Logging trucks in the fog. All fueled up with no place to go.
Timber fellers, c. 1940, felling old-growth Doug-fir with a two-man Diston chainsaw.
Those are timber faller’s boots. There is a story wanting to be told here.
Sugar pine cones
Forester’s Boot, in pen and ink.
A loaded log truck heading to town.
They even have logs stacked up on the bank ready to go to the mill.
Rolling past the yarder again. I’m on my way home.
A portable weather station.
Preliminary Cover sketch.
Mourning Dove
Circa 1940’s, loggers use a two man chainsaw to fell a large Douglas-fir.
The Cat was parked in this landing for a few months. The skull sitting on the floor.
Planting trees in the Gun II Burn.
Planting trees in the Gun Burn
Bliss is helping with the log quality control. She offer to take care of the tiny log and left me the big ones.
Log Stringer Bridge
The woods are silent, but for the sound of falling rain. The log trucks are parked. Winter operations cease when the woods are wet. It all comes to a halt to avoid making a mess of the ground or getting mud in the creeks. The loggers are at the shop or home. After four years of drought, it’s good to rained out.
We were out visiting a logging contractor. The delimber processes trees into logs.
We have to deal with traffic jams out in the boondocks too.
Using a chainsaw to limb a Ponderosa pine tree.
They grab the trees when they cut them. The trees are then stacked up in a “doodle” for the skidders to take to the log landing.
The disk on the front of the feller buncher is the saw blade. This type of saw head is called a “hot saw” because it runs constantly.
A speed chopping contest between Oregon State and Shasta College students. Logging sports like this were inspired by how is was once done.
A load of salvage logs roll through the tiny community of Georgetown.
Skidding salvage logs to the landing.
They brought in a yarder to pull logs off the road cut to a loader waiting below. This looks more like a logging job then a road project. They’re yarding downhill, which is a much more dangerous than yarding uphill.
Finally, the traffic is moving. They’re using a skidder to move logs off the road cut.
The “Uncle Sam”, hauling logs in the Sierra Nevada.
A dozer skidding in a log turn.
Loading the truck and filling out the load receipt.
A Ghost in the Forest, mixed media watercolor with pen and ink.
Steam Donkey, inking is complete.
The second steam donkey.
Look how steep the hill was. It appears that they stopped in the middle of moving this donkey. Things must have been bad for them to abandon this equipment in the woods.
The Willamette Steam Donkey
The delimber sits in the landing making logs all day.
One lane only, so pull off and yield the right of way. There’s a future house on the back of that truck.
It is a favored tree for making log homes.
Craig winds his dozer down the skid trail.
A skid of logs chattering toward the landing.
A load of logs pulls out of the landing. I hope you don’t mind a little dust.
Welcome to the Pole Plant.
It looks like the loggers have been here.
Yep, they were here alright!
Road block! The skidder is getting fueled. We’re getting close.
We head for the landing. Traffic jam! They’re moving the chipper to another landing.
Get over for the chip van! It’s like Grand Central Station in the piney woods.
The chipper is loading a chip van. But these weren’t the guys I came to see.
Finally, the landing! Something is always broke down. I spend time going over log quality and other stuff with the guys. We get done and now it’s time to go home.
I hope a little dust doesn’t bother you. We suck up a lot of it around here.
The Best Steam Traction Engine.
Doddles
Skid
Delimber
Doodles
Chipper
Blitz
Blitz in the shade of the Pole Plant log deck.
She got see some modern logging technology in this tree shear.
The masticator is the piece of equipment mounted on the end of the excavator boom.
The masticator head.
A lodgepole pine reaches for the sunshine as we all should.
There was even quite a bit of old equipment all shined up.
There is a lot of big equipment like this feller buncher.
The big log deck forms a wall of wood.
Tommy is loading out a truck. It sure doesn’t look like Winter.
Unloading the dolly.
Backing into the landing
Skidding in a turn.
It isn’t very white in our woods right now.
Decks of frozen logs
An icy blanket…nothing warm under this blanket.
Throwin’ on the binders.
Loading the log truck.
“Betsy”
The Little Lumberjack competition. This boy lets one fly!
Nice throw young man!
The ladies axe throw. The timber sports events were for anyone who wanted to participate.
The men’s double buck competition. These guys are cutting like a “house afire!”
Great form at the axe throw.
Spectators enjoy the men’s double buck competition.
TIME!
Lovin’ the woods!
A steam traction engine hauling lumber.
Nature is resilient and relentless and will be here long after we are gone.
The teepee burner from Memory In The Mist.
Here comes the sun.
A teepee burner in use.
Most old sawmills had teepee burners.
The Carlotta teepee burner
The logging trucks had to stop while the fire was being fought.
The heel-boom loader is today’s log loading staple. It is also referred to as a shovel by the loggers.
The self-loading logging truck has it’s own loader built in.
In this picture they used a front-end loader to assist the self-loader. Normally they use the self-loaders when another loader isn’t available.
The front-end loader was the standard for years, but is still common in the woods.
The logging truck hauls the trailer, also known as a log dolly, in a piggy-back configuration. Here the front-end loader unloads the log dolly.
Anderson teepee burner
Nubieber teepee burner
A tree pour through it’s roof like smoke. How oddly appropriate it chose this as it’s home.
The Misery Whip.
The old log pond….otter pond.
This Cattle Egret surveys it’s domain from a stack of poles as the Portal Crane towers over head.
A really big yard ornament.
Valmet Forwarder
Cat track skidder
Skidding logs with a big wheels and a team.
John Deere skidder
Cat rubber tire skidder
I saw this log truck rolling through the Bay Area. Just a little reminder of where wood comes from.
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