• Home
  • Our Community
  • And God Made a Logger
  • Building Status
  • CLEARCUTTING, what you should know
  • Company Store
  • Contact Us
  • How to Help
  • Jamborees
  • Logging History
  • Miscellaneous Stuff of General Interest
  • Monte Wolf, Logger? Photo
  • Museum Administration
  • Museum in Winter (gorgeous photos)
  • Outdoor exhibits at the Logging Museum
  • Some Suggested Resources
  • The Shay
  • What the Museum Does
  • Where’s The Museum?
  • Events, Happenings, and some sad Passings

Sierra Nevada Logging Museum

Visit the history of the logging industry in California's Sierra Nevada

Feeds:
Posts
Comments

And God Made a Logger

The first time most of us associated with the museum heard this poem was at the 2015 Snagfallers Ball. Ginny Kafka, President, read it aloud. When she was through, Charlotte Wood, the first baby born in White Pines, said,

“S.C. Linebaugh”

which really struck a cord with many of us.

And God Made a Logger….

By: Jim Petersen, Evergreen Foundation
And on the eighth day, God looked down on the earth he had created and said, “I need an old school conservationist, someone who will care for the forests I’ve created, someone who understands that I planted these forests for man’s pleasure and needs.” So, God made a logger.
God said, “I need somebody who will get up at three o’clock in the morning and drive a hundred miles into the woods, just to get to the trees I want him to cut, so that my forests will continue to grow and provide shelter for the billions of people who will populate my earth.”
“l need a man with the strength of a mule who can pack a 50 pound chain saw and a gunny sack full of tools up and down steep hills all day long, rain or shine.
I need a family man who always has time for his wife and children, even when he is dead tired, a man who teaches his children the importance of honesty and the value of hard work.”
So God made a logger.
Then God said , “I need a careful man willing to face danger, because working in the woods will be dangerous work. Some men will die there, crushed beneath falling trees or tons of machinery, or killed by a falling limb they never heard.”
I need an artist who can maneuver a 60 ton machine through a stand of timber without tearing the bark off the trees, then reach out and pluck the three trees that need to be cut without harming the rest of the stand.”
I need someone who is devoted to his community, who can go home after a long day in the woods, eat supper and go out to a town hall meeting that won’t end until past midnight.”
So, God made a logger.
Then God said,
I need a man with simple faith, someone who doesn’t get discouraged when his prospects look dim, a man who faces every day with a smile on his face, even when he doesn’t know what the day will bring or where he will find his next job.”
“I need an innovator, a problem solver with practical sklls that only years of woods experience can teach, a man who isn’t afraid to try something new, even if the textbooks say it can’t be done.”
I need a guy with horse sense who can keep a small business together, meet a payroll every Friday and explain to his banker why he needs to borrow three million dollars to buy new equipment to replace the stuff he bought five years ago that’s already worn out.
So, God made a logger.
God said, “I need someone with the constitution of an ox, someone who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, someone who sees opportunity in life’s disappointments and is willing to just keep going when nothing else seems to work.”
“I need a mechanical wizard who can fix almost anything, anytime, anywhere with a nine-sixteenths socket wrench, a screwdriver and a roll of duct tape, someone who won’t quit on me on the nights when he has to work in his shop until 2 a.m. fixing what he couldn’t fix in the woods 18 hours earlier.
I need a man who takes pride in his work, someone who will go to the last mile to be sure that the streams just down the hill are protected, who fells his timber carefully, cleans up after himself and never forgets that the soil beneath his feet is where the next forest will grow.”
So, God made a logger.
God said, “I need somebody with a generous heart willing to gie up his weekends when he’d rather be home napping on the couch, a man willing to help out at the county fair, referee a high school basketball game, or take his son or daughter’s youth group on a camping trip in the same woods that break his back five days a week.” So, God made a logger.
“I need a man with the patience of Job, who can overlook the insults hurled at him by people who have no appreciation for the wonderful work he does, someone who will explain for the umpteenth time that forests aren’t fragile, that the last forest will be replaced by the next forest and that trees turned into lumber are the best building material I ever made.”
“I need a man who won’t turn his back on the less fortunate, someone who will throw all of his pocket change in a Salvation Army Christmas pot, or write a check to a local soup kitchen or sponsor a 4-H club or the Little League baseball team that hasn’t won a game in 10 years.”
So, God made a logger.
“I need a man who loves the woods as much as I love them, a big man who admires wilderness areas, trout streams, elk herds, birds and wildflowers as much as he respects the forests that put food on his table and a roof over his head.”
Then God said, “And last and most important of all, I need a father who won’t discourage his sons and daughters from following in his footsteps, because I will always need good loggers.”
So God made another logger.
Jim Peterson says that he was inspired to write this after seeing Paul Harvey’s “And God Made a Farmer” on the Super Bowl.

Like this:

Like Loading...

  • Blog Stats

    • 380,519 hits
  • Hours & Info

    2148 Dunbar Road,
    P.O. Box 3619
    Arnold, CA 95223
    1-209-795-6782
    Noon to 4 PM
    Thursday thrrough Sunday
  • Pages

    • Our Community
      • The White Pines Story
        • The Dolley Family Story
          • The Move to White Pines (1938)
          • Landmarks on Ebbetts Pass
        • The Frank Blagen Jr Story
        • The Howard Blagen Story
      • Avery School and Miss Hazel Fischer
        • Avery School newspaper article
        • Hazel Fischer… A Grand School Marm
      • How the Wedding got the Axe
      • Links to related web sites
    • And God Made a Logger
    • Building Status
    • CLEARCUTTING, what you should know
    • Company Store
      • Museum Cookbook
    • Contact Us
    • How to Help
      • Donate
      • Join FLM
      • Planned Giving
      • Volunteer
    • Jamborees
      • 2005 Logging Jamboree
      • 2006 Logging Jamboree
      • 2007 Logging Jamboree
      • 2008 Logging Jamboree
      • 2009 Logging Jamboree
      • 2010 Logging Jamboree
      • 2011 Logging Jamboree
      • 2013 Logging Jamboree
      • 2014 Logging Jamboree
      • 2015 Logging Jamboree
      • 2016 Logging Jamboree
    • Logging History
      • Amador County Mills
        • Tiger Creek Lumber Mill and a few other photos
          • More Tiger Creek Lumber Company plus photos from other mills
        • Winton Lumber Company
      • Calaveras County Mills
        • An Overview of Calaveras County Logging History
        • Blagen Mill
          • 50‘s photos from the Blagen Mill
          • Blagen Mill area report done for CCWD
          • Blagen Mill from Beginning to End as told in the Stockton Record
          • Blagen Mill’s Only Fatality
          • Carriage, Sawyer, and Setter at Blagen Mill
          • Ed Adams, highly regarded Blagen Mill Superintendent
          • Frank Blagen Sr.’s Sea Dreams
          • Linebaugh Logging, Photos and History
            • Old Bill, the logging horse
            • The Big Trees Hotel
          • Ruggles Tract to Sierra Pacific, a history of Cal. Co. timber holdings
          • Blagen Mill Photos B & W (nice)
        • Cilenti Mill
        • Jones Mill at Brice Station
        • Lawrence Wilsey Biography by his son, Carl
        • Logging Trucks are Rolling
        • Lumber boom in post-war years
        • McKays’ Clipper Mill
        • Raggio Mill on San Domingo and then Cowell Creek
          • Mill Operations
          • Portrait of an Old Time Teamster
        • Rasmussen Mill
        • The Manuel Mill
        • The West Point Mills
          • Associated Box Mill at Sandy Gulch
            • John Parmeter, Tramp Logger, by Mary Matzek
            • Sandy Gulch Mill (More Photos)
            • Sandy Gulch Report for CCWD
          • Stockton Box Mill at West Point
          • The Amazing J.D. Conger story
        • Thornburg Mill at Wallace
        • Toyon Mill and Box Factory
      • Eldorado County Logging
        • Blair Mill at Pacific House
        • Cable from Pino Grande to Camino Mill
          • The Bell with a Connection
        • Caldor Logging Operation
      • Fresno County
        • First Log by Truck to Valley
        • Fresno County’s Early Mills
        • Mathews Mill in Jose Basin, Auberry, CA
      • Lassen Lumber and Box Co.
      • Madera County’s Early Mills
      • Mariposa County
        • El Portal Incline and Shay #4 New Photos!
        • Mariposa County’s Early Mills
      • Plumas County Logging
      • Shasta County
      • Sierra National Forest Early Mills
      • Tuolumne County Logging
        • Big Creek Lumber Company
        • Early 1900’s Logging Photos (Mostly Tuolumne County)
        • Pickering Lumber, Standard Lumber Co.(also Calaveras Big Trees)
        • West Side Lumber Company
        • Whitt Manufacturing Plant, Sonora
    • Miscellaneous Stuff of General Interest
      • Logger Talk
      • True Stories
        • “Doc” Linebaugh
        • A True Friend
        • Bears of Pickering Lumber
        • Camp Cooks Had Rules!
        • Choosing a Partner
        • Christmas in White Pines
        • Louie Smith, Logger
        • My First Love Affair
        • One Fine Day
        • S.C. “Doc” Linebaugh
          • An Evening With Doc
          • The Day I Met Doc
        • Sawmill Life from a Woman’s Point of View
          • Women in the Logging Camps
        • The Day I Rolled Big Red
        • The Day I Snapped Fred’s Cable
        • Timber Falling
          • Grass Faller
        • White Pines Logging Camp
    • Monte Wolf, Logger? Photo
    • Museum Administration
      • Docent Calendar
      • FLM directors, officers, and such
      • Minutes, most recent Board Meetings
        • FLM Minutes Archive
      • Spring 2009 Newsletter
      • Spring 2010 Newsletter
      • Spring 2012 Newsletter
      • Spring 2013 Newsletter
      • Spring 2014 Newsletter
    • Museum in Winter (gorgeous photos)
    • Outdoor exhibits at the Logging Museum
      • Mercury Disston Chainsaw (Pretty Unique)
      • The 1945 International Logging Truck
      • Willamette Donkey No.1233
    • Some Suggested Resources
    • The Shay
      • How The Shay Survived
        • History of the Shay from the Heber Creeper Folks
        • Photos of the incline at El Portal and the the YLCO
    • What the Museum Does
    • Where’s The Museum?
      • History of White Pines Lake
    • Events, Happenings, and some sad Passings
      • Dale Brooks: Our Late Great Friend
      • Rex Payton, Forester, Friend, Docent
      • Three Cool Images
  • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 41 other followers

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


%d bloggers like this: