Mike Pearson's Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot

This year, two of my friends have lost sons in forest industry accidents. I'm going to a service tomorrow for the latest one. Two terrible accidents at two excellent companies. Two young men's lives lost at work.  My dad was a logger and loggers were always at the house or out in the yard. Logging stories and lore filled the air to mix with cigarette smoke and chain saw exhaust. Dirty trucks full of tools, oil and choker cables were the norm. Tables full of booze, full ashtrays and playing cards were  standard issue in every house we visited. My dad, Ken Pearson after a days work as a tree faller The entire Jackson Bros falling crew   on the back of the photo signed " Dis was loggin'    Da boys of 86" Might as well say"Butch Cassidy and the Hole in the Wall Gang" Jorn Skytte, Paul Tingley , Ken Pearson , Tom Hemstalk , Owen Edmonds , Doug Wooten , Neil Mulligan, and Boney Wellburn Loggers at the gate, Bob Edwardson, my dad and bull- b...

There was rarely a time in my life when there wasn't a pick-up truck close by. My dad always had one for work, in addition to the family car. My first licensed vehicle was a 53 Ford pick-up with a flat head V-8 and a transmission that required double clutching. That was Johnny Ritchies old truck that I got for 75 bucks...cash of course, no payments. That would be around 1976 or so. Me in front of dad's old Chevy truck...on a Christmas tree hunting expedition...up on the Jackson Bros logging road in the early to mid 60's. Dad ( Ken Pearson ) digging out the Chevy. This is our old house on the corner of Whitaker and Davis Bay road. This is what dad used the pick-up for mostly. In the winters when logging was shut down, he went back shake cutting. ( cedar shakes for house roofs ) This involved getting a permit to harvest dead and down red cedar logs. They were cut with a chainsaw into 24 inch long blocks ( shake blocks...left hand side of the photo ) The shake block...