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O/T Anyone do manual labor anymore?

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BigTone

Member
I have been reading a book on adirondack guides and people from the 1800's and these guys (loggers) used to chop down 3ft round trees for a living, getting around 50-75 a day!! After reading this I sharpend my axe and went down into the property, picked a large enough tree that I have wanted out for a while and began to chop, Took me an hour to take it down and I'm a big guy...needless to say there was no way i was going to do even 20 in a day!!

I was wondering if anyone still does manual labor anymore, maybe for work (plowing w/animal power, hand cut beams, etc..) or just the appreciation for those who have come before and to gain respect for the way things used to be...world might be better off if we were all forced to see how good we have it now!

I'd love to hear what you all do!
 
No more than I have to. There's usually about 2 loads of corn left in a crib when I get down to where the power corn rake won't get it out anymore.
 
I've been doing allot of manual labor lately by choice. I've decided to clear about 5 acres on my new place by hand. Using a chainsaw but doing allot of axe work and piling brush up and stuff.

I figure I need the exercise and after the day is done it makes me feel better. ...again though, it's by choice, if I had to do the things I've been doing on the weekends as an everyday job, well, I don't know, I have a feeling a few of my parts might wear out pretty fast.
 
Ranching and farming keeps my weight off. A lot of people eat, sleep, TV, and eat somemore.

Then wonder why they are fat.
 
I still split all of our firewood that needs to be split by hand, but it has been years since I have cut down a tree with an ax. One possible factor is that the trees they were describing may have been softwoods, which generally take a lot less effort than hardwoods to cut down with an ax.
Zach
 
Well, it's all relative...a lot of those stories about how hard people worked might be exaggerated just a little bit, but on the other hand there's no doubt a lot of the jobs we now do with machines (like milking cows for instance) are easier...or we just don't need to do the hard jobs the hard way because our lifestyle doesn't demand it. I grew up in the 1940's and 1950's with everyone telling me I didn't have to work nearly as hard as they did when they were growing up. My family men were farmers, threshermen and sawmillers. Later on some younger men than I was "on the jobs" with used to ask me why I worked so hard and I just told them I was "used to it"..and I was, that was what I was used to.
Honestly, the hardest work I ever did, physically or mentally, was some task I had to hurry on and it took all my mental ability to figure out how to do the job the best way to get it done as soon as possible. If you're used to it, you can work hard physically and feel okay doing it, the key thing is getting used to it. Being a maintenance man most of my life, I've built a lot of things, installed a lot of things, and fixed a lot of things...and none of the jobs were too hard unless I had to do it in hurry and compromise doing it right in order to get it done in time.
 
I bet those guys in the old days had better tools, technique, and had a lifetime of practice to get the most efficient swing and know right where to put it.


That stuff all makes a difference.
 
Adirondack French Louie is the name of the book (dont have the book right in front of me for the author) but I have read almost everything by William J. O"Hearn on the adirondacks, great books if your into the outdoors/woodsman life.
 
I don't think they were logging with axes back then to get that many by hand in a day. They were probably using crosscut saws with a man on each end.

That being said, I appreciate the labor saving devices we have and do not wish to go back to the old ways.
 
I guess what I am saying is doing things by hand makes me appreciate what I have much more and helps me not take things for granted as much...

I am a teacher and i see my students taking things for granted on a daily basis and I just feel that its a shame that many do not know just how good they have it...after reading about the way things used to be i find the need to connect with the past if only a little, in order to keep myself grounded.
 
I do manual labor based on my ability to do it in a timely fashion (esp in the Houston heat).

I use a reel mower for my lawn, a special hand edger for the sidewalks, but I use a Stihl weed whacker for edging against the buildings and fence.

I just removed a stump, and used an axe to cut all the way around the roots. I used a come-a-long to pull it out. To dismantle the stump I pulled out the chainsaw. When I took the tree down I used a manual pole saw for the tall stuff, then the chain saw for the remaining large limbs.

The past two years I used a shovel to turn my garden. With the clay and the leaves I was trying to mix in it didn't work too well. I now have a walk behind tiller for this year.

My drill press is a hand cranked post drill I refurbished in January. I mostly used a hand wire brush to clean off the rust (a couple of spots I used a drill with a brush but only in some tight corners).

One of my favorite PBS shows is the "Woodwright Shop". I have made several of his projects with as much hand tools as possible. I build a dovetailed bookshelf for my apartment on the floor with hand tools and my legs as a vise.
 
I bought a one man crosscut saw, some sharpening tools, and a book on how to sharpen it. I sharpened it as best I could, and tried some cutting. I am young, and I think in good shape, but cutting a winters worth of firewood seems almost undoable.
Josh
 
Im shocked that this post has not been deleted by the admin folks!talking that way on a public forum,you should be ashamed!!!LOL a real days work any more would kill be deader than a stump!
 
I bale around 10,000 bales onto the ground and then pick them up using my pick-up truck. More than 500 a day and I wish for a helper. Quit using kicker wagons because once they are full you really need two people to unload them. I have it down to a science, put 53 on the truck and never get off the ground, so unloading is the toughest part. I do often have one real good helper. Spend most of the winter throwing these out of barns onto peoples trailers or trucks. Nearly manual labor.
 
Couple books I have you may have read or like is My grandpas woods, and Lumberjack sky pilot! I havent finished reading them yet but they were interesting as far as I read
 
I spend about 500 hours a year (according to the hour meter) turning trees into lumber,timbers and sawdust. Lot of manual labor.
Locally the stone mason's seem to be the experts at manual labor.
 
I doubt that very many 3 foot trees were "chopped down". The only chopping done was to cut out the top of the notch which determined the felling direction. The rest was done with two man crosscut saws that were so sharp that they would give most chainsaws a run for the money. Add to that the dormant state of the tree in early winter, frozen wood and nice cold air to work in and the speed at which forests could be logged off was amazing. As far as firewood was concerned, in a lot of cases the smaller limbs not being suitable for lumber were stacked up and cut up for firewood later in a number of ways. Usually with a hand bucksaw back in the 1800s but in later years with tractor or stationary engine powered bucksaws and a gang of men. I have been there and done all of the above. My brother and I still talk about it. Sawmills were located nearby so as to make for short hauls. Lumber was "rough sawn" and then either used that way or hauled by sled or wagon teams to a planing mill to make finished lumber.
 
dont forget they used REAL axes also,not the ones we buy today. A really good axe is as different as night and day to the ones we buy at our local hardware store.A good axe made for actually cutting down trees is a totally different tool.A few are still made but they are mostly used in logging competition, costs lots of money, and those guys treat them like they are gold. When you watch those guys cut through a 20" log in a matter of seconds you can see the difference.you can still find some old axes around and if you can find one it makes a huge difference.i have a small camp size axe that will cut more wood than any other one ive ever owned.the difference is in that you sharpen it up razor sharp with a stone and it stays that way.
 
I manually load wood pellets in 40# bags into my garage and then manually load them into the house as I use them. Easier than firewood.
I run a manual Bridgeport milling machine. 220Vac spindle with manual cranks.
I dont cut down trees with an axe, that would suck.
 
just dug a ditch yesterday,and believe it or not when I was sweating chopping some roots I thought of how hard it must have been to clear land like our forefathers did
 
Cleared (opened up)12 acres of dense pine and hardwood all sewed together with muskedine, rattan and poison ivy vines. So thick I couldn't walk through it when I bought it. Took me six years, using chainsaw and axe. Used the 8N to pull the big stuff to the burnpiles. I estimate I've burned over 400 big brush piles since I started 20 years ago. I've got lots of trees left to cut, and many more brush piles to build. I'm 70 now, and slower, but I still split all my firewood with a splitting maul.

That's not to say I don't enjoy having power tools and equipment.
 
MACHINES WERE MADE TO WORK..MAN WAS MADE TO THINK! My Grandpa said that many times and he was a highly successful farmer and former gas driller. He retired from farming at 88 years old. Any equipment he owner whether factory made or farm build was maintained to the tee and performed the intended tasks flawlessly. Harvest seasons people would toil around the clock, Grandpa didn't, sundown was rest time. He'd laugh because others would say they couldn't afford to automate a perticular operation and Grandpa would ask "how can they afford not to?" especially with labor costs and time bounded yeilds considered. Grandpa never took a nickle of any subsidy either.
 
I try and do as much as I can.
While many of my suburban neighbors hire people to do everything for them I do almost everything myself. Split wood with a wedge, a small axe and a 5 pound hammer. Bow saw branches, chainsaw the trunks and larger limbs.
Have 10 tons of 1 1/2 stone delivered and mostly shovel it into wheel barrel or trailer by hand with a shovel. Makes me wonder what it must have been like to shovel coal to fire a steam engine.
Me and my son collect rocks to build boundary walls from who ever lists them for free on Craigslist. We move em' by hand or on a hand truck and load the utility trailer until the tires just start to bulge. And then do it again as many times as there are rocks people want hauled away. Mow lawn with walk behind mower, rake leaves, shovel snow. Change oil, brakes, struts, clutch etc on cars all without power tools.
People here think I am nuts. But it is the only exercise I get. Desk job is killing me with stress and repetitive motion injury on right side from the !@#$%# mouse clicking.
Can not wait till wife becomes a RN and I can cut back desk work to 2-3 days a week and kids grew up so I can just spend my days outside working.

Pete
 

Does walking up and down steep hills, through woods, checking an electric fence count?

KEH
 
Well, I have several farms that need to be maintained. I burn wood and I am not on welfare or disability, so yes, I guess I still do manual labor.

Gene

PS. plus you can't find anyone else willing to work that has any skills or is not totally lazy or incompetant. So I have to do it myself.
 
Well, a lot of posts below are indicating that they had better tools. I have some of those tools, left by my predicessors. And they aren't that great. I figure they were just better men. Used to put up potatoes in hundred and two hundred pound sacks. How'd any of us do handling those all day? That two man saw was a real pleasure to run, tried one, and that would take a couple of good men to run one all day. Forking loose hay was no pleasure either. Done that too.
Last summer I put up about 2500 square bales, singlehandedly - literally with one good hand. Injured right hand on baler on second round of first field. So I can still work "like a man," but I didn't enjoy it!
 
I've been doing industrial construction for 27 years, so I'm familiar with it.

I've spent a couple years studying the pipelines that run through my area, they were some of the first crude oil pipelines laid.

The ones through my valley were put in in 1881 and 82. I found some info that said a 28 man crew was expected to get in 3600 feet a day.

Back then, that's doing it the hard way.
 
That is why the big burly lumberjack is mostly a myth. The average lumberjack in the 1800's weighed around 150 pounds, for the reason they worked it off with the repetitive hard work. Same reason you don't see a big burly jogger lol.
 
My grandfather was a logger. He told me that they would work in teams. Usually 3 men. Two on a buck saw and a limmer. They would trade off positions each cut so that each would have an equal share of the load and rest time(The latter of which was almost non existent). The buck saw teem would notch the stem as they called it and then back saw it to the fell. I still think it's an art to read the heavy side and windage to make the stem fall where you want it to so it won't foul with others and cause damage and yet in a place where you can work it. Watched grandpa and dad drop a tree about 125' tall and about 40" in diameter up hill and between two others without brushing a needle off the two standing trees. These were all fir. We split 38 cords out of it and I was sure glad I had my Stihl for chunking it. But even at that granddad and pops were almost keeping up with me with that buck saw. May God bless those that came before us and made this great nation what it was. I say was because those of us that do still work remember when a working man was more respected that the office dude and the bean counters that tried to cheat an honest man out of an honest wage. I cant wait till those office dudes and bean counters try to eat those numbers and build their homes out of all that scrap paper and pencils and computers.
We currently have just about two generations of people who don't even know how to work and don't expect to have to. Everything they have is due them from those who break their butts everyday so they can play their video games and watch that one eyed IQ sucker that they have in each room that we pay the electric bill for.
I think that the work ethic that the majority of us on this bbs were taught and raised with and live today should be required for every child starting at no older than the age of six like I did and I think that most of you did. Chores were done because you were breathing. Allowance was dad allowing you to live under his roof and eat his food and wear the clothing he bought and sleeping in the bed mom kept clean and,,, Want me to go on?????

If I wanted spending money I went out and cleaned ditches and bucked hay and ran cattle and hoed weeds for the neighbors. That was unless dad loaned me out to one of them. When that happened I would do a days work for the meals which were sometimes bologna sandwiches and a glass of fresh made lemonade.

I remember the first time I asked dad for a little cash for a date. He told me that instead of 3 cows I could milk 5 the next morning. He handed me a ten. Did I complain??? No. I got up twenty minutes earlier the next morning and milked my 3 and two of his 3 cows.

Entitlement???? "By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread."

Ok..... Enough of the soap box. Yeall have a good night now,, yea here??. LarryT
 
A two man saw can cut a lot faster than two men with axes.

Fifty trees in a twelve hour day would be just over four trees an hour, or one tree every 15 minutes. Seventy five trees in twelve hours would be just over six trees an hour or one tree every 10 minutes. It takes me much longer to trim off the limbs, cut the tree into sections, and haul away the wood than it does to drop a tree.

Fifty to seventy five 3 foot diameter trees a day sounds like a fair sized logging crew rather than a single man. The crews probably worked in teams and the teams were paid by the tree.

People did work a lot harder at physical labor back in the 1800's. They needed to just to survive, and there were few daily distractions besides school, family, church or taverns (if you had the money). Few people stayed in school past the sixth grade. Most boys worked full time from the age of ten to twelve, were worn-out old men by the age of 40 and most died before they were 50 years old from disease, injury or old age.

It makes me appreciate how hard our ancestors had to work.
 
When I was younger like 30 or 40, I always did things the hard way. Sense of satisfaction. As electrician, alway drilled holes in wood with brace and bit. Cut holes for boxes in plaster lath with keyhole saw. Cut trees with bow saw and axe. Not too good with axe. Dug many ditches with shovel, mattock, no machine. Dug some sewers by shovel. Still at 68 change my own tires with spring leaves(better than spoons)after breaking bead with air cylinder. Used to split and burn my own wood. Gas bill would be 400 for year. Cut and threaded pipe by hand dies, no machine, even one inch. Bent lotta conduit with hickeys, no benders. Nobody ever called me lazy, just stupid. But labor has its own rewards. Car transmissions on my chest few times. Still use come a longs and chain falls. Put up a pole barn few years back, with a little help from the women(they are strong, don't let em fool ya.) Dave
 
When I was younger like 30 or 40, I always did things the hard way. Sense of satisfaction. As electrician, alway drilled holes in wood with brace and bit. Cut holes for boxes in plaster lath with keyhole saw. Cut trees with bow saw and axe. Not too good with axe. Dug many ditches with shovel, mattock, no machine. Dug some sewers by shovel. Still at 68 change my own tires with spring leaves(better than spoons)after breaking bead with air cylinder. Used to split and burn my own wood. Gas bill would be 400 for year. Cut and threaded pipe by hand dies, no machine, even one inch. Bent lotta conduit with hickeys, no benders. Nobody ever called me lazy, just stupid. But labor has its own rewards. Car transmissions on my chest few times. Still use come a longs and chain falls. Put up a pole barn few years back, with a little help from the women(they are strong, don't let em fool ya.) Dave
 
Just want to give you old timers something to think about here...

I'm always seeing these geezer posts about today's kids and how they don't know what real work is and blah blah blah....

Now, I know there are people out there who think they deserve to get the good life just for breathing. I find them irritating too, how can anyone who works and pays taxes not? But you're gonna tell me in the olden days there weren't any people leaning on a shovel or sitting under a shade tree the instant the boss wasn't watching? I don't believe it, I think you guys either have selective memory or are BSing us. Every generation seems to think there's something horribly wrong with the next.

Some of these people you talk about who "work at a desk" are designing and building machines that can replace the labor of 100 of you hard working old timers.

Because of us lazy desk working youngsters, we now have this thing called the Internet. Now, when your tractor breaks down you can go to sites like this one and quickly find out not only the best way to fix it, but what parts to order and where to get them at the best price AND have them delivered to your door. I could go on for pages with examples but you get my point?

And btw I am one of these lazy desk job computer programmers. No, I don't wear my back out typing but you sit at a desk and type code for 8-12 hours a day and tell me you don't get tired of it. I'm not doing this for my health, I'm doing it because it pays a heck of a lot better than working a shovel or a pitchfork.

Anyway, not mad or trying to upset anyone or anything. Hope I didn't... but you old guys need a swift kick in the butt sometimes just like us youngsters :D
 
I have thought about it some and I think farmers work just as hard as their grandfathers did. The difference is it is different kind of work. We don't farm that much but both of us have jobs, at least my son does. He goes to work at 5 am and gets off at 1 pm. It is nothing for us to work till 10 pm. Not much sleep, day after day. I know there is a lot of people work this hard. When I was a kid we scooped corn into some of the cribs. But the wagons just held 100 bu. and generally were two of us. Now days cleaning out a grain bin is a long hot job and the truck holds 1000 bu. And there is always something that doesn't work right. Need to be a electrical and mechanical genuis. Plus deal with GPS. I think my SIL and SON work harder than I do or did. Just different. Vic
 
Well said there Cow. It takes skills and discipline to pay the bills in any job at any age.

I not young by any means. I enjoy manual labor, wood working and other excercise as stress relievers.
 
Before the turn of the last century they did not use cross cut saws in this area. An old neighbor once told me that he used to cut 100 LOGS per day. Probably 23-30 trees.
 
Thats a team of men. You can't do that in a day with a chainsaw in the sizes they were cutting. You could cut them down but never get them limbed.
 
I work on a nearly 40 year old offshore drilling rig, everything is manual labor, does not seem like hard work because I have been doing it for nearly 38 years and the hot weather never bothered me because I was raised in it.
 
you're right about felling the trees; that's the way my grandpa, dad & myself did it.
 
The way it was explained to me, in the "old days" nobody was leaning on their shovels because people who didn't want to work were quickly replaced from an endless reserve of people who did.

People were a lot more motivated before food stamps, UC, and welfare existed.
 
(quoted from post at 19:17:29 02/15/12) I have been reading a book on adirondack guides and people from the 1800's and these guys (loggers) used to chop down 3ft round trees for a living, getting around 50-75 a day!! After reading this I sharpend my axe and went down into the property, picked a large enough tree that I have wanted out for a while and began to chop, Took me an hour to take it down and I'm a big guy...needless to say there was no way i was going to do even 20 in a day!!

I was wondering if anyone still does manual labor anymore, maybe for work (plowing w/animal power, hand cut beams, etc..) or just the appreciation for those who have come before and to gain respect for the way things used to be...world might be better off if we were all forced to see how good we have it now!

I'd love to hear what you all do!
Click to expand...


Does running count? I usually run 3 miles about 4-5 times a week.
 
If you study early woods work you will find that the 2 man saw was late comming into the woods.They just didnt have the steel to make a good saw blade.I have a print of a water powered saw mill,it has little metal in its contruction.I stop cutting wood when the snow falls.Slipping on snow and ice makes the work too dangerous.Frozen wood is hard on saws.Ive used the one and two man timber saw and have cut wood with an axe and bow saw.
 
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