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Friday 22 January 2010

Man Of The Woods

The sound of the spade breaking through the earth, then pulling a young tree from your planting bag pushing it into its new place in the earth press it in with your heel .Watching it grow tending to its needs.It will give shelter to Birds ,Animals,and Insects.Left to grow in years it will become a home for someone in need.I have always loved my profession .
Even on the worst days when there's wild weather and things are going wrong there is always something that makes it worthwhile. The light through the clouds, a hawk soaring on a thermal.When I was younger I had no real qualifications and I was fortunate to get a job as a trainee sawyer and worked with good Men who taught me well, they were hard on me but I stuck with it. And served my time with them then my feet began to itch.The grass is greener, then I applied for a job where I could try a lot of things that would give me greater understanding of Forestry. What trees to plant in certain ground, planting shelter belts for protection,Drainage, where to put in landings and access,vermin control and lots and lots of weeding trees .Then thinning woodland out to give better quality timber more light. We worked on clear-fells and selection felling. I milled some of the best European Larch Ive ever seen while I worked there.I also became their tree climber .We built bridges ,erected lots of different kinds of fencing.I worked there for three years. Then I was asked if wanted to work at Timber Engineering plant it sounded ok so I tried this and learned about stress grading and we made some amazing structures out of timber .And then I went back to the start and now run the sawmill where I was trained .You have to try new things, and the things that you learn along the way are all useful .The best thing to learn can be adapted for any job. Is that good preparation will give a better end product.I would still do it all again :)Brian(:

4 comments:

  1. Hi Brian, nice to meet you!
    wonderful writing, wonderful life you have.
    My husband, a sourdough Yukoner, is a Scott from Darlington. I understand you are from the Edinburgh area. Exactly 30 years ago, i was there. It's nice to see it again and it is how i remembered.

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  2. Hi Jozien thanks for looking in ,yes Linlithgow is around 25 miles from Edinburgh its a small world :)Brian(:

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  3. The Wood and all it entails...is an amazing adventure. Climbing trees has it's own skills. We remember Bryan climbing a 100 foot skimmy jack pine after a neigbours house cat that was at the 60 foot level. (been there 5 days) Bryan used a climbing belt and spurs. He put the cat on his back and it clung on. He had to throw the climbing belt down because if he started to spiral he would land on his head.

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  4. I consider myself fortunate that I enjoy my job.I know other's that hate their jobs and are stuck in a rut.I bet that cat held on tight :)Brian(:

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