WEBVTT - Ep. 420: American Loggers - Part 1 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:05.279 We still cut trees down by hand. We still handcut. 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:06.600 It's still work. 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:10.879 But I mean what we do now it ain't nothing 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:12.560 like what it used to be. 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:16.200 If you think about the industries that made America, it 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:19.279 would be hard to argue that the login industry wasn't 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:23.760 among the most influential in making this country. Wood built 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:27.840 this place. This episode is a fresh look at some 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.360 modern loggers friends of mine, as a matter of fact, 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:36.159 good friends. This is a story about the inherent danger 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:40.520 in the login profession. These guys share their own experiences, 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.960 but they'll share accounts of others they knew who were 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:48.640 killed on the job. This is a biographical piece on 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:53.840 one family of loggers in the Ozarks of Newton County, Arkansas, 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:59.120 with the last name the Lines and Hey Bear, John 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:03.080 Nukom and I are starting a new Bear Grease YouTube channel. 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:05.480 As a matter of fact, it's the old Bear Hunting 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:09.160 magazine YouTube channel. We just changed the name and we're 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:12.200 having some completely new content. We're gonna have a weekly 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:16.320 content on there, and the first piece drops on February 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.280 the eleventh. You can do us a huge favor by 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:20.720 going over and checking it out. 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:22.440 Gonna be a ton of fun. 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.080 My name is Clay Nukeom and this is the Bear 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:36.959 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:40.520 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:44.240 story of Americans who live their lives close to the land. 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.840 Brought to you by to COVID's Quality boots in Western Wear, 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:53.559 point your toes West. 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:04.880 Have you ever been hurt bad logging? 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:06.800 I have none. 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.919 I broke my foot. I've been hung up a time 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:14.880 or two, got my arm hung and hung up. Yeah, 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.120 I got one. I got my arm stuck one time. 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:21.639 This is Cody Velines, and don't be fooled by him 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:23.360 saying he's never been hurt bad. 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:26.600 His definition of hurt is different than most. 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.359 He's got a full salt and pepper beard, and it's 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:33.600 kind of wild eyed. When you first meet him, you 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:37.240 can't tell if he's a little crazy or just really smart. 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:41.080 After getting to know him, I think he's both. We're 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:47.120 standing inside the global headquarters of the Vilins Logging Company. 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:50.359 I want to hear what he meant by getting hung up. 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:53.679 Me and Dad and Frankiedale were logging. And you don't 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.360 know Frankidale. But if you even say you ain't had 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:58.639 to say Frankie Dale around here. You can just say 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.160 frank and every I didn't know what who you're talking about. 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:03.880 But I worked with him. I worked with him for 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:04.480 several years. 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:08.480 And he were skitting logs way up out of there. 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.800 It's like two inches down, and that was hot. And 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:14.200 I'd been skinning. He was cutting, and I'd been skinning, 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.079 and he said, if you'll buck those logs up, I'll 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:19.919 give you a break on skarting them up out of there. 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:21.720 I said, sounded like a deal to me. 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:25.040 So Frank with the skinning, and I was cutting up 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.720 logs by hand, and we had a stick that was like. 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:32.560 Some people would cut a stick for four and some people. 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:34.239 Would have a major stick that was a full eight eight, 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:36.880 which is what TI logs are supposed to be. 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:38.680 We had a stick that was for four. 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:42.280 And I was cutting up logs and I dropped my 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:45.960 stick down in the log pile. And at this time, I'm, 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:49.280 you know, early twenties, from the middle twenties. You know, 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:50.840 I've been doing it for a long time. But then 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:53.640 and I wrench you in there to grab my stick, 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:56.640 and when I stuck my arm down in there, the 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:00.560 log above rolled and faced me. And it was a 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.720 big log, a big one, big old red oak, and 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:07.320 there I was stuck. And it's hot summertime. Now I 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.520 can't even move it by yourself and by myself. Dad's 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:12.560 gone with a load of logs, and Frank's in the 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.039 botto in this canyon coming back with another dragon logs. Well, 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:20.560 I can hear him one old five eighteen caterpillar just pulling, pulling, 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.840 slowly pulling, coming up out of that canyon. And it's 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:28.360 starting to hurt. I mean, it's really hurting. And I 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:30.320 can hear Frank coming up to there. And I finally 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:32.600 get to where I can see him, and he's coming 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:34.440 up through there. And Frank smoked in He smoked the 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:38.440 more USA golds. That's where he smoked. I can see 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:40.240 Frank on that skin he's smoking that. 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:41.760 Cigarette he loved. 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:44.920 Over there where I was at. He just stopped got 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.800 off here. It come just in a walk. He walked 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:48.120 up there. 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:49.680 He's still smoking that cigarette. 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:52.040 He says, boy, you're in a trap, ain't you. 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.520 I said, get me out of here. He never got excited, 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:58.960 walked back over into the skinny. Then come over there, 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.160 and I'm thinking he's gonna tear my arm off when 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.960 he starts pushing on this log file. He's up there, 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:10.200 and he he got me out. 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:13.640 Running around with these guys. 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.960 I've noticed that stories kind of gathered themselves up around them, 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:22.080 stories about people. We're gonna hear more about this Frankie 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.680 Dell later. And these guys are really good at telling 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.839 these stories. And each one carries a value system that 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:32.560 stands out to me as unique in modern times. 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:36.279 That's mainly why I'm here along with Cody. 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:41.599 Actually right beside us is his slightly younger cousin, younger 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:47.000 by six months, Kaylin Vilines. We've now moved outside of 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:51.000 their main building. It's a little windy, but the view 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:56.920 is noteworthy. So Kaylan from we're standing right here and 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:01.320 we can see like about one hundred and eighty degrees vista. 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.680 Have you logged with insight of here? I mean we 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:06.719 can see like miles. 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:12.920 Oh, absolutely, any direction you look, pretty much. I've I've logged, 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:17.040 maybe not all of it, but any direction you can 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:17.560 look from here. 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:18.960 We've definitely worked. 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:20.479 What your dad used to tell you. 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:22.800 Oh, dad used to say when I was a kid, we'd 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.160 stand right here and he'd say, Son, anywhere you can 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:28.560 see I've been he's either working or hunting, and I 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:30.440 can pretty much say the same thing. 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:30.720 Now. 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:33.880 What I hadn't told you yet is these guys are 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:38.159 also really good hunters. They're deer hunters, they're squirrel dog men, 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:42.240 they're coon hunters. They've all got mules, they're just woodsmen. 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.320 You rarely see Kaylin without a cup of coffee in 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.680 his hand, day or night. And he's always got on 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:53.039 his light tan felt cowboy hat. That's warning so good 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:56.440 you think he probably sleeps in it. But the lines 0:06:56.520 --> 0:07:01.120 logging main facility is impressive. It's a fifty foot wide, 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.720 three sided metal barn with a semi truck, a John 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:08.120 Deere dozer, and a skidder and loader parked underneath it. 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:12.640 There's no indoor office, no secretaries or printers. As a 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.760 matter of fact, the parking lot is a pasture. The 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:20.520 only employees are Cody Kaylin and Teddy Viliines, Cody's dad. 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:23.680 The open side of the barn faces one hundred and 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:27.240 eighty degree view of purplish hills that look like a 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:31.760 rolling sea where giant waves rise out of deep troughs. 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:35.680 To me, it's the location of this fine building that 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:39.520 makes it stand out. It's its orientation to the sunrise 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.560 and how its open design gives one the feeling of 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:46.520 freedom even while inside, which leads me to think that 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:50.600 this building's designers must have been educated in America's finest 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:57.000 halls of architecture. It's inspiring yet functional, but all you 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.840 can see in any direction is trees. That's what the 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.520 land has given this family, and that's what they've used 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:05.680 to make a living. 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:10.120 So what kind of saw is that? 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:10.880 It? 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:11.000 Is? 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.360 A steal? A five hundred die? 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:15.720 And how long will this saw? 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:16.080 Last? 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:16.320 Year? 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:17.120 Oh? 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:19.320 I usually if I can get a year out of one, 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:20.480 I've done pretty good. 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.800 Kaylin and Cody have been raised within sight of each 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:34.400 other and have worked together their entire lives. As a 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.760 matter of fact, their dads, who are brothers, Eddie and Teddy, 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.400 also live within a quarter mile of where we're standing 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:46.160 and have also worked together their entire lives in the logwoods. 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.280 Question of the ages for both of you, there's a 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.000 lot of things y'all can do to make a living. 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:54.240 Why are you a logger? 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:55.000 Like? 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:56.760 What are the benefits of it? 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:57.120 For me? 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:00.760 The biggest benefit, I mean number one. 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:03.960 If you're gonna do it, you gotta you gotta love it, 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.200 you gotta want to do it. And for the most 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:10.360 part around here, the guys that do it are boring 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.600 into it. Honestly. I mean, if you really look around, 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.680 it's a family deal. But the as benefits from me, 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:18.199 the freedom. 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:20.880 That's the number one reason, your own boss. 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:24.120 That's why I do it. Yep, yep, that's a benefit. 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:26.839 I mean, I like it. I enjoy it. Cutting timber 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:31.680 it's addictive. It's like a drug. Cutting timber is addictive. 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:37.360 Ask anybody, it's addictive. But the biggest benefit to the whole, 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:39.600 biggest scheme of it is the freedom. 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:41.600 What's that freedom look like for you? 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:42.080 When you wake up? 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.720 If I want to go hunting tomorrow, then I go 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:46.600 hunting tomorrow. 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:48.559 I don't have to call the boss. 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:51.880 I just say, all right, boys, we're going hunting to morrow. 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:52.800 And we're going hunting tomorrow. 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:54.840 Yeah, what about you, Kaylen? 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:55.920 Yeah, I was going. 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:58.880 He took the words in my mouth. That's Dad always said, 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.760 Well I was born into it. Yeah, well we're Yeah, 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:04.160 we were born into it. Though Dad tried to talk 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:06.880 me out of all my life. 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:09.440 Yeah yeah, but it was but it was his fault. 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:11.240 Got to talk you out of it still made you 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:11.680 get them go. 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:14.800 Yeah, they made us get up and go. And people 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.839 think we're exaggerating line, but we were probably eight nine 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:20.720 year old when we started going. Yeah, we didn't have 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.199 a summer vacation. We went to logwoods. 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:25.840 I started the seventh grade with my foot in the 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:29.640 walking boot. Dad and ed aunt know who had what, 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.040 but I think Dad had a McCollough. Dad had a 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.480 seven hundred McCollough. That aady had an Xcel twelve home lot. 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:37.960 And they let us use those chain saws. 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:40.559 Now, they made us use it when. 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:42.400 We were like, you know, fifth sixth grade. 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:46.079 In the summer between the sixth and seventh grade, they 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.760 bought us to brand spanking News, still old twenty sixes, 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.080 and we started bucking up logged by hand. And I 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.840 got my foot broke in the bucket ball and I 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:58.120 started the seventh grade on my foot in the walking boot. 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:00.760 The first day of school, I had a brand spanking 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:04.599 new teacher, and she came from eastern Arkansas. Really what 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.240 it did, and then the whole lot about this way 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.160 of life around here, and. 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:10.960 She said what do you do to your foot? 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:12.839 And I said, I was cutting up logs and I 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:14.960 got one on my foot and I broke it, and 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:17.120 she said, we mean cutting up logs. 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:19.200 I said, I was cutting up logs with a chainsaw 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:20.040 and she. 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:25.240 Said, you were running the chainsaw and I said, yeah, yeah, I. 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.800 Was working in the woods. The rest of the teachers 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:29.760 around there really wasn't that big of a deal. 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:31.920 I mean, but they just blew her mind. 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:32.160 You know. 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.920 Cody points at a bulldozer and starts telling me what 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:37.000 they've been doing today. 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:42.040 See that odd right there? Yeah right here, yep, that's new. 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:43.720 Now that's new. 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.240 So this is your dozer that you carry all over 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:47.839 the place for cutting roads. 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.240 Now it is. Yeah, he bought this. He bought this 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:51.200 though last year. 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:55.960 So the reason tell me why a logger has a dozer. 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.599 Well, we didn't for years, and we've done all of 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.839 the road pushing with them skidter, and we've got a 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:07.199 little nicer equipment. Now this dozer makes it a whole 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:10.520 lot better getting a good road in and making good 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:13.199 bed in there your landing spot for your logs. 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:15.760 So you may you may have to cut logs in 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:18.640 a spot way back in somewhere. 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.280 Oh absolutely, and you just got to get. 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:22.640 A road in there to get your trucks in there, right, 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:23.400 so you need a dozen. 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:27.880 So how much of logging is taking care of your equipment? 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.760 Because it's like you didn't work today, but you did work. 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:32.840 You didn't work, you didn't cut any trees today. 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:36.640 We didn't make any money today. We had to work today. Yeah, 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:38.240 you have to maintain your equipment. 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:40.480 I'll tell you about this truck over. 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.240 Well, let the boss tell you by the truck he drives. 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:43.600 A truck. 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:45.559 Cody can tell you about your truck. 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:52.880 That twenty one twenty twenty one International HX five twenty 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:54.000 is what that is on. 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.560 The logs that you're hauling shorter, So it's a How 0:12:57.559 --> 0:12:59.920 would you describe that? I mean, it's not like a 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.520 like a semis truck you'd see drive down the road car. 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.760 It's not a trailer truck. Like how big is that 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:06.480 that bed there? 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:09.280 I can't tell you the exact mamage much, but I 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.760 can haul two monks of ten of ten and a 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:14.839 half footers, you know. 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:18.640 You know ya, you're in the business of the shorter. 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:19.440 Ten and a half. 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:22.959 Ten and a half is a is a Well I 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:25.240 say that, look got some of their twenty one foot 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:27.480 and you can carry on that truck twenty one foot 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:30.160 will go on that and then my trailer, my pump 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:33.200 trailer that hook behind it. It's also a double bump. 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.480 I'm just not a I'm not a traditional tractor with 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:41.000 a trailer behind it. You can get around butter, you 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.280 can get in and out, but it rigged up like this, 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.080 then you can with a trailer truck. But this is 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:48.400 just the way we've always done it. 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.480 What what what's the necessary equipment for what you do? 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:55.120 You need a dozer, you need a truck, you need 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:57.880 a skitter, and you need kaalin to cut trees. 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:03.520 That's what we have in all honesty around here. You 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.600 can you can make a living with a skitter period, 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:07.600 just a skiitter. 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.800 How there's enough Okalon, you mean you're gonna get rid 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:11.240 of kalin? 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:15.719 I mean equipment wise, equipment wise, just equipment wise, you 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:16.199 can get by. 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:18.160 It'd be really cool if you fired him on as 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:19.440 you can. 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.480 Get by with just a skinner, because there's enough guys 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:24.120 around here that have what we call picker trucks. 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.200 Would you say that you guys are doing with newer 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:32.040 technology but kind of doing the same style of logging 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.040 that your dad and grandpa did. 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:39.280 Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, same thing, just more modernized. 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:41.520 You're cutting the same kind of trees and. 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.160 Cutting the same yes, cut the same kind of trees, everything, 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:47.840 the same kind of ground, same places. We we have 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:51.800 been same tracks of timber that our ancestors cut on. 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.360 So you've you've you guys are have cut tracks of 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.040 timber that your dad and grandpa cut and the trees 0:14:58.080 --> 0:14:58.680 have regrown. 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:00.520 I can take you to one track the timber that 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.400 I've been on twice in my life, and I'm forty two. 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:07.560 You might be surprised to learn that the vlines that 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:12.480 practiced select cut logging since the beginning, they don't like clearcutting. 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:15.600 And these guys have a land ethic and an. 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:20.320 Appreciation for trees that the average person will never understand. 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:25.440 They've witnessed the resilience of natural systems when well managed, 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:29.720 and they've seen how families use timber for generational financial 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:33.360 input like cashing out of four one k. I once 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.320 heard an Ozark farmer say he's seen the same stand 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:40.560 of timber put multiple generations of kids through college. And 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:44.400 as we know as wildlife managers, select cutting timber can 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:48.560 be incredible for wildlife To put this login into a 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:52.800 wider context. The early nineteen hundreds mark the peak of 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:58.040 America's wooden age, when the demand for lumber exploded alongside 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:03.400 rapid population growth. By nineteen ten, annual consumption of wood 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:08.240 peaked at roughly thirty eight billion board feet, and wood was, 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:13.680 as historian Kennis Smith wrote, second only to food as 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:15.720 a basic life supporting commodity. 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:18.000 It was used for nearly everything. 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:23.320 Wood made all the buildings, railroads, tools, wagons, the frames 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:27.880 of cars, even and even iron ore production, which relied 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:34.040 on charcoal to fuel smelters. Around this peak, deforestation spread, 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.320 and that's what we hear about the negative things about logging. 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.760 But this is when Americans began to reckon with the 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.920 cost of unchecked extraction, and the counter movement rooted in 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:49.800 conservation slowly took hold. In nineteen oh five, Gifford Pinchot 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:53.320 became the head of the newly formed Forest Service, and 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:57.640 he brought these European ideas of sustainable forestry to the 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:00.960 United States and he helped usher in a new philosophy 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:04.600 of managed forests with the idea. 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:05.639 Of sustainable yield. 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:10.240 And since that time, the American forestry industry has revolved 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:14.760 around regrowth and sustainability. Cody and Kaylin have seen it 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.679 with their own eyes, and wood hasn't gone out of 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:19.480 style and it never will. 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:25.560 You guys are. 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:29.119 Primarily cutting hardwood, regrowth timber. 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.280 Yeah, and where is that? What's that hardwood being used for? 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:35.920 It's got all kinds of purposes. I mean your good, 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:39.440 you're good lumber logs. Of course they're they're making that 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:43.919 the lumber for furniture and flooring. But then there's always 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:47.960 the time market, and that's for railroad ties, the seven 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:50.760 be nine railroad tie. And then you have your wallet, 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:54.080 which you know it's a higher end and white oak, 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:58.399 I mean, you're good white oak, that's whiskey barrows. That's 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.159 that's where the money that is in the white opening wallet. 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.679 And I mean you've got cherry. Some people even separate 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.760 it because you can get a little more old cherry hickory. 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.480 You can separate it if you want to. We have 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.440 before because they use it for smokers. I mean though 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.520 they just chip it and make smoking chips. But for 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:23.520 the most part, it's lumber ties, palettes. Everybody benefits from 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.040 the palace because that's what everything's shipped on. I'd say 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:29.000 there's not anything in the country that don't get put 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:30.360 on a pallette and chip somewhere. 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:34.040 This is just what's done with hardwoods and the ozarks. 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.800 But pine timber is primarily what's used in making paper 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.560 and cardboard, at least down here. Just try to go 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:43.920 through a single day without using paper or cardboard. 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.760 You almost can't. And the good thing. 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:49.960 About it is that it's biodegradable and you can recycle it, 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:55.280 and it's generally cleaner than making plastics. Still today, almost 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:59.320 all residential structures are framed in wood. And this stat 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:02.240 is a few years old, but the Bureau of Labor 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:07.679 Statistics saved the average American uses wood and paper products 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:12.240 equivalent to what can be produced from one hundred foot 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:14.720 eighteen inch tree every year. 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:16.520 That's a big old tree. 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:20.680 But talking about the history of logging, something that stood 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:22.800 out to me from the first time I heard Kaylen 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:26.359 say it was that his dad Eddie and uncle Teddy 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:30.360 and their other brother Hillard. There were actually ten brothers 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:34.080 and sisters. All of these guys logged with mules and 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:37.320 horses all the way up until the nineteen nineties. 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.800 Dad and ted they were to my knowledge, I know 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:44.840 there's still people around that use a horse or mule 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:47.840 around here. My dad and Ted was the last two 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.800 that I know of that was still using a horse 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:54.359 and a mule. Because I'll be forty two in just 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:57.919 a month or so, and I can remember I'm skidding 0:19:57.920 --> 0:19:59.800 with horse and mule. I wasn't big enough to actually 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:02.119 hel but I went to the woods with them. 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:04.760 And sort of been in the nineties, nineteen nineties, the 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:08.080 early nineties. And they weren't They weren't good at to 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:12.160 try to be folksy or no traditional. No, they did 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:14.600 it because it's just the way they skid logs. 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:16.119 Yeah, it's just the way it was. 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:18.960 And I mean they didn't have the money, you know, 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:22.080 at the time to improve what they were doing, you know, 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:25.000 so they were still just with the old way, you know, 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:26.520 that's the only. 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:26.960 Way they knew. 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:29.320 And they could make a living doing it. They could, 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:30.160 and that's all that mattered. 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:31.000 That's all that mattered. 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.680 Yeah, they could still make a living, but I mean, yeah, 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:37.240 they wouldn't getting the production that the people was a 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:40.520 skinner was getting. But they didn't have all the expense either, 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:43.719 you know, cheaper defeat a mule or horse and it 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:46.760 was put fuel in a skinner, you know, but they 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:48.960 they finally had to, you know, if they were going 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:51.520 to keep up with everybody else, they they got a. 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.359