Cutting bushel is hard!

[gf beranek]

It's the bane of the busheler. When you get paid for how much you produce (board feet) your mindset is a whole lot different than getting paid by the hour or day wage.

The busheler mindset can bring out the absolute worst in some people. That's why policies are set to limit fallers to cutting only marked trees. But even so sometimes you just got to cut an unmarked tree out the way. Or get killed trying work around it.

On the other hand. If you are familiar with the forester, and in good standing with them, they'll give you cart-blanch to cut the trees as you feel. But it takes a long time to gain that kind of trust.

 

[MatthewMMeckley]

I always try to take the high road and strive to do all things right. I’ve only traded trees if it’s got me so messed up I have no other choice or that forester was so stoned that they gave me an impossible task. I’ve been trading for equal size or a bit smaller so I didn’t seem like I’m just cutting for more scale.

 

[gf beranek]

Same here, Matt. I strive to do top end work. But sometimes, bad strips back to back, it just don't pay.

My friend Andy Dockham once said, "If the logger isn't complaining about your work then you're doing to good of a job."

In which case you "Test the waters" to see what you can get away with. Less limbing, leaving tops...

When you cross the threshold where the logger starts complaining then start doing a little better job, but not that much better.

It's a delicate balance point. Always different with every logger.

 

[WoodCutr]

im late to the party, but my understanding of cutting bushel would be how NorCalTimberFaller cuts if im not mistaken
every tree he drops he has to measure it, grade it and write it down in a notebook and turn it in at the end of they day/week

im guessing the grade comes from the usable timber, knots, bow/twist, cracks rot and hinge tear?
no clue the actual numbers but im gonna make an example

"grade A" being $1/board foot
"grade B" Being 50C/board foot, etc
so a 500 board foot Grade A tree is worth $500, grade B would be $250? (again, terrible example and I doubt they are being paid $500 per tree)

maybe Beranek has something to say about it?

 

[gf beranek]

Sometimes the Busheler has sorts. That is a strip may have multiple species, and bucking instructions may be different for each species according to their size / diameter and quality.

Sorts can be confusing and slow down a fallers production, but generally the rate of pay is the same for all.

That's how it works sometimes. It all depends on the logger, forester, mill and landowner.

 

[WoodCutr]

seems a very complicated way to me but saves labor on the landing?
why not either A: use a buncher and skidder combo to get whole trees to the landing and process there with equipment to help
or B: hand fall and yard whole trees with a skyline?

I know a buncher cant handle working on super steep ground or over stumps like a person can, and a person is probably cheaper at the end of the year but risk vs reward must be outrageous?

I do suppose its easier to be precise and lower impact on the land with hand fallers

 

[gf beranek]

On good ground you can mechanize the operations, totally.

Most of the ground where I live is too steep for that.

In small timber / steep ground; yarder log tree lengths and process on the landing.

Big trees / steep ground: you got to buck.

 

[WoodCutr]

On good ground you can mechanize the operations, totally.

Most of the ground where I live is too steep for that.

In small timber / steep ground; yarder log tree lengths and process on the landing.

Big trees / steep ground: you got to buck.

ok, cleared it up perfectly for me, thanks!

 

[Husky D]

Not sure I fully understand what’s being talked about here. But a fascinating read anyway.

What we would call Piece work in the UK Mick.

 

[cory]

Its called piece work in Maine, too, among other places I presume.

 

[gf beranek]

In the early 1960s I was picking prunes by the lug, and peaches and apples by the bin. On a good day, from sun up to sun down, I could make $20, but averaged more like $12 to $15. By the end of the season I could save up a few hundred dollars and buy a new set of school clothes. Levi's cost $5 dollars.

Though my mother would take most of my earnings. Saying that I owed it to her for all the grief I caused growing up. So naturally I started finding ways of hiding my earnings.

Growing up in 1960s.

 

[lxskllr]

Hard work for ~$1.50 an hour.

 

[stig]

We don't have prunes or Peaches here, but I was hoeing sugar beets.
Hard to believe it wasn't longer ago, that stuff like that was done by hand.

 

[gf beranek]

I worked right along side Mexican families. Their kids, ages 2 years and up, were picking, too. Every prune counted.

Farm labor was good summer work for kids. Yeah, today almost all of it is mechanized.

In 1972 and 73, while schooling at S.R.J.C., I was pruning grapes (cane-pruning) and making about $10 hr. Sun up to sun down. That was pretty good pay at the time.

Cane pruning is a skill. One, for the thought processes involved, I don't believe could ever be mechanized.

 

[Cobleskill]

I picked cherries by the lug and drop apples by the tote. 25 cents a bushel. I could make 5$ an hour for 3 hours, then my back said no more. Always was going to make $20 but by the time I got to 15 could do no more. Still good money in the mid 60's. Money was not easy to come by.

 

[gf beranek]

Good to hear other stories. Worlds apart we may be, but it's still the same everywhere, bushel work is hard.

 

[lxskllr]

I only did something like that once. I picked up the corn the machine missed on my uncle's farm. I got 25¢/bushel. Kicked my ass. I don't remember how money it was in the end, but it wasn't much. The real prize was being in a corn field on a cool fall day. Also, I didn't *have* to do it. Optional work is always better than mandatory work.

 

[Cobleskill]

I forgot picking up corn like that. One of the few jobs at home on the farm we got money for. 25 cents it was for us also. The only other paying job I remember at home was clipping cows flanks and udders in the fall/early winter. Milk inspector required it. 50 cents a cow. Not a fun job but money made me like it. Some cows were assholes.

 

[Mrs.B]

I would be an asshole, too, if you were clipping my udders! What does that even mean?

 

[Cobleskill]

They get a winter coat where the hair is longer and fuzzier. Just give them a hair cut so hair doesn't end up in the milk.

 

[Bermy]

Big industry in traveling in Australia to pick all kinds of crops. Lots of pickers are 'backpackers', young folks on a working visa traveling around the country and harvesting crops along the way.
Recently, pickers were given a $25 per hr minimum wage.

 

[stig]

I've done that in New Zealand.
Followed the crops.
Strawberries, apricots and apples.
Apricots paid real well for a fast picker.

 

[Mick!]

Picking tomatoes and other stuff in Israel for very little money, blazing heat and horrible accommodation. 7 days a week, dusk till dawn, then sorting and packing once the sun went down.

 

[stig]

Done that, too.
Except it was Grapefruit.

 

[Eric H-L]

That crop picking sounds brutal! How does it compare (length of workday, physical demands, pain, discomfort) to your tree work, Mick? Logging Stig?