Mon, 12 May 2025 10:45:09 -0700WeeblySun, 30 Nov 2014 02:25:15 GMThttp://www.grayfurnaceman.com/hvac-war-stories-blog/working-for-the-logging-campMy father, when he was a teenager about 16, went to work for a logging camp in the mountains.  Everyone that worked there lived in shacks built by the company and there was a chow hall where the men ate.  
One of the ways logs were moved from the mountain to the mill pond was a lumber chute that had creek water high on the mountain diverted to run down the chute.  Logs were rolled into the chute and with the water as a lubricant, the logs ran down the chute into the pond.  
As my father related, the logs ran down at very high speed and were quite silent.  
My father was working on the chute and had his foot inside the chute.  Right then a log came down the chute and struck his ankle.  
Of course at this point my father could not work anymore.  He went to one of the shacks and laid down with his ankle up and wrapped.  He could hardly walk.
The next day the foreman came by and said he was welcome to stay in the shack until he was well, but he would have to pay room and board.
It seems it was all his fault because he got hurt!]]>Sat, 29 Nov 2014 18:52:12 GMThttp://www.grayfurnaceman.com/hvac-war-stories-blog/the-melting-hatMy father worked with my grandfather for a local commercial laundry service.  They used steam power for everything.  The steam was produced by burning sawdust from local mills.  
One of the first jobs my father did when he started was unblocking a damper in the breeching of one of the dutch ovens for one of the boilers.  
The sawdust feed had been shut off but they did not have time to wait for the unit to cool down.  So, into the vent my father went wearing a baseball cap with a celluloid bill.  Wonder what celluloid is?  It was an earlier form of clear plexiglas type material.  Once he got in there, the temperature was much higher than he thought it would be.  So he figured he had better get this job done as fast as he could and get out of there.  He began knocking the creosote off of the shaft.  He could not breathe.  As he was working and holding his breath, the bill of that cap melted and sagged down over his face.  Now he could not see either.  He had trouble getting the cap off.  So here he was, holding his breath, knocking off creosote off with a hammer and chisel, trying to see thru the melting cap.  The job got done and he got out because he did not want to go into there again!
GFM]]>