# How Not To Dress For Logging . . .



## Kevin (Sep 9, 2014)

I've been planning to grab some logs from the patch for the past few days, and staged my gear and saws where I always do near a corner of one of my rollup doors so in the morning I could throw it all in the truck without wasting time to hunt for it. I do not remember ever forgetting to take my basic safety gear.

Last night after I had staged my logging gear, I was moving some things around to do a large glue up on the shop floor because I do not have a table large enough for this glue up so I moved my logging gear bundle - part of it over here and part of it over there and did the glue up. This morning I decided I couldn't go logging because I still had orders to get out. Well I got them done sooner than expected and my wife said she'd get them to the appropriate shipping places and about 3 or so I saw an opportunity to go drop some trees. So I grabbed a couple of saws a tank of mix a gallon of chain oil a cs tool 5 gallons of water a snickers candy bar and off I go.

Did you notice what I loaded? Did you notice what wasn't on the list? This is NOT proper logger attire but this is how I logged for two hours . . . . . . .






I have to tell you though, that logging without safety gear is not only dangerous, it's bad luck. That saw you see in my hand was crushed by a tree just minutes before . . . .









You can see just how bad it was from this angle; the handle was at least 45 degrees out of joint . . .




You would think it would have separated the plastic handle at the stress points, but after I walked back to the truck and retrieved Hilda (seen in the previous picture), and rescued Heidi from the grasp of the tree, this began to happen almost right away (see yellow circle - the handle has almost straightened out by itself!). . .




But oh yeah more of that bad luck for not loading my safety gear - I lost a little blood since I didn't wear my logging shirt and vest. Here's more bad luck . . .




I didn't take pictures of all of them, but the next 5 or 6 trees I dropped were all rotten at the trunk bases. I have never logged fire-damaged trees before until last year when the flash fire we had happen, but last year they were still all healthy enough that they reacted the way I was used to when I put the saw to them. Not today.

Boxelders are very susceptible to all manner of disease and attacks which is why they have such short lives, and also why they have such great color, but they can still look fairly solid after a flash grass fire on the outside and be unsafe to log on the inside. I caught them at just the "right" time to be really deceptive . . . meaning dangerous. Here's one I found in the fire damaged section that was still healthy.





I got lucky today in spite of my orneryness and stupidity. The most amazing thing to me was that Heidi's handle came back to life like a transformer before my very eyes, and continued to serve me for another 5 or 6 trees even after she was crushed into the earth. I quit before she did. The forest beat me today, but it had some help from my lack of preparation.

Reactions: Like 4 | Way Cool 1 | Sincere 1 | Useful 2


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## Schroedc (Sep 9, 2014)

Glad it all worked out but man that was scary to see.

Reactions: Agree 2 | Sincere 1


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## woodtickgreg (Sep 9, 2014)

I always enjoy watching your adventures Kev. Thanks for remembering the camera.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## manbuckwal (Sep 9, 2014)

Glad u both survived with just scratches !

Reactions: Agree 1


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## JR Custom Calls (Sep 9, 2014)

Is Heidi a 362xp? 

Sucks you had some damage... but hard to keep a negative attitude when there's so much gold in front of you


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## Tclem (Sep 9, 2014)

Glad you are ok. When I read the title I figured you went out logging in a leopard skin bikini or a spider man suit. But glad you are ok

Reactions: Funny 3


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## Kevin (Sep 9, 2014)

JR Custom Calls said:


> Is Heidi a 362xp?
> 
> Sucks you had some damage... but hard to keep a negative attitude when there's so much gold in front of you



Helga = 395 XP
Hilda = 372 XP
Heidi = 346XP
Hannah = PS5100

This is well known among the few of us loggers that have kept in communication over the past ten+ years on these fleeting forums. I guess that dates my girls at least.


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## ripjack13 (Sep 9, 2014)

Kevin said:


> But oh yeah more of that bad luck for not loading my safety gear - I lost a little blood since I didn't wear my logging shirt and vest.




So that's how you get that awesome red color in the logs....._Blood_, sweat and tears....

Reactions: Funny 1


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## David Seaba (Sep 9, 2014)

Glad to see you weren't hurt bad. Stay safe.


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## ironman123 (Sep 10, 2014)

See Kevin, shoulda had some band aids and camphophneque in your lunch box. Glad you came out of the patch in 1 piece.


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## SENC (Sep 10, 2014)

Glad there was no critical damage to you or to your equipment. And it seems you were lucky that your bride didn't beat you to a pulp when she found out how you were logging!

Reactions: Agree 1


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