Shout out to female tailers

[scully]

I havn't had much luck getting good help tailing for my mobile saw jobs . My neighbor Michelle retired a few months before me this past winter and was looking to pick up some side work . She is a hoarse lady and a total farm girl . So I got a decent oak job and asked her if she wanted to give it a try . She has never been around a mill but has seen mine plenty so she says okay . I have to say for a woman on the back side of her fifty's she kicked but ! I had to slow her down ! I payed her for 5 hours ,and I payed her well . She caught on fast and even did things that I didn't coach her on yet . Over all I figure if we keep working together I will have her sawing as well . I am so pleased that this went so well . I would put her up against 3/4's of the help I've had this summer she could run em all into the dirt !

[4x4American]

That's great to hear, I might try one out myself, if I could find one!

I have some pictures in a sawmill book about women working the sawmills during the first world war.  There were some burly ones back then...still are.  Half the women in the town just below me use rope (with knots in it) to floss their teeth


Linda from By the Foot Sawmill is one heck of a tailer, you can watch her videos all over youtube just type in videos by al, lindas sawmill cinema, or something else  :D

[barbender]

 :D :D :D 4x4 you just crack me up, your sense of humor...if I didn't know your age, I'd guess you to be way older!  My grandad has always had lines like that, like "she's about 2 feet between the eyes" for example :D Scully, I'm glad you found a good tailer- don't wear her out with all that oak!

[woodyone.john]

My granddad might suggest that she might be two axe handles wide and then some.

[Brucer]

I've only ever had one helper. She was so good I didn't try to hire anyone else. I also paid her more than I'd normally pay a helper, and let her make a lot of the decisions about how to do her part of the job.

For those jobs where we had to work together, if she suggested we try something different I'd say, "Sure, let's see what happens." Sometimes her ideas worked better than the way we had been doing it, and sometimes she'd say, "Oops, guess that wasn't such a great idea."  :D.

[Savannahdan]

Glad you have someone doing an excellent job with you.  I agree about the videos.  That woman flat does the job.

[sandsawmill14]

my daughter offbeared for me for a couple months one time until she had to quit because of a hip surgery ( there is a thread about that ) she was the best help i have ever had  i might be a little partial but i averaged about 300 bdft a day more for that 2 months than i ever did before or after and i had to stop sawing to help her stack the ties and she is not burly she is 5'1 and weight 105 lb last time i knew now she has run off to college to be a nurse so i dont guess she will be coming back to the mill :-\

[Okrafarmer]

Women are like men in this regard-- some of them can offbear, and some of them can't. It's mostly in the determination department--and partly in the preparation department-- anyone with a bad back, hip, shoulder, knee, etc. is going to have a hard time with it, and anyone who is not happy to be doing it is going to have a hard time, too.

[Jeff]

I had one female board piler over the years at the big mill. Her name was Stacey. She was 6ft tall with Jet black long hair and covered in tattoos and right on the verge of being pretty. Looked a lot like kat von d, only with a big lump in her cheek from the ever present wad of skoal. She was the kind of chick that would come in in (tom) the morning and announce to everybody that you better stay out of her way because she was "On the you know what" that week. 

She actually used to do a hell of a job. She ended up leaving the area due to child and boyfriend and other personal problems. I probably had over 500 tailors over the years at the mill. Some lasted years, some didn't last until noon the first day. She did well for the two or 3 months she was there and left an indelible memory with me.

[AlaskaLes]

My wife Jessie and I work together on almost everything here.  We've been building a few lines of business and setting up tooling and learning all of the nuances.  I've got more experience then she does, but she has a very good attitude and we have a great time most days.
I do most of the custom fabrication, mechanic work, heavy lifting, planning for upcoming projects, and teaching her how to do whatever we're doing.
She off-bears at the mill; runs the chainsaw trimming the branches and the smaller logs; works the tractor; (wo)mans the boom crane for pile driving; splits about 95% of our wood; runs most of the jointer/sander/planer/router details in our woodworking shop; and a million other little jobs...all with a smile.
This past week we had rented a 30,000lb excavator for 40+ hours of some serious ground work.
I did most of it, but I put her in the seat for a few hours and she dug gravel, ripped up stumps and ran the dozer blade. 
I think it's cool that she is just as interested as I am to learn everything.
Two of the best things about training her would have to be: 
1st- She is gaining working knowledge of the tools and her suggestions are getting better and more relevant because she knows what we're trying to achieve and why.
2nd- I am among the very few men out there who doesn't have to argue with his wife to buy new tools.
She wants the good tools as bad as I do!!

[Chuck White]

My wife Sheila was the tailer on the mill for the first 4 or 5 years, then her shoulder started bothering her too much.

I used to really enjoy looking across the mill and seeing her.  She used to run the mill too, but she was always worrying about screwing up someones nice logs, so she'd rather tail.

There are a couple of pics in my gallery.

[4x4American]

Stacey sounds like she was built like a burlap bag full of bobcats  :D

[newoodguy78]

I'm proud to say I've worked with some very talented hardworking women over the years that have put some of their male co workers to shame.

4x4 I'm not sure of your exact location but I lived in eastern Rensselaer county for almost 15 years. I have to agree with you. I ran into a few that had plenty to prove  . For fear of bodily harm I always just agreed.

[WV Sawmiller]

Scully,

   I have not had a female tailer yet but would have no problems with it. I worked with some wonderful women when I was in the USMC and since. One thing I noticed and would bet would be the case, would be that the women would tend to be more likely to work smarter not harder. I had 2 Corporals working in my warehouse in USMC days. One was big strapping Indian from Ohio who could go bear hug a 300 lbs GP tent canvas and pick it up and move it to the desired location. His co-worker was WM (Woman Marine not Wood Mizer in this case) who weighed about 110 lbs. She would look at the job and go get the forklift or pallet jack to move that same tent and accomplish the same mission with less risk to herself. I'd bet a woman tailer would be sliding heavy boards and slabs more than trying to left them outright but then again I try to do the same thing.

   I hope you association continues as you describe.

[ncsawyer]

Half the women in the town just below me use rope (with knots in it) to floss their teeth

That town sounds like some of the places I have lived, where the men are men and the women are too.  ;D

[killamplanes]

 :D :D :D :D

[Okrafarmer]

I married a nice little lady who simply is not able to help out around the sawmill, but I love her anyway.  However, I am always happy to see one of those celtic amazon type women splitting wood or tailing lumber. One girl we had working for us could heave wood all day long and leave the rest of us gasping to catch up. She made it look like child's play.  ;D Thankfully she was also humble and didn't make fun of us.  :D