Kenny's Loggin – Working Yarders At Menzies Bay

Nov 22, 2023 - one year ago

When I started at Menzies they had five grapple yarders. The Y-05 Madill on tracks, Y-46 Madill on rubber tires and three Americans also on tracks.

Kenny’s Loggin’ Working Yarders At Menzies Bay — *The Madill Y-05 grapple yarder — a powerful beast of a machine!*

Because of my experience, sometimes a third man or utility man was needed on the grapple yarder. We had an operator, a hooker (who was the boss), and a third man. Some of the third man’s duties was to change scissor and opening lines when they broke or got worn out. Also on the Madills, you had to notch guy line stumps and move the guy line. When it was good going and the operator could see lots of logs to grapple, you sometimes had to play crib with the hooker.

The first machine I worked on was the Y-46 with Ike Enns and Arron Thielman on Memekay 300. They were using trees for back-spars to get lift. I had to help Arron by packing all the stuff you needed to rig the tree. Belt and spurs and block and strap. Another hooker told me later that you had to watch Arron, he would get you to pack just about everything in the pickup out to the tree whether you needed it or not.

The next machine was the Y-05 run by Jim Barker with Gerry Atfield hooking. This machine was a powerful beast. Gerry said to change the guy line. I asked Jim to slack the guy line off so I could unhook it. Instead he walked the machine ahead pulling the five foot cedar stump right out of the ground to the ditch where I could easily unhook it without going out into the bush.

Work was pretty slack for third man on the American grapple yarders as they worked without a guy line. Mostly just changing the opening and scissor lines. Nick Chernoff ran the Y-19 with Bob Wasilew and Kenny Acoin running the other two.

Menzies Bay was a hotspot for IWA union activities and Nick was one of our leaders. Many times he could be seen rehearsing a union meeting in the cab. One morning we had two tower crews and a grapple yarding crew in a big bus heading to Big Tree Creek, where we would get in our smaller buses to go to the job site. Nick was driving as he had the most seniority. At least fifteen men in the bus slumbering away, when somebody said, “Jeez Nick I don’t remember any houses and lights around Big Tree.” He was holding a meeting and had driven by Big Tree going almost into Sayward before anyone said anything.

When Arron Thielman retired, Peter Faak went hooking on the Y-46. We were working in Southfork E, a really steep setting. Peter and I would play “Super Crib” to see who had to clean up the road. The winner had to change roads — a much easier job than walking up the hill spotting logs that Ike couldn’t see. Peter seemed to lose all the time, but he was a good sport always cleaned up the road.

One serious incident we had on the grapple yarders was Y-46 in Memekay 300. I wasn’t there but Ike was moving the machine with the guy unhooked when one of the yarding lines got hung up and the machine went over onto its face. I believe Ike got a sore back where the tool box hit him. After that the safety committee ruled that there was to be no loose stuff in the machine cabs.

Ken Wilson worked in the logging industry in B.C. for over 50 years. Ken is a regular contributor to Supply Post newspaper with his column Kenny’s Loggin’, and resides on Vancouver Island, B.C.