Thursday, October 10, 2024
“BACK TO/FROM THE FUTURE” JACK
When I met Jack, he was promoting traditional horse logging as a lower-impact and more environmentally- friendly way to log. Over the years, his drive to further reduce the impacts of harvesting the forest led him to embrace the evolving technology. On my last visit to one of his logging shows, he stuffed me into the cab of his new feller-buncher and we went bouncing over the block as he proudly demonstrated how the machine was able cut the trees and carry them out to the landing, with its large tires causing less soil disturbance than his horses would have. But when we got to the landing and out of the machine, he noticed that one of the logs had been placed in the wrong pile. So, he grabbed it by the tip and dragged it over to the right pile. Back From the Future? It seemed somewhat ironic that his high-tech equipment got replaced by human muscle, but that was so Jack – do whatever was going to work most efficiently to get the job done right. It was a privilege to know him, and regret that distance limited our visits – for sure, I could have learned a lot more about how to win at cribbage! Condolences from Cousin Bruce & Family
