Logging business

[Woodboogah]

I am curious as to how everyone got into this racket of logging.  Was it in your family, did you just have a love for?  I am a first gen.  came from the arboriculture side of things (which I did not really enjoy all to much as I got older).  I grew up hunting and fishing and just being in the woods all the time.  Went to school and got a degree in Forestry.  Worked in the woods doing odd jobs, mostly clearing trails and a little firewood.  I said the hell with it I am going for it and changed direction of my business to strictly logging.  The money is not there like tree work but my sanity is and I love every minute of being in the woods working, even if its a "bad" day.   I woudn't have it any other way and I happy I made the switch and hopefully one day  I can pass on my love for the woods to a son or daughter.

[Autocar]

For me I loved to trap and hunt as a kid lived out doors all the time I remember my first day of school I got off the bus and my dog skipper was waiting for me. I sat down on the steps and told skipper don't worry because Iam not going back tomarrow. I played sick till my dad took the belt to me and I went to school till I turned 18 and quit. Got a job with a electrical compamy started reading meters then on the line crew. All the while thinking I wish I had more lumber, tore buildings down to get what I needed. Then my bother in law said you need a sawmill. Found a few circle mills setting around but old guys would say to me I know I don't run it any more but I just like to look out the window and see it. So I finaly found one and gave the old lady three hundred dollars for it, set it up and started sawing then I started going to the woods buying logs so I could saw more. Then as years went on I ended up the superintendent of the power company and at the same time had three guys working in the woods and keeing logs for the mill. When I turned 47 I left the power company and logged full time and realized I liked the woods better then the mill . To this day I still like the woods and my wife says to me all the time when am I going to retire Iam not ready yet but Iam sure one day my skidder and knuckle boom truck will set in the shop and some young fellow will come along and ask me if I will sell it and I'll say I know I don't run it anymore but I just like to look out the window and see it  :D.

[Ed_K]

I came into logging late in life,after working const.and machine shops.Finally got sick of other's telling me,do this do that,so at 45 i quit and added a 3pt winch to the home tractor and used a 4x4 350 big bear.Found out quick they don't work well in the woods and bought the taylor skidder.worked it since but also went into low impact with the landini w/winch-grappl;e on the bucket and a forestry trailer.

[cutter88]

grew up in a logging family had my first real job in the bush when i was 12 just bucking in the landing and running loader... my dad begged me to finish trade school and be a certified equipment mechanic i only stayed in school for 2 years and said thats it im going logging theres a lot of bad days but many good ones as well but i can honestly say when i start my pick up at 4;30 am to head to the bush im happy to be doing what i do!

[thecfarm]

Does it count I only did it for a few years?Seem like growing up every man I knew worked in the woods. Some might of only did it to make extra money,like my Father,but some did it for years.

[Nemologger]

Third generation logger here. Its all I have ever done, been going to the woods to work with my dad and brothers ever since we were little boys.

[thenorthman]

Third gen, kinda...

Ma taught me to run a saw while we lived in WY.  Thought it was the coolest thing in the world... I was 6-7?  Moved out here to the PNW  in 89 and was surrounded by nothing but logs and loggers, started setting chokers behind my uncles wore out D4 cat... then the Spotted owl hit and everyone lost their jobs, so I decided that machining was the ticket out of a dying town...

few years later and a few bands... needed fire wood, neighbors needed trees fell... its spiraled out of control since then, first an old beat up truck, and a hank of cable, then an even older and even more beat up tractor, then a home made yarder, now a skidder and actually making some money.  Now I'm looking to logging to escape machining, just need to build up my name a bit and start getting a few bigger jobs lined up.

[redprospector]

I've done a lot of things in my life, from wood work to truck driving, raising cattle & hay, to loading trucks in a crusher.
One day in the mid 80's I found myself in need of a job. I had heard that some guy's were making pretty good money (for the area) falling timber for the local mill. I met the saw boss at the convenience store at 4:30 every morning and pestered him until he gave me a job on the landing. 2 months later they let me start falling timber.
I have tried in the past to get away from it, but I guess it's got aholt of me and I can't shake it.  :D

Andy

[Woodboogah]

Great stories, thanks!   Seems like once you get it in your blood its hard to get away from it.

[JamesE. PikeLogging]

4th generation here, have been in the woods my whole life whether it was ridin on the skidder with my dad or starting to run saw at ten, im 18 now and can run my dads business no problem.

[Mark K]

I started working in the woods with dad at an early age. He just cut weekends and days off for extra money. Skidded with an oliver crawler. I turned wrenchs a couple years after college. Saved some money and bought a Belarus tractor and farmi log winch. Cut weekends and days off. After a couple years of turning wrenchs my uncle got sick and I left to go help on the family dairy farm. Logging filled in the void of my pay. I bought a skidder to be more productive. Met up with a forester from a local mill that needed some contract work done. Had to get workmens comp and liability. Logging became more fulltime. Sold the cows four years ago because price of cows was up and milk was low plus we were all tired of working for nothing. Thats when I started my logging career.  It was a struggle the first couple years. Doing pretty well for myself now. Its all in how hard u want to work.