Rigging Shack: February 1973

Subscriptions

When we first started this paper there was no subscription charge. Then we made a charge. First it was two bucks a year. Then in a year or so we reluctantly raised the price to Three bucks a year.

During these eight years our costs have gone up and up and up until we are all dizzy. The same as it has for you. It costs everyone more money to do anything. Or to do nothing. It is the nature of our economy I guess.
Postage. Now that has gone up. In the eight years we have been in the business the cost of mailing out a paper has gone up several steps. All big steps.

I’m building up to saying that soon subscriptions to Loggers World will cost more money. We have held the price for a long time but can’t much longer. Probably will raise to five bucks a year. Isn’t that Hell?

At least we can say that generally the paper has twice as much in it now as it did when we first started the three dollar price. Some of our papers go up to 72 pagers per issue and more. So maybe it isn’t that bad a buy.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ve not raised the rate from $12/year in since at least 1989]

Writing

One big draw back to the way I do things is that I flit around from here to there like an uncertain bird.

Our idea is to get a traveling office of generous and realistic proportions. Thinking of getting a 22 foot self contained travel trailer.

Then say that we are going to Sweet Home, Oregon. We would drag the trailer down there and find a place to plant it. The each day as I come from visiting a logger I can develop the pictures taken that day. I can sit at the typewriter and tap out the article. Then I can mail the pictures and the words back to the main office. There they will make the big pictures, set the words in type and lay out the article in the paper.

Safety

Perhaps one of the reasons I’m more than normally concerned with ‘Safer Logging’ is that I am no longer a logger. In my present line of work (mostly B.S.’ing) I hear about more loggers being injured because I’m in touch with many logging men.

When you labor in the woods you work with a small number of people. You may be involved in the Safety of yourself and with one or two other people. Thus all the published alarming figures don’t really strike home. On the opposite side of the scale is the fact that I hear of loggers that I know being injured frequently.

I also know damned well that it is a simple matter to talk about Safety. It is a heck of a lot more difficult to go out and do the work and get the production and think about Safety. She is a different business when you are on the steep side-hills and are expected to get the work done under any and all circumstances.

There is a lot of bull manure in this business of Logging Safety. It is easy to preach. Difficult to do. First comes production (in most places) and then do it as safely as possible taking into consideration all the hazards. If there isn’t production there isn’t any logging and thus Safety isn’t a problem. They talk about saving money by Safer Logging. This is true—-you do save money by Safer Logging. IF—-and this is a big IF—-you get enough production so that you stay in business.

But first we got to get the logs out. Enough logs so that we can pay for the stumpage, the roads, the hauling, the wages, the machinery, the taxes and on and on and on. She is a borderline business and the money equal to expenses has to come in. If it doesn’t take place this way eventually something will change.

Production is a necessity. Safety is a luxury. This is the thinking of too many of us.

The flip side of that record says ‘Safety is a necessity!’ We can’t have one without the other. Safe logging is a must—-Production is a must. But you can cheat a little better on the safety end that you can on the production end.

We know that you can take unnecessary and unusual chances and get away with it. At least for a while. So the temptation is always there——”we can move this yarder without a snubbing machine. I’ve moved over steeper roads than this.”

What a lot of us forget, once we hang up the cork shoes, is that logging is a chance taking business. She’s a gamble from start to finish. We like to take chances and are proud of those times we can make them work to our advantage. Usually if you take a chance, and get by with it, you save time and money.

What I’m trying to say is that you save time and money this time but not over the long haul. The odds will catch up with you and bingo—-you got a machine wrecked and maybe someone hurt. Now that takes the cream out of a lot of the times you made it. It can’t be done. You can’t win. Neither the operator nor the working logger can afford the habit of unnecessary and unusual ‘chance taking.’ It’ll catch you and when it does you pay for it all in one lump sum.

You not only pay but other people do too right along with you. If you go broke logging because you wrecked the machinery you have hurt other people. If you get hurt others beside yourself share in the suffering. In this world all your actions either help or hurt other people.

Many people believe that good safety practices hurt log production. They may be right but I don’t think so. Depends upon how you measure it and over what length of time you measure it. Measure it by the month and you might have a point. Measure it by the year and there will be times you might be right. Measure it by three years, five years or ten years and Safety will win out every time.

“Safety is a State of Mind, an Attitude, a Habit.” You’ve heard this millions of times. Is this true? I think so but if you don’t think so then it won’t work for you. State of mind, attitude and habit is almost the same thing.

An attitude is a state of mind. An attitude is a habit of thinking and doing things that lead to ‘Safer Logging’ then it makes you a safer logger.
But if you have this attitude you can’t confine it to logging only. You’ll keep your tools better, you’ll driver safer, you’ll see that your home is safer. You can’t have this attitude only in the woods and then forget it other places. It’ll be part and parcel of the way you live.

It’ll be reflected in your behavior and actions.

You can talk, yell and preach on this subject until you run out of wind and turn blue. The only people that can make it work are those people doing the work. Everything else is just wind.

But if thru some of this talking and yelling and preaching some few of the working loggers think more about and work more towards ‘Safer Logging’ then it has some value.

I’m one of the talkers. You are one of the doers. Easier to talk than to do. Your job is more important. Your job has more hazards. Only you can make it safer. Hope that you do!

Jim Collias-Timber Cutter

Early one rainy morning Jim stopped in at Loggers World office. Was on his way from Wyoming to a new job of timber cutting in Oregon. First thing he said is that he hadn’t got his last two issues of Loggers World. We fixed that up by giving him tree papers——one for interest.

Then we sat and drank coffee and discussed the state of things and how’d we fix it if we were running things.

Said that he had spent the summer in Wyoming falling and bucking timber. One of the best jobs he ever had. That is a strong recommendation because Jim has worked in many places in many different locations.

Mostly the ground was good. He was busheling. Sometimes he got paid so much for each log he made and sometimes he got paid on the thousand board feet basis. Little timber was by the log and bigger timber was by the thousand.

He also fell and bucked timber that was so small it was to make fences for corrals. Said the biggest trouble was that it grew so thick it couldn’t fall.

So he’d cut one off and then have to pull it out so he could cut the top out of it. Said he could make a thousand a day if they didn’t grow so thick.

Room

I’ve watched dozens of loggers build a shop. When they first moved in they had acres and acres of room. In another couple of years the shop was crowded and they’d be building on an addition.

Three years ago we moved out into the country about ten or twelve miles south of Chehalis on old hi-way 99. We bought a grocery store and cold storage locker business. Then we changed it over to suit our needs. Man did we have the room. All kinds of it. Main building was about 45 feet square—-mean to say it was about 45 by 45 feet. Which is over 2000 square feet. Besides that it had a garage and a house. My wife and I live in the house and it is only four feet eight inches from the office.

Fine set up and lots of room. Then last year we put on a big addition about another thousand square feet. Now we are crowding that. Need more room. Every business and every family probably has the same problem.

We intend to keep growing!