"Old Man's " ramblings.....kinda long.......

timberbeast · April 23, 2002, 04:18:24 AM

I say "Old Man", because he calls himself that, but he's younger than most in spirit, my uncle in the U.P., I believe 87 years young now. Have toyed with the idea of getting him a used computer just so he can post here, but he's rarely in the house, even now.......
Had a chat on the phone with him for a time tonight, I'm going to attempt to emulate his style, and kinda pass along what he was saying, just because I love listening to him so much, so onward........

"Well, i tell ya, those boys shouldn't have gone into that road yet, the frost was just coming out of the ground, they had the trailer up to the axles empty and they thought they were hauling out? HA! So I got Mike's Cat and went in, but I tole 'em they need more chains, I'm not going down any farther, finally got it hooked up and I got them out, all right. Don't know why I waste my time, they gave me 20 bucks but I had to give Mike 30 to use the Cat so I lost a case of beer somewhere in the deal.
If XXXX XXXXXXX calls you, he's selling some logs, but don't buy anything from him, see, he's operating like us Finns did in the depression, he's splitting logs and filling in and you'll buy 5 cords and get 2 cords of air, time will out and nobody will buy from him, speaking of, i see the timber thief that robbed you has a mill set up at his place now, looks like he's got a few thousand feet of boards stacked, but they ain't moving, nobody will let him in their woods anymore, the word got out and the foresters know about it, prolly good to have those guys, so many kids with forties they need some advice to know how to use it, veneer logs are out of this world, nobody can find any it seems, these kids would let them go for pulp without one of them certified guys to save their a##. Had a nice hard maple, bout tirty inches at the butt and got three 12 footers off it and got 1100 dollars, da%n, if that guy wouldn't stolen your trees, you had 10-12 tousand just in that patch fer veneer. I cut up all the tops and filled up the woodshed, should have enough firewood for couple years with those maples I couldn't get out last spring, they don't like 'em once they start checking on the ends. What? Oh, I don't know who's buying 'em, I just call Billy XXXXX and he brings his truck, he knows where to take 'em. Says if it's a dry year and you wanna make a strip road into that east forty, he'll find you buyers, kin get out that cordwood and he's hauling cedar bolts somewhere around Manistee, says they're going over 200 a cord 7" and up fer 100 inch, won't haul less than 20 cord that far though. I'll tow my tractor out when the road dries up and we'll see if we can get Alice out of the swamp and I'll tow her to XX Tractor Sales, don't worry 'bout it. he knows you, you have credit there. No, I wouldn't lease a skidder this year, not much snow this winter, everything is beat up and needing repairs local boys been leasing all they got all winter prolly won't be able to get anything heavy into woods until June now, everything prolly reserved, they'll charge lots more supply and demand now, I'll get out to your camp next week or so and check the roof and the mousetraps. Terry's landing on 35 looks like a mountain, pulp going to Mead all winter, still enough there to last him the summer, but he's got the crew out falling every day still. Seems like a lot of hard maple piled there, hope he doesn't wait too long, looks like veneer stuff. Got 10 cord or so of popple down will wait till it's warmer and peel it and call Billy to haul it out. Pay for my groceries for the summer, anyway. Culvert washed out on the west road, couldn't get to town for a couple days, drove down to see and they were dumping gravel over the top, nothing on side to hold anything, might as well a dumped it in the crick, that's where it all ended up, well, maybe the walleyes will spawn there next year. Next day thet shored up the edges before they dumped the gravel, but a man could see the water dropping, now we got a bump in the road. Mebbe I kin shovel some a that gravel out the crick and fix that low spot in the driveway, guess I paid fer it anyway! Well, let me know when yer comin' up, I'll put some kindling in the sauna and bring a six pack so ya don't git thirsty. You back on tird shift, so I'll make sure to show up early in the mornin an' rev up the chainsaw, HA!!! Jus' have some coffee on the stove, OK, see you when you get up here.