Mike Pearson's Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot

Logging skidders are/were a corner stone of small and medium sized logging operations. These machines lift one end of the log ( or logs ) and drag the prize down the hill, through the trail, over the rocks and stumps, through the mud...to a log landing. Hence the term "skidding"..because the back end of the load is dragging on the ground. The load is called a "turn"...as in "I'm going back for another turn" ...or.."how many turns did you get today?" When you drive a skidder, it's called "running"...as in "I have been running the skidder all week" Skidders can be on rubber tires, or on tracks. You can skid logs with a cat and arch, you can have a cat with a log grapple to skid logs. Rubber tired skidders can be equipped with just a winch and steel cable, or have a hydraulic grapple to organize and grasp the load...plus a winch and cable. The old style skidders with the winch and cable are a much more physical bea...

Logging just wouldn't get done without the venerable pick up truck. Everyone would still be standing down at the beach, the shop, the landing...waiting for something to happen. People need to move Fuel and parts need to travel Stuck trucks need pulling Wrenches, oil cans and grease guns need some place to be. In this day of high powered diesel engined pick ups, and plush interiors  Many guys would love to have an old 300 inch straight six, four on the floor and a posi rear...hand crank windows, maybe even a sliding rear window if you were gonna go uptown. Any good west coaster guy knows that a "crummy" is a truck, bus or van for hauling the crew up into the mountains. I think that once you get past two loggers sitting side by each, and it's a truck...it can be defined as a crummy. The dictionary hasn't caught up with that idea yet. It says that the word crummy means... Miserable, wretched, shabby and cheap Inferior, unwell, depressed Contemptible, pis...

Iron ore dug out of the earth Sifted and separated Melted and mixed Heated into glowing liquid Moulded, squeezed and shaped Into Cat bulldozers and Kenworth trucks Into grapples and steel cable Into tugboats and shackles Into wrenches and fuel barrels Because the loggers are crying out for more For faster, for bigger For stronger, for lighter For more speed and more toughness Because this is not last year This is now The old gear goes to auction Passed down the line To the hopefuls at the bottom rung Looking, praying, betting To climb higher Laying it all on the line To log the high hills When the motor blows one final time When the tracks won't tighten anymore When the parts are too hard to find When the you are welding on top of welding When the steel frame has gone soft Yesterdays dreams get parked and forgotten Parts get pilfered, engines pulled Spare transmissions and diffs on the ground The machines sag back to the earth The trees grow up t...