Table of Contents

January 2009 Classifieds

Download the Southern Loggin' Times January 2010 IronWorks classifieds here!

Our bet leisure reading from our not-so-sharp minds

A 16-year-old boy came home with a new Chevrolet Avalanche, and his parents began to yell and scream. “Where did you get that truck?”

He calmly told them, “I bought it today.”

“With what money?” his parents demanded. They knew what a Chevrolet Avalanche cost.

Chip Change by Jennifer McCary

While it is true that most people view change with some skepticism going in, change is often an opportunity in the making. Such was the case for Kenneth Miller when Miller’s wood dealer of 11 years merged with Cooper Marine and Timberlands (CMT) of Mobile, Ala. in 2008.

“Everything got better when that happened,” says the owner of Moonlight Logging Co., based here. “We put on a chipping crew in addition to our longwood crew, so it has helped us.” In fact, the company’s production nearly doubled and he only purchased one machine and hired one additional worker. The change has provided enough work to keep Miller running wide open through most of the year, in spite of the economy, and it spurred the creation of three additional jobs.

DeadHead by May Donnell

Loggers in Maine commenced chopping down pine in the southern part of the state as early as 1621. At the time, Plymouth Colony was the latest big thing in domestic adventure. Over the next 250 years or so, the loggers slowly moved north toward and through a vast supply of yellow birch, maple and spruce growing along the state’s remote hardwood ridges.

Between 1830 and 1855, years when the concept of Manifest Destiny ignited with housing and commercial development in America, Bangor, Maine was one of the busiest logging ports in the world. Historians speculate that 8.7 billion board feet of old-growth hardwood logs passed through the town during this 25-year period. They also guess an additional 7-10% of those logs was lost on its perilous way to the mills.

Nameless Texas Towns

Whisky drinkers and saloon operators in Groveton for long had the upper hand, outnumbering their opponents and electing county officials “with a clear understanding that they should cater to the wishes of the law breakers who were their creators as officers.” Mill workers drew their daily wages “only to spend it in the saloon or gambling den,” and the families of these underpaid workmen suffered accordingly from poverty and inadequate diet. “Children were half clad and showed the pinch of poverty in their faces.”

Groveton merchants stocked few toys at Christmas time, since they knew that the hard-drinking mill hands would have little money to spend for them. Fights and killings became commonplace. Drunks rode their horses into places of business to make purchases from the convenience of their saddles or simply on a lark. “It was no uncommon thing on Saturday for a drunken crowd of gangsters to race their horses through the streets shooting into places of business.” Soon, wom

Rain, Rain Go Away by David Abbott

Jason Spigner, 40, owner of Spigner Inc., sounds glad to see 2009 in the rear view mirror. He says it was the worst year he has seen in his 10 years in the business, primarily due to the weather. Rain days combined with weak demand delivered a one-two punch, but Spigner is still on his feet and looking forward to better days to come in what he thinks will be a gradual recovery in 2010.

“It seems like about Thanksgiving of 2008, the brakes got put on everything,” he says. “You started seeing paper mills slow production down, idle machines for periods of time. Up until then, the pulp and paper folks were running pretty strong and sort of keeping the whole industry propped up because solid wood has been off for three or four years now with the housing market.”

“Gate Change” For Timber & Biomass Expo Southeast

There has been a “gate change” for Timber & Biomass Expo Southeast, the large-scale logging equipment demonstration set for this coming April 16-17 in south Georgia. The new location is now Lowndes County. Specifically, it’s a pine plantation situated 15 miles east of Valdosta, adjacent to state route 135 and four miles south of the Naylor community (U.S. 84).

The show was previously advertised as being held in Toombs County near Vidalia, Ga., but a communications breakdown among several parties nullified that arrangement. Show sponsor Hatton-Brown Publishers subsequently approached The Langdale Co. about hosting the event and its management stepped up with the new site. Headquartered in Valdosta, Langdale, a diversified timberland and forest products company with multiple other business interests, hosted the show one other time, in 1994.

Maintaining Logging Roads by Cliff Caudill

You probably know that there are a couple of reality shows on TV about logging. If you have seen the shows, then you probably remember chuckling (or sympathizing) during episodes where a trucker—usually a rookie—gets a full load bogged down in a poorly maintained section of logging road. Of course, this is followed by many bleeped-out profanities.

But rookie or not, anyone who has worked in the woods knows how important a properly maintained logging road is, or how life-threatening a poorly maintained one can be. Ignoring road maintenance means you are heading down a path that will require road reconstruction. Here is something to ponder: An estimate of typical costs (not site specific) for road grading is approximately $300 to $2,500 per mile, while clearing an area for a new road can cost upwards of $4,000 to $7,000 per mile.

New Product Information

Tigercat has been testing a new machine, the LS855C shovel logger, in steep slope applications in South America and Tasmania. This highly refined machine uses the durable C-series upper assembly and has the same FH400 undercarriage and super duty leveling system as the L870C feller-buncher. The purpose-built ER shovel logger boom with live heel provides a maximum reach of 10.9 m.

The LS855C uses Tigercat’s new twin swing drive system, providing powerful swing torque while minimizing pinion loads for extended swing system life. A closed loop swing circuit provides high swing performance as well as an energy recovery system. Every time the machine upper slows its rotation, energy is returned to the engine flywheel through the pump and motors. This energy is then available for other machine functions. Phone 519-442-1529; web: tigercat.com.

Unloading Incident Damages Truck

Background: A tractor-trailer with a sleeper cab, delivering a load of treelength pulpwood to a Northeastern mill on an early winter day, was positioned under the overhead grapple crane for unloading. The mill’s unloading policy called for the driver to exit the vehicle and wait in a designated visible safe location during unloading, with any passengers remaining in the scalehouse. The mill also required trucks to have an adequate headache rack in place behind the cab. The weather was cold and clear but was not a factor in the incident.

Personal Characteristics: The operator of the unloading crane had several years of experience with a good safety record and was considered competent.

NC Loggers Come Together by DK Knight

It’s been a fast ride for one of the nation’s youngest logging associations. The North Carolina Professional Loggers Association, Inc. (NCAPL) pulled out of the station just over two years ago and has already made an impact on behalf of its members and those on the national scene.

A charter group of 12 logging businesses started meeting in the summer of 2007 at local restaurants to discuss logger training, trucking and tax regulations, a need to reduce spending on fuel and operating supplies, and focusing on state and federal politics where you take the initative instead of dodging bullets and avoiding ricochets. Keith Biggs and Jimmie Locklear of Forestry Mutual Insurance had just returned from their first American Loggers Council national meeting and were impressed with a 100% dedicated logging association working at the national and state levels. “It was loggers dealing with logging issues at their table,” Biggs recalls.