Table of Contents

May 2009 Classifieds

Download the Southern Loggin' Times May 2009 IronWorks classifieds here !

Our best leisure reading from out not-so-sharp minds

A man is getting in shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings.

The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs.

When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next door neighbor.

Before she says a word, Bob says, “I’ll give you $800 to drop that towel.”

Nameless Texas Towns

EDITOR’S NOTE: This continues the serialization of the book, Nameless Towns: Texas Sawmill Communities, 1880-1942, by Thad Sitton and James H. Conrad (Copyright 1998). It is reprinted by permission of the University of Texas Press. For footnotes, bibliography, and index, please see the printed book. The series began with the March ’08 issue of SLT. Drawing on oral histories, company records, and other archival sources, the authors recreate life as lived in scores of bustling logging camps and sawmill towns that came and went in the east Texas pineywoods. Copies of the 260 page soft-bound book can be purchased from the University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819; ph. 512-471-7233; www.utexas.edu/ utpress/books/sitnam.html

Road To Success by May Donnell

Growing up on his family’s land along a gravel road in Huddleston, Larry Roach always knew he would become a logger. After all, his father was a logger. His four uncles—who lived along that same gravel road on land they’d all inherited from Larry’s logger grandfather—were loggers.

“Logging was all we ever knew,” says Roach, now 28. “Log trucks were all we ever saw on our road. It was just natural to go into it.”

But the logging work Larry Roach began at age 18 differed greatly from that of his father, grandfather and uncles. Modern equipment made it different. “My dad and granddad did it the old fashioned way,” he says. “I didn’t want to do it the old fashioned way.”

Staying Power by Jennifer McCary

Nearly five decades after the bank loaned he and original partner Pot Harton $200 each to start a logging job, Frank Burt is still contracting with the first company that hired them to cut and haul short pulpwood back in 1961. The partnership dissolved 22 years later to make room for each partner’s children to come into the business. In 1984 Burt incorporated as Franklin Burt Logging, Inc., a few years after son Mark graduated high school and joined the company. Now 75, the father has stepped back some to let Mark, 48, assume the helm. But that is not to say that the elder has in any way slowed down. “He is not the first one here most days,” Mark says with a chuckle. “He is the first one here every day.” That particular morning for example, Mark says he arrived at 4:30 a.m. to find his dad already loading one of the haul trucks.

Both men are quick to credit the company’s success to the provision and blessings of the Lord. “We’re proud of what the Lord has given us,” the fath

Current Industry News

The Southern Loggers Co-operative (SLC) has added to its staff to facilitate its growth and expansion. Bill Jones, 55, who headed the Alabama Loggers Council since 1997, has been hired as assistant to Executive Director Clyde Todd. Jones will headquarter in Alabama, initially helping SLC develop new fuel stations at locations east of the Mississippi River.

Formed in 2004 to provide supplies and services to loggers, SLC earlier this year extended its membership to include farmers and ranchers. Based in Louisiana, its initial thrust was offering discounted fuel at member-owned stations. SLC now also offers a discount tire (Hankook) program and is expanding a full line of insurance services.

New Product Information

Cat Forest Products’ new CTR 107 slasher offers structural improvements and increased versatility. The 42" (107 cm) CTR 107 works with any loader and is available with either a flat or V-shaped chassis. Both chassis designs have been widened so that the vertical posts sit on top of the main rail tubes for increased stability and rigidity. The vertical tubes are reinforced with added plates on the outside, along with angled gusset tubes. The posts are shorter to minimize the risk of damage from the loader grapple, and a balanced lifting point for ease in moving is now standard.

The new chassis bolts o to the saw box, allowing easy replacement. Left, right and reversible configurations are available to suit customer preferences. Major improvements to the saw box include: support plate to strengthen the buck weldments; tubular stop allows the saw bar to extend fully while protecting the cylinder rod from ground debris that can interfere with performance; bigger mounting bolts in

Congratulations! by DK Knight

At its annual meeting earlier this year the South Carolina Timber Producers Assn. (SCTPA) honored Arledge Logging & Timber, Inc. as its 2008 Logger Activist. Based in Landrum, SC, the company involves Norman Arledge; his wife, Audrey; son, Andy; brother, Dennis; and several others, all of whom are considered extended family.

Norman fields a conventional crew in the Greenville-Spartanburg area, buys timber from private landowners and land clearing operations and maintains a wood yard, opened last year, just off I-26 in Landrum. The business was featured in SLT in July 2004.