I'll try to get it loaded and posted, its a video of him at the local loggers conference in eugene oregon, He's on a grapple stacking long rounds, i think he ended up doing 4, not bad for a 9 yr old kid. I think he's got the ''touch'' for being a natural equipment operator. He's quite the kid, his plans, owning a trucking company.
Oh yeah, he's in the ''zone'' when it comes to things like this. I'm loving watching this kid grow up, but, way too fast, he lost his dad 3 yrs ago in a log trucking accident. He's quite the ''kid'' he love's any thing mechanical, and that has to do with heavy equipment, logging, and log trucking. I literally Pray, i'll be around to watch him grow up. At 9, he is on a totally different level that most kids are. He was able to get on a John Deere simulator and some other really neat stuff. This is what more kids of today need, instead of video games, and cell phones. He's almost like talking to a teenager at times, but, in a good way, lol.
For sure, they grow so fast.... Spend all the time you can with him and for sure, encourage him to reach his goals.
Many years past I was a General Foreman on a dam project on a small river. We built a Diversion structure for a power house, fish ladder and a new 300' long dam. In the course of construction we had to demo the old dam which was a cribbed timber structure filled with rocks. The logs were huge old growth Fir that were wet but still sound from being under water most of the time. They were stacked on the other side of the river. At that older time our means of crossing the river was one of the 966 Cat loaders on site. One Saturday I took a couple friends and one's 10 year old Son to get firewood. We drove up to the loader and began to put our gear in the bucket for transfer to the other side. My Buddies' Son just stood there with his mouth open looking at the loader. Turns out his favorite toy when younger was a big Tonka Toy loader of the same type as the 966. We all got on the loader and crossed the river with water piling 2/3 of the way up on the tires on the upstream side. We crossed the river several times during the day with loads of wood to fill the three trucks and leave a pile for the Old Dam's Caretaker. He got to drive across once and dump the bucket of logs several times. To this day, when ever I happen to meet that fine Young Man, we think of that day of wood cutting! B.Brown your grandson will remember his experience fondly for the rest of his life!
Went to Church this morning, i had emailed the owners son of a local logging company the video of Ryder running the grapple machine. He caught my eye as i was starting to leave, we got together and he said, ''i got your video, i'm impressed with the way Ryder run that thing, you know, some guys are born operators''. Then he told me, get him up to the job, and i'll put him in a shove and see how he does with that. So, thinking, about it, found out Wens is a short school day, he'll be out at 1:30 Pm so, guess we'll be heading up on the job and see what he can do. I'll take the Ipad and get a video to share with you guys.
Not only did it give him good memories, obviously it gives you good memories as well, that's neat he's still around and you see him as well.
You should see our daughters back yard!! It's full of tonka type toys, with gully's dug , pond's all kinds of earth moving equipment (toys) it looks like a miniature logging site. He spends a lot of time out there. When i was blowing all the leaves out of her back yard it was crazy to try to walk through the place. lol.
when i was little, id make tree logs out of my playdoh and mimic the noise of a chain saw with a table knife cutting them in little pieces. My older sister wasnt so fond of this as she was still sleeping and would complain to mom when i woke her up. TRUE STORY! I had forgotten about that. I think i had the standard backhoe/bulldozer sand box toys, Dont recall logging ones.
Who knows. Maybe buy the time he is 16 he will have a job lined up. Don't know if they can legally any earlier.
