Bad day in the woods

[starmac]

I had to leave my old truck laying on it's side 22 miles back in the hills today, with a load of logs on her.
She is going to get cold, as I can't get any equipment in to stand her back up till saturday.

[tomme boy]

How cold are you up there? Tree jump out in front of you?

[starmac]

It isn't cold, that is part of the problem, besides the stupidity. lol
We are having spring time weather, causing the ice to get slick, in fact I should have been in a complete different area, but the warm weather had the creek running over the ice bridge, so couldn't even get in there. It was up to 35 degrees in the hills today.

[Cariboo]

That's not good to hear, hopefully not to much damage.

The warm weather plays havoc with the back roads. If it keeps up you'll be getting that slippery layer of mud covering the ice.

It was 54 degrees here today.

[starmac]

Just from the looks of it, I may be able to reload and bring the load in when we stand her back up, ofcoarse I can't see the down side. lol

[w5pv]

The main thing is that you wasn't injuried,good luck

[10x]

Any day you walk away uninjured from an accident in the woods is a good day...

[Windwalker 45acp]

I was going to say any day in the woods is a good day....... well, maybe not!

Glad you're ok. Were the logs for the mill or for you?

[lightman]

When I was working I had a saying, " A bad day in the woods beats a good day at work". I was hunting, not working. Glad you are ok.

[Outer Rondacker]

Spring like weather is screwing with guys who work in the woods all over the US. Sorry to hear the sad story. Hope you get it out ok. I myself have had some of the same issues. Ground is soft and not frozen in all places. Heavy machinery and soft/muddy spots do not mix. The lake hear is open still and all ice fishing contests have been closed down. No snow or nice means no sleds and no money coming into my small town. Loggers out of work. Was talk of even posting the roads. Kinda got off track. I hope you get your truck out and things get better for you working guys in fairbanks.

[54bore]

I am a timber faller by trade so I am fairly familiar with your dilemma, (I've seen it a few times) before I was old enuf my dad fell timber up there in Alaska for an outfit called klukwan, ever heard of them? That's been a lot of years ago! They were working mostly on islands, lab bay, shrimp bay, margarita bay, etc. dad cut a lot of giant spruce up there, lots of 8-12 foot across the stump stuff, I have a bunch of pictures here of them days. Hope all goes well with getting your truck back on her feet!

[starmac]

That would be down on the coast, your dad and them guys down there would likely call us hobby loggers here in the interior.
These are the mills logs, the mill did say I could road their skidder down there to right it, even their shovel if I had too, but it walks like 4 miles per hour. A friend had a skidder and a small loader just a couple of miles from there, but he is up the river moving a house.
Another logger friend of mine will take his rubber tired log loader down there saturday, so that is the plan now.

[Blackwater]

Glad you're OK. Those big trucks will take a LOT more than the drivers can! A guy I knew back in college was driving a truck one summer for cash to pay for his schooling, and it overturned and he was killed. They found him in the cab without a mark on him. All injuries were internal, but he died all the same. Driving those big rigs is more of an "adventure" than most realize. You guys, especially loggers, have to be REALLY sturdy folks to git-r-done! But people today don't even WANT to know about such things, so .... I guess you'll keep on a'truckin', right?

[starmac]

Got to keep on truckin, just plain too lazy to do anything else. lol

[Mtnfolk75]

Sorry to hear that Starmac, hopefully the damage is minimal & you can tell me about it over coffee in 2 weeks ..... [smilie=s:

[starmac]

LOL Sure thing on the coffee, if the damage is too much, I will have plenty of time for coffee anyway. lol

Just kidding, It doesn't look that bad, and if it was, I would be in a mad dash to get another one set up.

[runfiverun]

usually a lay down like that comes with a promotion.:lol:
glad you weren't hurt.

[Wolfer]

I never turned my log truck over. Come close a few times. I've seen the duels a foot off the ground before setting back down. Sure does make things pucker down south.
I did turn a 955 Cat loader over and a backhoe. Quite interesting to say the least.

Hope you get her back on her feet and alls well.

[TXGunNut]

Good luck tomorrow, glad you weren't hurt.

[bedbugbilly]

Hey , , , , the really important thing is that no one got hurt . . . tomorrow will be better day!

[Blackwater]

Loggers always reminded me of the Marines. There's nothing they think they can't do, and very, very little that they ACTUALLY can't do! You guys have my respect and admiration. FWIW.

[Plate plinker]

Hope you didn't grease yer backside either. Get your rig righted and back at it.

[bearcove]

Wish I was up there I'd give you a hand. Didn't know it was that warm up there. Just a little spell or has it been like that for a while?

[starmac]

The weather has been off and own, but all in all unreasonably warm for the interior, 24 below or so is the coldest it has been this year, with days pushing 30 above, even as high a few days at a time, several times. A couple of days have even hit 35 and 40.

[MaryB]

Local county road grader was pushing back the snow with his wing. One spot by my house drifts bad so he decided to push it back into the field with the front blade. It has been unseasonably warm here too and he discovered the ground is not frozen and buried it pretty bad. City guy brought down the front end loader and was able to finally get him out after breaking 3 chains. He was luck and the back was only down about 6 inches, front sank to the axle. They were in there later with a cat to push the drift back and smooth out the holes. Some broken chain parts just missed my house, I heard them ping off the tower and found them at the base. Took them over and they asked where that came from, it landed 75 feet from the grader. After that they tossed some blankets over the chains to stop flying parts.

[starmac]

Good thing they worked for the city or county, using a chain would have got them fired on most real jobs, hopefully they learned something before they kill someone.

[10x]

159502

A 4X4 parked in the bush at 56 degrees north...

[Bad Water Bill]

Should I send Girty up there to help you out?

Just glad you were able to walk away all in one piece.

[leeggen]

Starmac I take it you were not going to fast, you never mentioned anything coming through the winsheild. Anytime you walk away from a semi rollover it is a good day just a bad moment. Hope you get it out this weekend.
CD

[MaryB]

City maintenance guy is not very bright... he flushed hydrants in the middle of a snowstorm. Started at 30 degrees, 1 hour later it was 0... giant ice skating rink in the road. And he froze that hydrant and broke it.


Good thing they worked for the city or county, using a chain would have got them fired on most real jobs, hopefully they learned something before they kill someone.

[starmac]

Well we got it unloaded and stood back on it's feet this evening. Reloaded it and I brought the load to town, but it was way to late to unload.
I will be giving her a good going over, but as it stands one low beam and one cablight aren't working. Both of these are on the uphill side go figure.
The mirror bracket is toast and the turn signal on the bracket isn't working, but not broken, probably a wire.
We broke 2 of the three id lights on the trailer unloading the logs, but they still worked, again go figure.
The mirror bracket is the only thing that got bent, but the snow was mid thigh deep.
A guy couldn't get any luckier. lol

Now some more guys couldn't get any unluckier. Three guys in a late model chevy pickup came by and stopped, while I was waiting for the log loader to show up. One of them had a bull permit, so they were looking. I told them they would be meeting a log truck and a loader, so try to find a place to get out of the way. I also told them they would be blocked in for several hours after the loader got here, so they decided to turn around and go back the other direction. They started backing into the turnout I was in and the driverside wheel flipped out, sitting the pickup on the ground blocking the road. The lower ball joint had broken. I pulled them out of the road (now they are blocking the only close place the loader could turn around, but stuff happens.
I let them use my sat phone to get a tow truck (expensive) headed that way. By that time we were working on it and had the road blocked, so the towtruck had to sit there three hours or more, before he could get to them. I knew the tow truck driver, so hopefully he didn't nail them too hard.

[Mk42gunner]

Sounds like the only way you would have been luckier would have been to not tip over in the first place.

As for the guys with the broken ball joint-- I think they were pretty lucky to break down next to somebody with a working phone that far back in the bush.

Roobert

[TXGunNut]

Glad you got it back upright and running with minimal damage. Hope you don't find much more damage.

[Finster101]

Glad everything is okay. Pics would be nice every now and then. Beautiful place, just don't know if I could live there.

[Mtnfolk75]

Glad to hear the damage was minimal, I will give you a ring when we get to Fairbanks on the 10th.

[Cariboo]

Let's see; you didn't get hurt, minimal damage, about 3 days down time. Other then you flopping on your side as a wakeup call, I believe your guardian angle was busy. Good to hear there was not any serious damage.

[bearcove]

You're lucky, If you hadn't dumped her in the ditch you might have made it to the scale passed on to the mill and made money.