The Glory Days Of Firewood

[hobbyheater]

These are some pictures from the early 90's of firewood gathering west coast style. We lived in a small company owned town( logging camp) of 145 families. The company would let us have the use of the logging trucks and the log loaders, to go out to logging area that had been harvested of commercial grade logs and load and haul firewood logs to a gravel pit right next to town. The logs you see on these trucks are snag and wind fall Douglas fir. Most were what are known as wind shook. If you try to make lumber from these logs, they fall apart much like a onion and have large pitch seams that made them usable for making pulp. Four truck loads easily supplied the town with a year's worth of firewood. I'm the one in blue. I drove one of the trucks plus operated the loaders on either end. The spirit of a small town and a generous employer!

Allan

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

Awesome country!

Always reminds me of Twin Peaks

 

[SolarAndWood]

Great pics. Nice of the evil logging company to make sure everyone stays warm.

 

[muncybob]

Some serious wood in beautiful area!

 

[hilly]

In the '90's I would travel past Lake Cowichan to Nitnat Lake to go windsurfing and there were a few times when I would round a corner and see one of those off road logging trucks coming the other way. They took up almost the entire road and I think they were called off road logging trucks not because they weren't allowed on pavement, but they forced every other vehicle off road when they were passing.

 

[hobbyheater]

Hilly!
That is a interesting handle. Hilly was the nickname of a local old time logger in the 1950's. He had a small logging camp at Kiakash Creek in Johnstone Strait. The camp cook was a lady who was attacked by a sickly cougar, which Hilly killed with his bare hands. A feat that made him somewhat famous locally.

The off highway logging trucks with a good size load, pretty much have to stay in the middle of the road and straddle the crown of the road. If they get over to one side of the road with a really big load, the truck just follows the lean of the road and will not respond to the steering, hence really becoming off road.
Glad you enjoyed the pictures.

Allan

 

[tamarack]

Good pics and some big wood. I live in logging country too - can't drive 5 miles without seeing a logging truck go by.

 

[Gasifier]

Very cool Allan. Thanks for sharing the pics. And if you have any more interesting stuff, please share it. Subject of Wood, Equipment, and just about anything else is appreciated. Thanks again, those pics are cool.

 

[4fire]

Cool stuff. I'm surprised that was happening even as recently as the early 90's. Maybe things were a bit more relaxed on that side of the border. Just imagine the lawsuits the logging company would face now if someone got hurt using their equipment to gather firewood.
Getting firewood has gone downhill around here just like most other outdoor activities. It's a matter of too many people and a small number of those ruining it for the rest of us.

 

[begreen]

Great pictures Allan. I'm guessing 3+ cords per 145 houses required some serious splitting too. Do you have any shots of the splitting operation?

 

[hobbyheater]

Jeamiepn78

The liability issue had yet not surfaced. The wood foreman's biggest concern "No Beer Drinking Until The Trucks And Loader Were Back At The Shop .!" Things have now tightened up as only employees on the payroll can have access to the dryland sort to get firewood. But retired fossils like myself can still to go out to in-active settings with little hassle.

Canadian Forest Products was a very Good company to work for.

Allan

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Nice pictures Allan and thanks for posting them. That was a great way for those families to get their winter's heat. Good to hear you are amongst the retired now too. Hope you are enjoying it.

 

[hobbyheater]

Nice pictures Allan and thanks for posting them. That was a great way for those families to get their winter's heat. Good to hear you are amongst the retired now too. Hope you are enjoying it.

The thing that has me puzzled now that I'm retired, HOW DID ONE EVER FIT WORK IN ????
I'm also in the 50 years plus of burning wood and I am sure happy about wood gasification and the small amount of wood it burns. In my teen years we lived in a 1920s farm house in the Bella Coola valley that had a wood cook stove plus three wood heaters. On cold days, 8 wheel barrow loads were needed to keep all of them burning! It is a good thing I have always enjoyed cutting and splitting wood !

Allan

 

[hobbyheater]

Great pictures Allan. I'm guessing 3+ cords per 145 houses required some serious splitting too. Do you have any shots of the splitting operation?

Never did get any pictures but it looked like a bunch of ants. I stayed away till only the knotty logs were left then went over with my woodsplitter and got the good wood.
The reason I was featured in the pictures was that this was a exciting day for me as it was the first time that I had hauled a load on my own. Once I had the necessary training and licenses and after loading the last load of the day, I would take the loaded truck in with an experienced driver at my side.
" T6" the gentle giant. That is interesting. The old loader in the picture is a Washington TL 6. These loaders were made in Seattle, starting in production I believe, in 1954 through the late 70s. The machines were made for log loading and yarding, and were fast, durable and popular with with those who knew how to run them.

Allan

 

[hobbyheater]

Great pics. Nice of the evil logging company to make sure everyone stays warm.

"SolarAndWood" I would love to know what your combination of solar and wood could be ?
I use a Jetstream boiler that heats a 1000 gallon storage tank. The storage tank is a steam boiler with its tubes removed. The boiler and storage tank share the same water, with an opened expansion tank higher in the building with a head of 10 1/2 feet to 14 1/2 feet. This gives about 3 lbs pressure at the boiler. The tank also has internal heat exchangers for domestic and baseboard heat. I have been looking at heat pumps and evacuated tubes but I have found nothing yet that delivers the temperatures that the system requires.


Allan

 

[hobbyheater]

Good pics and some big wood. I live in logging country too - can't drive 5 miles without seeing a logging truck go by.

The summer of 1963 I spent the summer with a family in Taft, Oregon, and on the drive down from Portland, I remember seeing lots of logging Trucks.!

Allan

 

[hobbyheater]

Great pictures Allan. I'm guessing 3+ cords per 145 houses required some serious splitting too. Do you have any shots of the splitting operation?

Sorry I did not pick up on the fact that the "Moderator" was not just another level of contributor

In the spring the Legion does a wood cut for charity and I will try to get pictures. They use a full size tree processor to cut the rounds to length, a large grade building backhoe to split the bigger and tougher rounds, and lots of people splitting by hand and loading pickups. Western Forest Products supplies the equipment and the logs at their dryland sort.

Allan

 

[woodchip]

The company would let us have the use of the logging trucks and the log loaders, to go out to logging area that had been harvested of commercial grade logs and load and haul firewood logs to a gravel pit right next to town.

That puts borrowing the company car for a weekend into perspective........

Brilliant shots, nice to have a record of a great scrounge ;-)

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Nice pictures Allan and thanks for posting them. That was a great way for those families to get their winter's heat. Good to hear you are amongst the retired now too. Hope you are enjoying it.

The thing that has me puzzled now that I'm retired, HOW DID ONE EVER FIT WORK IN ????
I'm also in the 50 years plus of burning wood and I am sure happy about wood gasification and the small amount of wood it burns. In my teen years we lived in a 1920s farm house in the Bella Coola valley that had a wood cook stove plus three wood heaters. On cold days, 8 wheel barrow loads were needed to keep all of them burning! It is a good thing I have always enjoyed cutting and splitting wood !

Allan

Allan, I can fully agree with you about the time factor and how did one ever fit time to go to work. Just too many things one has to do around the home and never enough time to get them all done. But still, I believe retirement time was made just for guys like me! Love it.

I hear you on the old homes. We had 2 heaters and a wood cook stove in an uninsulated house. I still remember before we lucked out and got running water in the house that my dad was of the old school and just banked the stove at night and by morning it was really cold in the house. It was common for snow to leak in around some of the windows. But by the time I was around age 7 I was stoking up the stoves myself and I made really sure it was warm in the daytime! Fortunately, my dad did believe in burning dry wood and not that green stuff like the neighbors burned. In that way, I was taught right!

 

[Blue2ndaries]

Awesome photos Allan. Living in here in the PacNW, we see logging trucks all the time. When we had our property cleared for our house back in Jan 2007, we had 62 doug firs taken down. One of the largest trees taken out was thought to be a "second" growth tree, one generation from old growth. It was easily 4ft in dia. One of it's main branches was 14-16". We were fortunate that this was back at the the end of 2006/early 2007 and were able to sell the wood for lumber before the whole housing mess and 3 of the local mills shut down and did not take trucks. We even had 2-3 truck loads of export grade (finer logs sold for a premium) that were sent off to Japan.

Love seeing more trucks rolling these days.

 

[hobbyheater]

[quote author="Blue2ndaries" date="1322173975"]Awesome photos Allan. Living in here in the PacNW, we see logging trucks all the time. When we had our property cleared for our house back in Jan 2007, we had 62 doug firs taken down. One of the largest trees taken out was thought to be a "second" growth tree, one generation from old growth. It was easily 4ft in dia. One of it's main branches was 14-16". We were fortunate that this was back at the the end of 2006/early 2007 and were able to sell the wood for lumber before the whole housing mess and 3 of the local mills shut down and did not take trucks. We even had 2-3 truck loads of export grade (finer logs sold for a premium) that were sent off to Japan.

Love seeing more trucks rolling these days.

If have any pictures, I would love to see Them.
I have posted some more pictures in replies to " glory days of fire wood part 2"

Allan

 

[Blue2ndaries]

If have any pictures, I would love to see Them.
I have posted some more pictures in replies to " glory days of fire wood part 2"
Allan

Hi Allan, I've posted a few pics and a vid in the thread you mentioned above. Our trees were no where near the size of the monsters in your pics. Enjoy!