10. FALLING AND BUCKING

Neil Vanderburg: The baskets that they picked hops in were about that big around and that tall. You had 25 cents when you got one full.

Bob Zybach: How much can you make in a day picking hops?

Donald M. Dickey: If I had a good v, I made 2 bucks.

10. FALLING AND BUCKING

Bob Zybach: How much working in the mill?

Donald M. Dickey: I think I got 3 and a half a day that summer. This was getting up toward when things began to pick up. Probably about '37 or sometime about then, and wages had begun to increase a little bit. Then, in '38 I worked in the sawmill and I got a job when they slowed it down at Weinert, I got a job for Cooper bucking logs, short logs. And I think we made 3.25 a day to start with, the' ring when we'd have a little timber of our own and dad wanted to c cut that before I ..

Donald M. Dickey: went back to Cooper. And I got 3.50 when I went back but I was the only bucker there then. In the fall, why, old Hap came out one day and watched me. He had, there was two of us bucking and then they had another guy down at the sawmill that was bigger than I was and he wanted me to. . . he was pond monkey.

Bob Zybach: What did the pond monkey do?

Donald M. Dickey: Put logs into the mill from the pond. He wanted to know if I didn't want to change jobs with this guy. That was McCoy.

Maxine Dickey: That was who?

Donald M. Dickey: McCoy.

Maxine Dickey: Oh, Cary, the old man?

Neil Vanderburg: Cary Mccoy, yeah.

Donald M. Dickey: And he wasn't noted for being real ambitious.

Neil Vanderburg: He sure made a lot of kids.

Donald M. Dickey: I said no, I don't want any part of that stuff on the pond. And old Hap, he was

Donald M. Dickey: gonna show me how to buck logs. Pretty quick he about rolled a log on me, so he went back to the mill and left me alone. So, a few weeks later, why, we were bucking small logs again, made ties and that stuff, mostly. So he came out one night with this other fellow from Independence, he was a big long guy, he was a good worker but he just didn't move too fast. He said, "Well, how many logs did you get

Donald M. Dickey: today?" and he kinda grinned. I said "72, why?" His face got about a foot long. He says, "I thought sure I'd beat you. I only got 70." He was a good worker. But actually, if it had been big logs he could probably beat me. Small logs, why I could get down to the ground and saw 'em off pretty fast.

Neil Vanderburg: Donald's fairly short.

Maxine Dickey: 5 '3" in case you want to know.

Bob Zybach: A lot of times that works better if you are working close to the ground.

Donald M. Dickey: Then in the summer of '38 another fellow that was working for Hap at the time and I decided that we could make more money up west of Dallas and so we went up and got a job, he got a job falling and I got a job bucking. And I averaged 5 bucks a day up there. You had to furnish your own tools. And that was a buck and a half more than I was making down there. Some days I made 7 dollars a day which was pretty good money.

Bob Zybach: What kind of tools were you using to buck with?

Donald M. Dickey: Seven foot bucking saws.

Neil Vanderburg: Swede fiddle.

Donald M. Dickey: The old, what did they call them, wire cutters or something of the sort. [Also called Misery Whip: NV]

Bob Zybach: What would you do to bump knots? What would you hit knots with?

Donald M. Dickey: Beg your pardon?

Bob Zybach: What would you knock the limbs off with?

Donald M. Dickey: Oh, an axe.

Bob Zybach: So you'd use an axe on the limbs and then a bucking saw to buck the lengths.

Donald M. Dickey: Yeah. If there was any sign of rot at all you'd long butt it. Do you know what long buttin' is?

Bob Zybach: Yeah, but you want to explain it?

Donald M. Dickey: You cut off the stuff that you think is rotten. And we had some stuff that was blue that they haul now and understand get extra money for it. We had to take almost the log length off of some of these trees. ["Log length" was 16 feet. Most Berry Creek "long butts" were 10 feet or less.] It was in a little spot up on top of the mountains. But it was a nice place to work. I worked there till the first of September, I guess,