Friday, October 25, 2013

A Day In The Life...


Of  a logger!!!  This morning my brother, Jerry, called me at 6:30am to meet him at the trailer loader, weigh station in Warm Springs by 9am.... so I got up and got busy!!!!
The sun was not even up yet when I left the house  :)  it was light out but the sun not up yet guys!!!  He had already been up to the landing, got a load and was on the way back down, ready for his second load of the day..


 So he unloaded, then got the trailer back up onto the truck and away we went.  Up the Tenino Grade.  Which is very steep and windy.  A fire went thru there a couple years ago, so it was not very beautiful, lots of dark burned trees, where there had been a forest. But you could see the road better this way ;0  There are markers along the road where they get on the CB and give their status, where they are and if loaded or not, so other drivers know what is coming at them, as the roads got progressively narrower and narrower.  There were 6 different outfits working up on the mountain and they all have to know where everyone is and where and when to get out of the way..


The inside of this truck looks like an airplane.. at least that tiny little airplane that I rode in to skydive, I suppose large jet liners, look even more complicated... he showed me MY knob, the little one right to the left of the two BIG red ones at the right, that rolled down my window  :)


Here we are pulled over while the loaded truck you see is  going downhill (who has the right of way) goes by...


Now we are off the paved and on a dirt road...  they have water trucks that spray to keep the dust down. They have very strict regulations on the conditions of the road, if it is too wet, no work, so as to not cause ruts.


Even smaller dirt road.... note the color, those trees are Tamarack... a few deciduous, leafy ones too...


The scenery is truly breathtaking,  this is Mt Jefferson.


Here we are at the landing. Getting loaded up.  I had to stay out off the way, and got yelled out a couple of times for getting in too close  :)  Which, really you don't want to do.  The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is where my brother works  (on the reservation) and they have a steady program of renewable forests and replant.  This area had been logged in the 30-40's also and was ready for harvesting again.  They clean up after themselves and in other logged areas things looked picked up and tidy, no big clear cut areas or left over stumps or 'slash' as they call it.  All the trash is cleaned up, piled and burned, leaving a clean looking forest floor, ready for new seedlings.
 
(more tomorrow, the computer started acting up and this was getting overly long)
 
Needless to say I had a great day!! And was back home by 3pm!
We had a really good time.
 
Take Care and God Bless

6 comments:

  1. Very interesting post and pictures. I'm glad you ID'd Mt. Jefferson.

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  2. Wow! I am envious of your day. It must have been exhilarating to make the drive on the narrow dirt roads in a big big truck and to watch the process of moving the logs down the mountain. How wonderful Jerry took you along!

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  3. What a fun day with your brother. Those loggers put in long hours, and the job doesn't go with out risks. This is such an interesting post. Can't wait to hear the rest of the story!!

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  4. Sounds like you had a fun day. reservations have the best regrowth
    programs. Is sad to see the burned out forests. Even the burned wood is now used once it is cut and cleaned.

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