RE: Why Logging!
Well, I’d always been a sort-of-independent soul. So, when I graduated from high school with less then the best grades and a SAT score that would allow me Sacramento State or Fresno State, and on a middle son’s budget, options are: Junior College or Junior College.
When you grow up in Palo Alto, California you’re expected to go to college. There was no way that I was going to stay home to attend a high school with ashtrays! Bye-Bye Foothill JC!
Having had a wonderful time in Idaho with a GS5 Forest Service fellow cleaning camp grounds and such on family visits to the family’s vacation ranch, the decision was easy. Especially after riding around in a green pickup with government plates and visiting with folks on vacation, it seemed just a great job, even if you have too; empty trash, wipe tables, police the area for litter, clean outhouses, cut firewood and such.
At that time, Lassen Junior College was the only outfit in California offering a TECH-Forestry degree. So, I transferred.
Eventually, after graduation, not in the forestry field, I found myself in the forest cutting firewood. And this was my introduction to railroad logging, when I found rail grades in the woods!
About ten years later, with a good job in hand (house payment was about 16 % of my monthly income); I decided it was time for a hobby (mostly the rich and some upper middle class folks have time and money for a hobby). Always enjoyed the forest, the same with history, and my love of railroads had always been there too.
So, that is why I enjoy logging history. Maybe, I’ll get back to modeling, which I enjoy too!
The “Wet Side” and “Coast of California (Redwoods)” is interesting, but alas I’m a “dry side” guy, just a pine logger at heart enjoying the mountain weather shadow, east of the Cascades and Sierra!
Jimmy “B”