Got a new job.

[Maineloggerkid]

I just took a job running grapple skidder for Treeline, out of Lincoln, Maine. Full benifits including payed vacation, payed holidays, and full health insurance cover completely by the company. After I get good at grapple, they said they would train me to operate other machinery as well. I get a company spending fund for saftey gear or other things like CB's and things of that nature, and the company provides all work clothes, boots, and hardhats. Also, I get additional pay if I have to go to the garage and get parts or oil, as well as I will probably have a week off in hunting season

[thedeeredude]

Congrats!  Sounds like a heck of a deal.

[Ron Scott]

Sounds like a good company to work for.

[Maineloggerkid]

Very good. Lots of guys around here would die to get in with them. I got lucky. I called to see about contract cutting, and when they heard about the things I know how to do, the owner asked me to come on board. Just one of those right place, right time deals.

[timberfaller390]

sounds good. Are you going to keep running your show on the side or work strictly for this outfit?

[Maineloggerkid]

Im going to work for them thru the winter, and there might be a possiblity of contracting to them a little bit down the road.  I will be cutting cedar on weekends, as the mill 8 miles from me is paying $135/cord......Extra walking around money

[timberfaller390]

sounds like a winner to me

[Maineloggerkid]

I hpoe so. Now I just have to adjust to my schedule. Get up about 12:30 a.m., leave home around 1:30 in the morning, get home a 5 o'clock at night.

[Tom]

OUCH!

[timberfaller390]

Better you than me bud. What time do you have to be on the job

[rebocardo]

Sounds like a great job.

[sawguy21]

Tom, he is still young and bulletproof. Sounds like a good gig, all the best.

[Maineloggerkid]

I have to be on the job at 3 in the morning. The upside is that I am out of the skidder at 3 in the afternoon.

[Sawyerfortyish]

What do you guys do log at night? Do you have lights on your skidder and chainsaws? 3 AM I know maine is down east but it's still in the same time zone. I run a skidder long enough to know your gonna be beat at the end of a 12 hour shift

[Maineloggerkid]

Its a grapple skidder with flood lights. I haul from a buncher to a limber. We work nights during mud season. We feul up up and run the first 3 hours in dark, and then the sun rises.

On the bright side, I get a 2004 john deere 648GIII.

[timberfaller390]

What are you going to do with your recently aquired skidder

[Black_Bear]

When I was at UMaine in 2004 we went to visit one of Brian Souers' jobs in Old Town. It was the first time I had the opportunity to watch a clam bunk operate. Don't think they'd be conducive to the steep terrain we readily encounter here in VT, but man, those machines can haul a jag of wood. They were into the in-woods delimbing then also.

Brian was very knowledgable (and was willing to share his info.) about the business side of logging and knew his costs and what had to be produced every day to make ends meet. If you are wise you will listen to him and learn from him. If you have any intention of going into business for yourself you need to pick his brain all you can about the business end of logging, mainly because any old conehead can pick up after a buncher. That's not to show any disrespect to grapple operators, I ran a 648G off and on for the better part of 3 years, but what I am trying to say is that the skidding side of it is easy compared to managing the books and understanding the fixed costs and variable costs of a logging operation.  

If I remember correctly a good old boy named "Bridge?", along with Brian, gave us the tour. Some of them guys were coming from the Millinocket-Medway area, which I believe is where you are from, so I can understand the 12:30 AM wake up call. Funny thing with logging, the wood never comes to you, you always have to travel to the wood.  I also used to drive by their shop in Lincoln when I was surveying out of Enfield. It looked like a big, spacious shop. I worked on a crew similar to Brian's from when I was 22 to when I was 30. The experience was invaluable and I learned the most by picking their brains and working along side of them. Have fun, but remember that at this point in your career most of them guys have probably forgot more about logging than you know.

[Maineloggerkid]

You have a very good memory, Black bear! They sold the clambunks last year, and yes Brian is a very knowledgable man. I am from just east of medway. The shop is pretty good size, and that is where I have to meet the rest of the crew every morning.

Timberfaller390- It will be going back the the Lesser, and I will be looking around for other places in the area to do business with, as this guy was not very concerned with the well being of the customer.

[pasbuild]

A job like that is unheard of up here in da UP, good luck with it.

[zackman1801]

you lucky dog! i wish there were more big operations like that around here. i would love to get a job like that. especially because those cabs are nice and warm. and nice and cool.