It was a few weeks later that it finally warmed enough for the snow to be gone so we could get back to work, with spring was just around the corner. Again it was a pleasure to watch the flying squirrels, which were again flying from tree to tree.
Roy had left me to help his brother Alvin build road, and I continued falling in a grove of spruce trees that had some of the biggest trees that I had ever seen. One old spruce measured at least eleven feet at the butt and several others were up to nine feet or more in diameter, with not a branch before a hundred feet. It was shortly after this that I fell a twelve-foot cedar the largest tree I was to ever fall.
I had just begun falling a new setting when Louis, Alvin’s partner asked me to take a break from falling and join the rigging crew under Ernie Knopp. It wasn’t long though before Ernie took off for town and I was given the remote whistle and the job of hook-tender until he returned.
It was about this time, Rollie Clarke, who was Louis nephew, left to get married. This created the need for a donkey puncher and as Louis ran the loader it seems there was no one else available to run the donkey but me. It still caught me completely by surprise when he came up to me and said, “You’re on the donkey tomorrow. I said, “No way, you have got to be kidding.”
I didn’t mind working on the rigging, but I never claimed to have run a donkey before, that’s not what I hired on for. It’s one thing to watch one being run, but it’s quite another, to actually get on one and make it happen. And Louis looked me straight in the eye and said, “You’re the man, starting tomorrow you’re on.” My heart went through my mouth and I got somewhat weak in the knees.
Tomorrow turned out to be a Friday, it should have been Friday the thirteenth for what was about to happen was tailor made for that day.
I had barely been on the donkey for three hours when the disaster of my life happened.
I had been around donkeys (that is the logging variety, the ones that require diesel or gasoline) all of my life, so I knew that to do it right you had to (1), haul the butt rigging and chokers out to precisely where the chocker man was so he could hook on the next log, and (2), do it smoothly no bouncing of the rigging along the way.
The throttle was wide open, the haul back drum was winding in at maximum speed, as it pulled the butt rigging with the chokers out through the bush at warp speed, I was tensely waiting for the horn to sound so I could stop the whole she-bang right on target.
The horn sounded, my right foot slammed on the mainline break, my right hand threw the haul-back friction leaver to off, while my left hand jerked the throttle to idle, my left foot dogged the haul-back break, but nothing happened and the drum began to slowly unwind from the thousands of pounds put on it by the weight of the mainline with its heavy butt rigging and chokers.
In a matter of moments the drum was unwinding at blinding speed as the break band had broken. As I was new to the job it did not occur to me to throw the friction lever and essentially stop the drum from spinning. Literally seconds later the drum had unspooled to the point that one of the many loops went into the turning gears and jammed the drum to a sudden stop.
In the meantime my face had blanched in fear as loose cable was flying everywhere. I didn’t breathe easy until after it got in the gears. But what now? My short career as a donkey puncher was obviously in jeopardy as my perceived lack of discernment had obviously compromised the whole operation. Louis however did not say a word but he and the crew immediately went to work and for the rest of the day proceeded to undo the mess.
Five hours later the $3000 haul back cable was all unwound so it could be spliced back together and wound back onto its drum ready for work Monday morning. When I suggested to Louis that maybe he should find another donkey puncher he response was, “Now you have to prove yourself.” And that was the end of the discussion.
The break band broke at least two more times that spring and as they say once a lesson is well learned there is no fear of a screw up the second time.
I had been around donkeys (that is the logging variety, the ones that require diesel or gasoline) all of my life, so I knew that to do it right you had to (1), haul the butt rigging and chokers out to precisely where the chocker man was so he could hook on the next log, and (2), do it smoothly no bouncing of the rigging along the way.
The throttle was wide open, the haul back drum was winding in at maximum speed, as it pulled the butt rigging with the chokers out through the bush at warp speed, I was tensely waiting for the horn to sound so I could stop the whole she-bang right on target.
The horn sounded, my right foot slammed on the mainline break, my right hand threw the haul-back friction leaver to off, while my left hand jerked the throttle to idle, my left foot dogged the haul-back break, but nothing happened and the drum began to slowly unwind from the thousands of pounds put on it by the weight of the mainline with its heavy butt rigging and chokers.
In a matter of moments the drum was unwinding at blinding speed as the break band had broken. As I was new to the job it did not occur to me to throw the friction lever and essentially stop the drum from spinning. Literally seconds later the drum had unspooled to the point that one of the many loops went into the turning gears and jammed the drum to a sudden stop.
In the meantime my face had blanched in fear as loose cable was flying everywhere. I didn’t breathe easy until after it got in the gears. But what now? My short career as a donkey puncher was obviously in jeopardy as my perceived lack of discernment had obviously compromised the whole operation. Louis however did not say a word but he and the crew immediately went to work and for the rest of the day proceeded to undo the mess.
Five hours later the $3000 haul back cable was all unwound so it could be spliced back together and wound back onto its drum ready for work Monday morning. When I suggested to Louis that maybe he should find another donkey puncher he response was, “Now you have to prove yourself.” And that was the end of the discussion.
The break band broke at least two more times that spring and as they say once a lesson is well learned there is no fear of a screw up the second time.
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