make shift bandage and back to work he went! (duct tape fixed many broken bones and lacerations) Any ways my dream is finally coming true, we now own a small treefarmer C5 skidder and we go to work as a team every day, he chops and I skid and buck, couldnt ask for anything more! Logging deffinatley takes a rare breed of man its a hard physically demanding job but I couldnt think of another Job id rather do and no other person that id rather work next to and learn from then my father, he's been logging for approx. 40 years and deffinitley knows what he's doing. Hopefully one day I can pass the business onto my children but until then I cherish the days I can spend in the woods with my father, my hero.

So put my old man down for 40 years, he's on this site somewhere, and put me down for around 12 years experience..learning every day!!

[flyboy16101]

its been 11 years since i got to cut down my first tree with a hand saw (mom wouldn't allow dad to let me use the chainsaw) been cutting for the family and others ever since most recently sawing lumber with my wood-mizer lt28

[roger 4400]

Bought my first lot in 1993 and started sawing with my Huskie model 61, 19 years ago (still sawing with it). I had no atv so to log and show that to my kids, I was climbing the hill with all the equipment and my 2 youngest kids in a wheel barrow......some souvenirs, they were 2 and 3 years old. Now my son (22 years old) is coming with me using an atv (easier life ). I would start over. Just bought a mill last week, and will continue till my heart will beat. Roger

[lumberjack48]

40 yrs. , 30 yrs. on the ground hand felling experience.
Started going to the woods with my father in 1954. I ran measure stick, gassed saw up, threw limbs, any job i could handle and more. I helped feed the horse, water him, and brush him down. I was a get-me when dad trimmed the horses hoofs.
I peeled Balsam, Birch, Jack pine and Aspen pulpwood by hand. Peeling Season was a big thing every spring. I started peeling in 1954, the last wood i peeled was in 1979. Our goal was 1000 cds, it was a family orientated job. It was a chance for everybody to make money. All 4 of my kids peeled pulp, i pulled tree length to the landing. I payed 40 cents a tree, they make good money. The wife and me could fell and peel 20 cds of tree length Aspen a day.
I was strip cutting in 1960, saw logs, pulpwood, Basswood,  Ash, Oak, Pith Elm, Norway, Jack pine, White pine, Cedar, Tamarack, Birch pulp & bolts, Black & White Spruce, and White, Silver, Black, and Yellow Aspen. I Strip cut up to 1968, thats when i bought a new C4 Treefarmer [$9500.] from Osker Johnson, Treefarmer Sales, Bemidji, MN.
Back then you could get out of school to help you father [ Mondays & Fridays] 3 day school week. My father had a couple Finn's and Native Americans strip cutting. I learned from these guys, they didn't know but in a few yrs they'd be working for me. In 1964 minimum wage was $1.25, i was making $25. to $40. a day strip cutting.
I've skidded with a little Allis model B tractor with wheel trailer [ 14 / 15 yrs old. Then with a Minneapolis Moline model G with a 1 cd dray. What a work horse, you could tell how many cds you skidded by the gallons of gas it used [ 1 gal per cd] I all so skidded with a OC-3 Oliver cat with a Hill Lake dray [knuckle boom] Oliver was a little small, dad got a H-3 Allis, it really worked out nice with the shuttle bar.
In 1966 i married a little German girl, i had relation out in Montana so off we went. I went to work for J C Neils or Libby Lumber Co. I got as a chocker setter, behind a D8 skid cat. I set chockers about a month, then moved up to rigging slinger. I had so much trouble with chocker setters i told the woods boss i didn't want or need one.  I worked there about 6 months, job was to slow pace for me, same-o same-o everyday. I had ran in to a Gypo logger who needed help, chocker setter, cat skinner, and a feller.  I did all 3 for him, he taught me a lot about working in the mountains. I came back to Minn. in the fall of 68, thats when i bought the Treefarmer. I got a big Aspen sale and put a crew together. I hired a feller and a landing man. At the time there was only one other rubber tire skidder in the area. The spring of 66 i had worked with a Timberjack up at International Falls, Mn. The guy i hired to fall for me was the father to the guy i worked with the TJ, and the bucker was his uncle. So my crew was ready to go with a tree length skidder. I got $11. a cd for pulpwood loaded on railroad car, $18. for saw bolts.   
  The fall of 1970 i took a job up on the Voyage National Park. I had to barge my skidder across Lake Kaptogama. We barged it up to the Locator lake trail, thats where camp was set up. The wife and 3 kids spent the winter there with me. A time you don't forget, we all enjoyed it. [ i was 22, wife 19]
  The next summer my father and me went partner ship, he had a C5D. We stated piling wood up with 2 skidders. It wasn't long we bought a Mack tandem and put a Barko 60 loader on it to haul our logs and saw bolts with. We were still having trouble moving pulpwood, so i went bought an Emeryvill IH Tractor, 1674 Cat. I ran the Emeryvill about 6 months, it was under powered. Then i bought a Autocar tractor, 250 Cummings, this was a machine mover, the front end was set back. It made a good log truck because the turn radius was so sharp.  Wood was selling so i went bought a new 450 JD with shear head. About a month later i bought a new S8 IH pole skidder, we had 4 to 6 men working. Make a long story short, 1980 the bottom dropped right out of logging. I always said that I'd never go to work for the Co. If i wanted a full time logging job thats where i had to go. Went to work for them in 1981, had the S8 IH and a C5-D TF. I got my neck broke in 89, left me a Quadriplegic, wife took over until 96, we couldn't get good help so she quit.                                 

[roquevalente]

12 years tropical hardwood sweat and tears

 

[DeerMeadowFarm]

I've been processing firewood with my dad since the 70's "gas-crisis" but for my actual time working in the woods I'd say 25 years is about right.

[woodchuck812]

I have been around cutting firewood and felling trees since I was old enough to load firewood on the trailer. I remember dad buying a new McCulough and paid for it by cutting 172 Pin Oak tie logs. Tie logs brought 1 dollar each at the time (1965). My first and second saws were Poulans, then moved to Stihls about 10 years ago. I currently own a 210 and 361. I cut and saw my own logs for oak buildings and recently attended a Timber Framing class in Paris Tenn. My grandfather owned a Tie Yard in the 40's and I have a photo of him holding a switch tie on each shoulder. Logging and Sawing has always been more of a passion it has never been a profession. 

[MJD]

After 23 years in woodworking I had enough and wanted to work outside, I already had my sawmill and skidder and started buying timber. I would keep a few logs for my mill and sell the rest, then also picked up some contracts that foresters from other sawmills needed cut, did that until 2 years ago when things started to really slow down here. Sold my skidder a year ago and miss logging bad. So logged from 1998-2011.

[SJM66]

Been around the woods since I was a boy loading firewood and driving my uncle old yellow and white farmall cub with a trailer behind. When I was 14 and a stout young lad my dad and uncle thought I needed more to do and so they cut 100 cord in Happy Valley that was on some sort of lottery. Did this every summer till last year of high school. They sure got their money's worth out of me... Got around farming in 1991 and have been on my own farm and heating only with wood, no backup, since 1996.Worked running skidder for a while. For one guy it was running a JD440 behind my brother in law who was a long time cutter and a god one. We would have two loads of logs out by lunch without making a huge mess. Also cut firewood on these jobs which for me meant bucking up piled firewood logs with an 066 with a 16" bar and the rakes filled low enough to make it fun. You can cut a lot of would in a hurry but you better have the skills and the strength to stay in control and not get tired or ... Ran a 540g for a guy also. That was behind a Bell feller. That outfit left a huge mess, boss was a less than stellar individual,and I hated it so I left at the first chance.Wife and I decided to build a dairy farm so we did that for twelve years and decided it was time to quit making martyrs of ourselves. Been two years with no cows now and would like to grow the forestry side of our farm. Have about 150 acres of woods in various stages.

[Okrafarmer]

Where is Oswego county? Is it near Syracuse? I have friends that are dairy farmers near Marietta.

[markd]

Add another 45 yrs for me, here's hopin for another 45.

[AdkStihl]

I can remember hauling brush for my grandfather at the age of 8yrs old.
I'll be 33 in July

CAD started a few years ago.
I had (1) chainsaw......an MS250.
My father gave me his Mac EB 2.0......of course I had to do a MM and stuff...

I know own...
STIHL 08
STIHL 044/440 Hybrid
STIHL MS270 WB
STIHL 021 (MM'd)
Husqvarna 346XP NE (MM'd)
Homelite XL-12
Homelite Super 2
Homelite 330 (x3)
Lombard Comango

[Tramp Bushler]

Hi New member. put down 35 grandfather was in the business and usually if you went for ride with him as a kid he was checking on a crew. and being kids full of p&v and having a grandfather tha t belived in hard work was good for you my cousins and i soon had pulp hooks in our hands and the 4foot wood was gooing on the old truck frame trailer behind a crawler tractor. This was usually summer time and grandpa knew that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". He would find a swimming hole on the way home and join in the fun. Went to work for him in 76  and except for three years in the 90's i been cutting trees, driving cat, skidder, tractor or truck. if you've never pick up 4ft fir, loaded it on a trailer, unloaded it by hand onto a truck, and unloaded at the mill get down on your knees and thank God for hydulics!


 AMEN TO THAT ! Grew up doing that . Started workin in the woods with my dad at 11 . Started cutting , workin alone at 12 . Went in the service at 18 and out at 22  . Hqd a pre cimmercial thinning sub contract before I went on twrminal leave . Signed out in Ketchikan . Started settin chockers in 83 . Tower loggin , raftin+ boomin+ tug boatin till 89 when I started breakin fallin+ buckin  . Started bushlin in 91 . Now I'm in the Interior operating my 1 man show in the winter . And Union constructuin laborer in the summers mostly .