A full day

[Jim King]

This is a bit off theme but I thought it might be interesting to you Northerners and dont know where else to post it.

Yesterday we carried out 900 cants from 3 to 4.5 miles in. This is logging Amazonian style. Each cant has a number on it so we can get permission to transport them to town. For anyone who would like to loose a few pounds this will do it and if you get malaria that is good for another 10 pound loss.

[Frank Fusco]

I worked up a sweat just looking at the pictures.
Can't you use mules or burros for carrying or dragging instead of people power?

[Jim King]

Frank: We in the majority of Amazonas are still in the hunter -gatherer time period of development. People here have not yet come to the point where they can manage animals. The Govt and many other groups have given breeding stock of pigs, goats, chickens etc. to the comunities and they eat the breeding stock. This is one of the few places left in the world where the people still do not know how or why till the soil.

These are photos of a typical dwelling in the jungle. The slash and burn part with the stumps and trees laying everywhere is called farming here. Every once in a while they will poke a hole in the ground between the fallen trees and drop a seed in it and hope for the best.

[Frank Fusco]

Hi Jim:
You have told me that before. I guess it is just hard to wrap my mind around that as a fact, especially in the current millennium.

[Jim Young]

What's a cant??

[Steve Clardy]

What's a cant??

Big chunk of wood.

Pallet industry here calls the heartwood a cant. Usually a 4x6, 6x6, etc.

[Steve Clardy]

What do they mill with Jim? Portable mill ?

[Alex Reid]

Very interesting Jim. What mind of wood is stacked up there and is there any particular reason it is stacked standing up? I have read there is a lot of illegal logging going on there, do you ever run into people doing this?

[Jim King]

Jim : Yes a cant is to us a squared or rectangular block of wood cut out of a log to a managable size for carrying a few miles to a road or river.

Steve : We get the wood to our shop and cut it into 3/4 , 1" or 1 1/4 inch boards for drying and processing. We made a wooden saw of scrap Bloodwood wood and Purpleheart with what we think is a 30 HP motor and it has cut tens and tens of thousands of bf with no problem. Photo attached.

Alex: As for the illegal logging the estimates range as high as 100% in some areas. This is not that the people are doing anything bad but that the WWF and other tear jerker groups have convinced the world that the end is near and the US government pays the way in these countries to get laws passed that are impossible to comply with. If there were laws in North America as stupid as the laws passed here there would be a revoloution up there and you would not be able to prune your apple tree legally. It is easy to blame some loggers in the Amazon for the supposed problems of the world.

Everyone should remember one thing and keep it in perspective. The Amazon covers many countries and is in total a bit larger than the US. The total annual timber production of the Amazon is 2.4 times the annual average of Oregon. Enough said ?¿

[Julio Navarro]

That is amazing Jim, need any help? and is the pay any good?

Language wouldnt be a problem and I need work, lol