Art & Words by
HOWARD B. TAYLOR

These high climbers are not working for a big, highball outfit. They own their outfit and do not relish paying a hundred bucks for a short afternoon’s work so the old cuss is showing the young husky how to do it safely. The younger boy is punching the gasoline donkey which is raising the guy line so they may place it in the tree plates. These steel plates keep the line from cutting the pole off.

This is a gypo outfit and contracts the more tedious jobs for larger companies. It probably owns a hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of equipment on the cuff. The end result often is that this side cutting crew which subcontracts for them may rake in more clear profit in a year with a few power saws than the gypo. We once had fourteen gypos, a company side a construction crew and bought about 25% on the open market (1¼ million per year log cost). This was a small operation.