(Click on photos to
enlarge)
The logging business is not your typical all
hearts and flowers type of work.
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Not everything is frozen over completely in the
first week of December.
Starting off first thing in the morning, they have
to retrieve a grader that crashed through the ice while building the
winter work road, the night before. |
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(Lower Left Photo) You can see
where a tire was torn away from the rim during the removal process.
(Lower Centre Photo) Shows where logs are placed to
give the D7E Cat floatation, and prevent crashing through the ice, while the
(lower Right Photo) 518 Skidder helps drag the
grader out. They then loaded the grader onto a float and got it back to the
shop, where it took 2 days thawing out, and then draining the oils and pulling
the starter off to clear any damaging water accumulation.
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(Left Photo) Waiting
on float to pick up the retrieved grader and return it to the service
shop.
(Right Photo) Winter
road up the Cameron Hills to the harvesting site. |
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(Above Photos) Loading the trucks with a 950B. They have 2 trucks to haul
logs with, both are Kenworth's. One is a 5 axel rig and the other is a 7 axel
setup. Mat's truck is the blue one and his dad drives the one just down the
hill. (Lower Right Photo). In the same photo Mat's 86 year old grandfather still
works the job site. (He is the one standing in the landing). He makes all the landings
and roads on the harvest blocks.
This group of
photos are of the Buncher at work falling trees. In the
meantime Mat (Lower Right Photo)
is dragging the trees with his skidder to the landing
for stockpiling and loading.
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Mat's brother Shannon falls the trees. In the beginning he did it
all by hand, but recently acquired a 3 wheeled MOBARK FELLER/BUNCHER which makes
the job go faster. Even with the new BUNCHER, there are places where the trees
are too big and the ground too high up in the hills to
safely use the modern harvester. The trees in this area
still have to be felled by hand, and then dragged out
with the skidder. Mat skids logs until 4:00 pm and then heads home with his
load. |
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A move to higher ground Shannon selects
and cuts larger trees by hand while Mat
drags them off to the stock pile. |
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The 2 trucks are loaded and parked first, and then the rest of the
day is Shannon cutting, while Mat is collecting and stockpiling. |
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The
(Lower Left Photo) is of the stockpile that took 3 days to accumulate.
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(Left Photo)
Heading home out of the bush at marker km 28. Maximum
speed on these roads are 50
kilometers per hour (30 mph). This is no place for
turnpike driving.
(Right Photo)
Beacons are on for oversize loads on all NWT highways.
It's been a long day on the
job. Do it all over again tomorrow. |
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(Left Photo) The Peterbuilt
is owned by a good friend of Mat's who hauls gravel and/or freight where ever he
can. Mat did the paint job for him to support his addiction to old cars and
trucks, like the Marmon Ford in the (Right Photo).
Mat painted the Ford and then sold it to a good friend that owns the Blue
Diamond Enterprises Ltd. The more talents and flexibility that one has, makes
surviving in the Canadian far North much easier.
GO TO PAGE 2 OF MATTHEW PATTERSON'S LIFE IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES.
