Total of our experience-Logging and working in the woods

[Big Stick]

Cut my first Old Growth Doug Fir when I was 16 and that's been some time ago.

The Woods have been very good to me..................

[John Woodworth]

31 years running skidders, cats, faller bunchers, loaders. Self employed 28 of those years logging, sawmilling, tree topping and heavy equipment mechanics. Ran my dad's old Corley carriage mill when I was 14 yrs. old, Mobile Deminsion today.

[Scuba_Dave]

I cut & split wood as a teenager
But for the mots part the past 12 years with owning 2 houses
The last house I heated with wood most of the time
A very nice Soapstone stove, which I took with me to my new house

One of the last big trees on my property is dead - a big Oak 
I'll get quite a bit of wood out of it
But now the only bigger trees are on the side along the stream
And none are as big as the Oak
I used it in my Christmas display to make an LED tree & hang Snoopy in his plane



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[4genlgr]

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!

[madhatte]

Put down 15.  Worked for Weyco, Champion Int'l, Simpson, BLM, USFS, and now work for Ft Lewis.  Working in the woods is where it's at. 

[nhlogga]

started out cutting firewood for my grand father at 18. went to college at "grandpa's school of firewood" got a degree in saw dust. I'm a third generation logger. never worked with my dad till last year till he came to work for me on weekends. learned alot from him. especially how to do things the hardway.

[Diesel Smoke]

I am sitting at ten years!

[islandlogger]

Reckon I started in them thar woods at the tender age of 8, just help my dad out geting in the wood for the winters and general other chores, think I was 10 or maybe eleven when he first let me get my hands on a saw, a Mac Eager Beaver it was some funky little thing a neighbor had cursed him with, then it was a ancient old Pioneer, could hear that thing snarling for miles!! There was a gyppo logger cutting Alder on the property bordering ours, I used to love hearing them saws singing and trees crashing and the cat growling along the skid roads, when they would quit for the day I would wander over and check out the days progress and they always parked the Cat where I could sit in it and "pretend", that poor logger went bust, Alder market fell out before he could get his wood to the mill and they faded off to greener pastures. My daddy had bought me a Tin Hat that at the time was ten times to big for my head, I wear that skull bucket to this day, been with me a long time and saved me many a head ache. I finely got into logging at 18, had my new cool breeze Stihl 44 and built my own small business up starting with just me and that saw, alot of hard work over many a year. I have done a bit of construction during slow times, but it's in the woods where I belong, when it's just me and my gear, sittin on a fresh cut stump at lunch time, thats home and I wouldn't have it any other way. The timber industry is tough, it can be done though, it's the big companies that have it tough I think, I manage to make a good living with just me or a very small crew, my Peterson Mill has been a good addition for the past five years. If it's in your blood and you'r willing to go the extra mile, then there is NO place better then being on the business end of a saw out in the middle of the woods knocking a tree dead nuts down the line watching her come to rest just a waitin for ye to knock them limbs off and process her down to size ready for skiddn to the truck and then off to the mill so you can slab off that outer layer and show the world the beuty of fresh cut wood. Git busy livin or get busy dyin!!

[rickywashere]

started when i was 11 working part time splitting mining timbers for my grand father  moved up to running a saw when i could start it at age 12 1/2 pappaw's rules if ya cant start it you can run it ...   did that till i was 19 went into logging mostly timber cutter ran skidder little  and log loader /// but yard work was never my cup of tea ... after that made crib blocks , wedges on a hand mill yes i still have all my fingers  thank god after that went back into logging plus a few tree felling jobs for private peeps  up till last year // been working on the house since then

[whitepine]

Started as a teenager with a homlite xl12 peeling pulp the first job I ever had in the 60's worked on a slasher and some time on skidder for few years than got into buying and selling timber in NE Minnesota made some good money on that. After some health problems I got into selling specialty woods like burls and birch bark for a few years than firewood have heated with wood for 25 years. Tried planting trees what a disaster talked my neighbors into it and than a drought lost it all. Still have a pile of land ( I ranched a cow calf operator) cut firewood if able  and now thinking of building a firewood processor (like the chomper idea but have doubts. Bad back so bending over is a no no think there is a market up here to cut up 10 cd truck loads of 8ft firewood into 16". Think firewood may be worth more than ever the way the economy goes. Built a nova jack type trialer to puts with like the logging with atv idea. Saved a bunch of  old growth ash and now I look at it and am sad wonder what will replace it up here love this site thanks guys.

[Wild willy]

Been in the logging industry all my life, my uncle hired my dad when he was around 12 years old and he started out with mules. I have been in the lumber/logging since I was 16 running skidders, then when I turned 18 got married and went to work in a sawmill/logging for 3 years then went to work in a diffrent mill for 4 years and then my father retired from a Veneer company and him and I have been in logging together ever since. He just stopped working with me this year the wat the market is he had to get more reliable work we had a great run together

[beenthere]

Wild willy
Welcome to the forum.
That is an interesting history.

Now you are making it ok in the logging business without Dad?

How is it and how do you locate your logs? 

Glad to have you and your experience on board. 

[Ken]

Approximately 30 years for me.  Started on summer vacations junking tree length wood into logs and pulp on my dads logging sites.  I had to look after 3-4 skidder crews and I remember the first summer was very wet which meant that the wood was always muddy.  Learned how to file that summer.  Since then I have obtained a forestry degree from UNB and have been offering a range of woodlot management services to private woodlot owners for  nearly 20 years.  Over the past 3 years I have been acting as project manager for Nashwaak Valley Wood Energy a newly opened wood pellet plant that is owned primarily by woodlot owners and contractors from our area. 

Love the forum.  Keep up the good work.

Cheers
Ken

[geohayes7]

I don't know how many cords I've pulled in a plastic dredge pontoon. Logs cut to 6' length then cut it into firewood at our 2 room cabin in the Chugiach mountains, on the Kenai peninsula but I know no running water or eletricity would kill my wife and kids HAHAHA

[timberjack240]

my pap who has recently passed away started cutting pulp wood with a bowsaw till he got enough saved to buy a homelite lcs26 he countinued to cut pulp w his buddies and eventually bought a 600d direct drive . eventually he bout the only skidder inteh area and started loggin we figured up his years he had 48 years in the prodution loggin indusrty.. approx 32 of which was for the same sawmill doin sub contract work.. ppl my age dont always sho respect liek they should and im giulty sometimes myself.. but its men liek that that my hat is off to. not many can do what he did w a couple old skidders and supply 75% of the wood to teh second biggest sawmill in our state. by no means am i braggin but i know theres a few fellas on here thtat would appreciate this

[Ron Scott]

Sorry to hear about your pap. Such individuals are among the forest's "vanishing breed."

[paulpieter]

First started cutting and hauling with my Pa in the 60's. He operated a landscaping business and removing dead elms was the order of the day and there were many and they were huge. All I remember is that Pa had a Pioneer saw which weighed a ton, with a manual oiler. Safety gear was unheard of; no hearing protection, no head or eye protection, no chainsaw pants, nothing. That might explain why I can't hear what I don't want to hear.

We took it all home and heated with it. The wiry elm wood is vivid in my mind today as if it was yesterday, and it was my job to split it with an axe and two wedges and a maul. I would drive the wedge clear through and it still wouldn't split. The second wedge was to rescue the first, but I got through it in time.

Then left for school and a life long career that is soon ended.

9 years ago I bought 80 acres of bush -- half wild mostly hardwoods, half reforested farm fields of white spruce and some tamarack and white pine. It is now an FSC certified woodlot - follow a management prescription -- don't cut faster than it grows, biodiversity, clear trails etc. So I figure 10 years of aggregate time is fairly accurate.

[timberjack240]

i myself have ben around this business since i was born .. i started loggin w my pap when i was 15 i started skiddin. i cut my first tree at 17 and started cuttin all the tiem when i was 18 19 and now about all i do is cut down. i have my cdl and haul logs from time to time.. some say i have five years of service .. i say at the most i have 3 1/2 .. i factored in all my no work time  and nov1 was the 3 year mark and ive worked 3 days since then due to no work  . we also cut firewood liek wild .. 4 of us w jsust our tractor becasue the skidder was tied up cut 10 cords and hauled 7 in 8 hrs and took a lunch break and multiple breaks int he 100 deg afternoon  i also worked at a dry kiln stackin and stripping lumber.. im more into the woods work myself   all i kno basically is wood haha

[IMOWOOD]

I I grew up on a dairy farm and we always logged in the winter i can remember setting chokers when i was about 10-12 or so and keeping track of the gas jugs.  But i never thought of it as a career till i went to college for forestry.  I would say I have 5 years of full time logging experience.  I did some buying/selling of timber on and off but i was just never into talking to land owners, always felt like a used car salsmen.  I can remember buyers asking my dad to sell his timber and they would always be making empty promices. So i never wanted to be like that so i just stick to the logging end.   

[mrnero]

What is the total number of experience you have Logging and working in the woods. (Round to the closest number

Hmmmm !  How come there is no "hours" of experience listed for me to pick from on this survey poll.  Oh well!!  Let me see, thats 15 minutes in 2001, 19 minutes in 2006 and 78 minutes last week .  Heck, I'll just round it off to one year experience. thats close enough.


Mrnero

PS. forgot to mention that my experience was cutting down a fresh christmas tree, annually.