Our apprentice got a new nickname today.
We have been felling Doug fir all week. They are going to Sweden to become power line masts.
Then we were asked to cut two really big ones for a local mill, for some special project.
I let the apprentice have them, they always get excited felling big stuff, to me a tree is pretty much just work by now.
I stood by when he did them.
First one went perfectly, but on the second one he cut his hinge too thin on the side the wind was blowing from.
Before I could get the tube of artificial hinge wood out of the truck, the wind broke the hinge and tripped the tree sideway, nearly crushing his saw.
It tore a largish chunk out of the log, but I figured the mill was going to cut the butt swell off anyway, so I didn't mention it to the forester.
Yesterday I got a mail from the forester. The mill owner had mailed him and asked what kind of god damned beaver he had cutting wood for him.
So he asked if we had a beaver on the team.
I explained the situation and said that if they had to deduct the price, I'd of course pay, but shit is bound to happen when you teach apprentices.
We've been over that years and years ago, that if the industri wants new generations of fallers, they have to put up with the occasional mistake.
So he wrote me that they would give the mill a lower price on that log, but I shouldn't worry about it, the important thing was the learning process.
Really nice of him.
But guess what poor Sigurd will be called from now on