Table of Contents

Novemeber 2009 Classifieds

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Our best leisure reading from our not-so-sharp minds.

Lot’s Wife—The Sunday School teacher was describing how Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt, when little Jason interrupted, “My mommy looked back once while she was driving,” he announced triumphantly, “and she turned into a telephone pole!”

Good Samaritan—A Sunday School teacher was telling her class the story of the Good Samaritan. She asked the class, “If you saw a person lying on the roadside, wounded and bleeding, what would you do?”

A thoughtful little girl broke the hushed silence: “I think I’d throw up.”

Alabama’s Ison Logging Recognized

Ison Logging Co. of Lafayette was recently named the 2009 Alabama Logger of the Year by the Alabama Loggers Council (ALC). Known for his trademark overalls and even-tempered nature, Anthony Ison, 55, son of company founder Render Ison, heads this company that specializes in first thinning of pine plantations across east Alabama and west Georgia.

Ison, with his wife Janet, took the reins in 1997, and was joined in 2008 by their son Brandon, 23, a graduate of Auburn University’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Services. Ison is an innovative operator who is also active in industry associations, charities and his community.

Big Visions, Tall Timber by May Donnell

You might say the Colston-Sattler clan is a family of high achievers. Jimmie and Pearlie Colston each stand north of 6-foot-2. Their son, Marty, goes about 6-foot-8, and his uncle, Pearlie’s brother Stanley Sattler, comes in over 6 ft. as well.

Jimmie and Stanley head up C & S Logging, a 48-year-old operation based out of Marthaville, an unincorporated community that sits alongside the 70-mile-long Toledo Bend Reservoir, the Sabine National Forest and the Texas border in west central Louisiana. The larger town of Many sits just to the southwest. Natchitoches, the state’s oldest city founded by the French way back in 1714, is to the east.

Nameless Texas Towns

Because of the effectiveness of the lumber companies’ control of their towns, few serious racial incidents marred the 60 year history of Texas boom-era lumbering, and no mob of outraged workers ever looted and burned a company’s office or commissary store. In truth, visitors often remarked upon the degree of companies’ social and economic control over their mill towns.

In 1915, liberal journalist George Creel penned an expose entitled “The Feudal Towns of Texas” for Harpers Weekly, viewing that control in a harsh light: “The town of Kirbyville is admirably equipped to serve as an illustration. The motive and controlling power in this community of about 2,000 people is the Kirby Lumber Co., and the source of its autocracy is an ingenious institution termed the ‘merchandise check.’ The system controls not only the men who work for the Kirby Lumber Co., but every person doing business in Kirbyville.”

NCAPL Scores With Another Live Demo

On October 1 the North Carolina Assn. of Professional Loggers (NCAPL) continued its series of popular biomass oriented equipment demos, this time through the sponsorship by Pioneer-Gregory Poole Forest Products (PGPFP). It drew a strong turnout of about 350 loggers, foresters, landowners and equipment reps.

The site near Fort Barnwell was a pine thinning operation heavy to hardwood understory of sufficient size to produce excellent fuelwood chips. David Civils Logging of Trenton was the host logger. Allied hosts included broker Rankin Timber and landowner Jeff Braxton.

No Other Way by David Abbott

Bennie Weatherford, 75, has been logging since age 12, in 1947. He and his brother started with a mule and a crosscut saw. “We were cutting short blocks for a mill in Gibson, NC,” he recalls. “He was cutting squares to go to make tabletops.” It hasn’t been all logging for the last six decades, of course. In his youth he explored other options. He worked at a sawmill off and on for a few years doing various jobs, starting as a log turner and eventually becoming a sawyer. And he spent some time building houses. But for the past 40 years and then some, he says, it has been solid logging for him. And he has no plans to leave it behind anytime soon. “I don’t know what else I would do. I’m about too old to fish and too old to hunt.”

In 1996, as he neared retirement age, he worked out a deal with his younger brother and his son to take over ownership of the company, with Weatherford staying on to supervise. “It has worked out pretty well,” he says. He now oversees operations, busil

Current Industry News

Danny Goodbar, a disabled logger, industry activist, outdoorsman and former small town mayor, did something in death that the pastor of Kerrs Creek Baptist Church in Goshen, Va. said he could never seem to do: he (Goodbar) filled the church building to overflowing. Memorial services for Goodbar, 62, were held October 11. Full military honors accompanied interment in the church cemetery.

Goodbar, a member of the aforementioned church and an army Vietnam War veteran, died October 7 at his home in Goshen. In 2004 he suffered a stroke and never fully recovered. Thus he was not able to continue working in the logging-excavating business he co-owned with his brother, Tim, or to continue serving as Goshen’s part-time mayor, a position to which he was elected.

Oil Analysis by Elliott Little

When it’s time for an oil change, it’s also time to take a close look at the gunk inside the oil you’re about to change. That’s because with an oil analysis, the gunk in that oil can tell you a lot about the overall health and well being of your engine and hydraulics, and how to avoid damage down the road.

Because forestry equipment works longer hours in harsher environments on rougher terrain than other kinds of equipment, it’s especially vulnerable to dirt contamination. Left alone, a build-up of dirt can be very costly to logging contractors. In fact, approximately nine out of 10 hydraulic system failures are caused by dirt contamination, making dirt the main contributor to overall maintenance costs. But with an oil analysis, you can detect dirt contamination and prevent a lot of damage and wear.

ALC In Arizona Was Fun by DK Knight

Participating in the American Loggers Council’s (ALC) annual meeting in Flagstaff, Ariz. in late September was very gratifying for a couple of reasons. First, my wife, Jane, and I enjoy visiting with established friends and making new ones. Second, some Knight vacation time was way overdue. There are many fabulous sights to take in around Flagstaff and we did our part to pump up the economy by spending money we didn’t have. And we traveled in the company of friends Janet and Gene Carter, the amicable owners of Rainbow Logging, Stanton, Ala., who made the adventure even more enjoyable.

Just under 200 turned out for the gathering, hosted by outgoing ALC president Allen Ribelin and the Northern Arizona Loggers Assn. The Ribelins, including Allen’s wife, Cynde, and brother, Ken, were gracious hosts. Allen and Ken own and operate High Desert Investment Co., a logging and land clearing company that also owns a wood yard in Flagstaff and a budding firewood business in nearby Winslow