[music playing] NARRATOR: The ax men are
logging coast to coast. GABE: Get out of there! Logs coming down. Watch out! Oh! NARRATOR: From the backbreaking
mountains of the Pacific Northwest to the
never-before seen, gator-infested
waters of the South, and everywhere in between. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Watch it. MAN: Watch out.
Watch out. Watch out. Watch out. NARRATOR: A new breed of loggers
like Louisiana Swamp Man-- Ha, ha! Here we go. NARRATOR: --battle for
the country's green gold. MAN: Move, move, move! NARRATOR: But this
time, it's summer, and logging is hell on Earth. The heat has come back. The guys are starting out
behind the eight ball. NARRATOR: Raging fires,
swarms of killer bees-- Ow! NARRATOR: --and more
extreme terrain. Oh, my god! --make it harder than ever to
get the most timber and get out alive. MAN: James, James, over here! Look out! MAN: Move, move, move! Oh! [theme music] [helicopter sound] [music playing] NARRATOR: The dog days of summer
in the Pacific Northwest-- [eagle cry] --more than a million
acres of no-man's land. [horn] Over the next 12
weeks, three of Oregon and Washington's toughest
yarder logging outfits will risk life and
limb wrestling timber from these mountains, but only
one will claim the title, king of the mountain. Leading the charge into the
woods is Rygaard Logging. - Are you ready to go?
- We're ready to move out. We're-- That's good because we ain't
making no money doing this. No.
I know. Whoa! NARRATOR: This lean and mean
operation run by Gabe Rygaard and his father, Craig, has
bragging rights on the mountain after outproducing logging
giant, JM Browning. You know, you come
into town and you-- you-- you beat the best, and
you've got to back it up, you know? You can't just be a fluke. Last season, we were
David, and we beat Goliath. Now I'm going to prove to
everybody that I can take on the hardest job out there,
and I can still beat everybody. NARRATOR: To prove they belong
in the big leagues of logging, this year, Rygaard is
taking on a massive new job, the 44-acre Raindrop Site. Logging long spans
like this usually demands a 100-foot
yarder, but Gabe thinks his 50-footer can pull it off. GABE: Our yarder is a 1970 West
Coast Falcon, also referred to as the green bean. It's not the fanciest. It's just our style. We just-- it will
get the job done. NARRATOR: Gabe is so confident
he's sinking every last penny into this job. But his father
already has doubts. CRAIG: Here it comes. Watch out. Hey, watch-- watch out. Here it comes. Damn. [rattle] We're past our comfort zone
on our yarder for what we can reach and the amount
of wood we can pull. Are we hanging our
ass out for this job? Rygaard logging is,
and so is Gabe Rygaard. We're-- we're-- yeah, we're
right up to our necks here. Cut! NARRATOR: Rygaard's equipment
will be stretched thin, and so will its crew. Before work begins tomorrow,
Gabe heads back to his shop to meet with some new hands. Yeah, I got a couple of
greenhorns coming here today. NARRATOR: 22-year-old Dave
Schroeder, a single father looking to provide for his son. I'm here to meet
Gabe, the big boss. NARRATOR: And Travis Davis, a
23-year-old bad boy who grew up hunting in these mountains. Yeah, a big day meeting Gabe. I've been around shops my whole
life, so I'm not too nervous. NARRATOR: Both rookies will be
vying for one permanent slot on the crew.
- You're Gabe, right? - Yep, I'm Gabe.
- Good to meet you. Travis.
- Travis? - Dave Shroeder.
- Dave? Nice to meet you. I'm ready for the opportunity. I'm here to show you what I got.
GABE: Yeah? What about you?
How about you, Travis? I'm stoked.
GABE: Yeah? It sounds like a--
a great opportunity, and I can't wait to get to work. You know, it's a
real dangerous setting. As we found out today,
there's lots of bees. It's steep, add the heat. You guys are both going
to be put to the test. You know, I'm sorry
to tell you this, but I don't love greenhorns. And-- and I'm sure that
as they get to know me, they're going to love me
just about the same way. They're a necessary evil for
me because they don't know what they're doing, and they
can be underfoot, you know? Here they are working
in woods wearing a hard hat and cork boots. Oh, yeah. I appreciate the opportunity.
- Yeah, you bet. - Thanks a lot.
- Yeah. NARRATOR: 200 miles south is
Rygaard's biggest competition, JM Browning. Over the last 31 years,
logging tycoon Jay Browning has built his company
into an empire, but after being outgunned
by the Rygaards, Jay is mounting a comeback. All loggers are very
competitive people, and, you know, I learned
last year that the Rygaard's are extremely
competitive people, but we're back in the hunt. [saw] Jay rips into the first trees of
his new job, the 70-acre Kolina site. His goal, 750 loads of
second-generation Douglas fir worth almost
a million dollars. Perfect. NARRATOR: Jay's plan to
get back on top [crash] is to personally
oversee the site, but to do that, he must
hand the business side over to his son, Jesse. Instead of having
Jesse tending hook, you know, a job that he is
a little apprehensive at, I see a lot more benefit
using him as a businessman. This is something I've
always wanted to get into. I-- I like crunching numbers
and seeing how we can come up with things. I think this would be, you
know, a different path for me, but I-- I-- I'll definitely enjoy it. I'd like to spend a lot
more time in the woods myself. NARRATOR: But doing
what he likes best comes with the highest risk. You guys, really watch it,
could be a lot of limbs flying. NARRATOR: Jay spots a
100-pound dead branch known as a widowmaker
dangling 80 feet up in a tree. JAY: I had a-- a friend that was falling timber
that looked up and came down, hit him in the teeth, and broke
his jaw right off both sides. But you just got to be
ready to get out of the way. NARRATOR: Widowmakers can
break free at any moment, spearing a logger below. MAN: Heads up. Watch her. Everybody clear? [crack] [crash] You run for your life
out here once in a while. [music playing] NARRATOR: While Jake carves his
way into the forest, 40 miles southwest, Pihl Logging is
rebuilding from the ground up. OK, fire in the hole. [cranking] NARRATOR: After being shut
down by tough times for eight months, owner, Mike Pihl, brings
his 25-year-old yarder back to life. We're just headed for our
new job for the new season. This year has got to be our
year that we're producers. We want to be number one. NARRATOR: Mike is laying
it all on the line at the 79-acre Snowbreak site. With almost a million
dollars worth of big timber ripe for the taking, Mike's
first contract of this season will either put him on
top or sink his company and his reputation for good. It's a great job, big
timber, beautiful fir patch. We have got to redeem ourselves. We have no choice. NARRATOR: To hedge his bets,
Mike's calling in a hired gun to keep his crew in line. [music playing] MIKE: This year we
have a secret weapon. We have a new man on the crew. He's running the yarder. Melvin. So they're all
standing around. Let's go get some [bleep] logs. MAN: [inaudible] on her, buddy. NARRATOR: Melvin Lardy,
6 foot 5", 350 pounds. This 22-year industry vet and
owner of Stump Branch Logging is now joining forces with Pihl. MELVIN: With the
Mike and Melvin show, we're going to give them big
guys a run for their money. We're just going to
have shifter in high, and we'll get her done. NARRATOR: Melvin is
known for doing what it takes to get the wood out. MELVIN: Watch out.
Watch out. Watch out. NARRATOR: And putting the
hammer down on his crew. Oh, all y'all
paying attention? Run, run, run. I always try to push. I try to push, push, push. That's the way I learned. That's the way I try
to teach everyone else. [music playing] That should work. Now we're ready
to get some logs. It's only been eight months. NARRATOR: As the new Pihl gets
ready to take on the mountain, across Oregon and Washington,
bone-crushing steel roars to life. Tomorrow, men will wrestle
the first 1,000-pound logs of the season.
MAN: Out of the way! MAN: Hold up. Log's coming! NARRATOR: But with
snapping cables-- MAN: Move, move, move. The line! NARRATOR:
--ankle-breaking terrain, and the devastating
force of gravity, this season will prove to
be more dangerous than ever. MAN: Whoa! NARRATOR: 4:30 AM. For the elite loggers
of North America, it's the dawn of a new season. In Washington, Rygaard's new
greenhorn, Dave Schroeder, says goodbye to his son-- See you after work, buddy. NARRATOR: --and leaves
him with his grandma. A single father, Dave
heads into the unknown, hoping to build a new life for
him and his four-year-old boy. If I had to talk
about a fear that I had, it wouldn't be for my son. It would be that if
something did happen to me, what would happen to him? Where would he go? What would he do, you know? NARRATOR: Up the mountain road,
Rygaard's other new greenhorn, Travis Davis, is dealing
with his own fears. I haven't met
Craig yet, and I-- I've heard a lot of
horror stories about him, and I'd be lying if I
said I wasn't nervous. - Morning, guys.
- Morning. Morning. First thing of business,
this is Travis and Dave. These are two new greenhorns. Hey, guys, this is Fernando. It's Roger, Eddie, and Rick. MAN: You're Rick? GABE: And then you'll get
introduced to my dad later. Anyway, this is about a 44-acre
site that we're working on, lots of bees. Are any of you two guys
have any problems with bees? No. Because it's a big deal down
here because they're nasty. And I don't know any
other way of putting it. I mean, I've already been stung. Cutters have been stung. So just be safe and try to
teach these two kids how to log, you know? I expect these guys to work. I mean, we need them to
help us get this job done. NARRATOR: Rygaard is beginning
the biggest challenge of its career, attempting to
log a long and steep patch of timber with
their modest yarder. GABE: One of the
tougher settings that you can bite
off, especially with a tower like ours. I mean, we don't have a
big super yarder, you know? We just got our green bean. NARRATOR: The first step
is stringing the skyline-- Come on! NARRATOR: --the cable that
hauls logs to the landing. MAN: There it goes. NARRATOR: But the
16,000-pound wire, which will span more
than a half a mile, is too heavy to pull by hand. Instead, crews run a smaller
cable called a haywire out to a pulley at the
anchor point and back. Once the loop is
complete, the yarder pulls in the haywire, which
pulls the skyline out and up. And we can't get
none of these logs off the land off the
side of this mountain until we get the
skyline in the air. OK, guys, let's--
let's get after it. NARRATOR: As the greenhorns
launch into their first task across Oregon and Washington,
the roar of chainsaws fills the air. [crash] The first stands of prized
hemlock, alder, and Douglas fir come crashing to the ground. [crash] Outside Astoria, Oregon
at the JM Browning site, Jay lays down the
law for his crew. So everything understood? Let's get out there and
get some [bleep] wood. MAN: Right.
- Yeah. No [bleep] around this year. 1,000 logs today. We'll get them. [music playing] Yeah. Set this [bleep] up again. Start logging. NARRATOR: This season,
Jay has a new strategy. You know, we're coming into
this thing well-prepared. We're logging
smarter, not harder. NARRATOR: To get more
bang for his buck, he's rolling in a special piece
of equipment known as a swing yarder. JAY: I think it gives us
quite an advantage, really. Obviously, it swings
like a log loader does. It's on a turntable. NARRATOR: In addition
to hauling turns, the swing yarder can rotate
to place logs anywhere at its base, which
speeds production. And setup time is a fraction
of a typical yarder. The other yards we have,
you got to lay the tube down, pick the tube back up. This one's fast, and
it's always set up. [horn] Coming up. [music playing] Good quick rig-up. That's what I like to see. NARRATOR: Jay takes pride
in having the best equipment and the best crew. Here comes Johnny! Come on. NARRATOR: Charging ahead
to choke turns in the brush is Jay's all-star
rigger, DJ Jeremiah. [bleep] OK, first turn
for JM [bleep] Browning. Pretty good, eh? NARRATOR: DJ spends the
offseason on a fishing boat in Alaska, where he lost
three teeth pulling up a net. When I pulled it back, it just
snapped like that, you know? And I still had the rope, but
it [bleep] whipped like that, and come back, and popped
me right in the mouth. That's fine, ain't it? NARRATOR: Jay's plan is to
work smarter, not harder, but to DJ, logging in the
brush is a full-contact sport. [groan] I don't tiptoe through
the tulips out here. I'm here to get some
[bleep] wood to the landing. Yeah, [bleep] in there. Ah, god. NARRATOR: After storming up
and down the hill for more than an hour, DJs
already feeling the effects of 90-degree heat. You can see I'm sweating. I'm working my [bleep] ass off. I'm dying-- my ass
is kicked, you know? You get out here, and
this is what happens, you know what I mean? I've drank half a
gallon of water today. Ain't pissed yet. I'll drink a gallon and
a half water all day, won't piss till about I
get home at 5 o'clock. What's that tell you? NARRATOR: And it's not
long before he encounters one of summer's other hazards. [buzz] He took a whole [bleep]
right at a bees' nest. Look at all these
bees around me. [yell] Oh! Ah! Ah! Oh! Oh! Oh! Son of a [bleep] just lit me up. They got me six or eight times
all on the back, the neck. [buzz] [bleep] hate them. [buzz] NARRATOR: As the race for
timber heats up in the Pacific Northwest, across
the country, there's a new player in the game. It's logging, Cajun style. [music playing] The Louisiana bayou, more
than 1,000 square miles of winding creeks
and hidden inlets. It's home to millions of
dollars of ax-cut cypress and hard pine that sunk
on the way to the mill more than 100 years ago. But the murky water won't give
up its gold without a price. Guarding this sunken treasure
are creatures of the swamp-- Whoa! NARRATOR: --that lurk
just out of sight. There's only one
man brave enough to face down this murky maze
and haul the treasure home-- [saw] Shelby "Swamp Man" Stanga. Ha ha! Here we go. [music playing] GARY: He's one of a kind. He is a true American swamp man. He can live out here and live
off the land and be content. Yeah, I've been in the
swamp since I was nine. I'm telling you. That's true. NARRATOR: To see if his
visitors are prepared for the hazards of the swamp,
Shelby has a simple test. Oh, my god. Ha, ha! Here we go. GARY: [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] You'll be all right. Gary, you'll be all right. Oh, [inaudible]. Oh, my god! Ha, ha! NARRATOR: The swamp may
be Shelby's playground, but when it comes to retrieving
sunken logs, it's all business. GARY: There's no visibility
whatsoever in the water. There's alligators, snakes,
turtles, everything possible that can hurt a
human, and Shelby's amongst them all, trying to
get the logs out and preserve these logs. You dancing Shelby, or what? NARRATOR: Using just his feet,
Shelby can tell everything he needs to know about a log. GARY: Shelby has got the
Midas touch with his feet. He can-- he can take
and feel the logs and see how they big they are,
see how much mud's around them. There's another
one right here. GARY: And he goes down
and inspects them. And the snakes and alligators
are scared of Shelby. A log came up. Shelby is up. Here we go. [cranking] NARRATOR: Shelby
reels in his catch with his Log Dog, a
210-horsepower winch affixed to a 16-foot pontoon. Look at that. - Oh, yeah.
- Huh? Mhm. NARRATOR: It's logs like
this sinker cypress worth up to $3,000 and used to make high
end furniture that have paid for Shelby's fleet of equipment. But now the centerpiece
of his operation, a 145-foot barge with a
massive, 120-foot crane, is in danger of sinking after
years in the salty marsh. So he needs to raise
enough cash to buy a new barge for his crane. Well, to save that crane,
man, it's going to take at least anywhere from $80,000 to $90,000
to be coming in here and put-- get another barge and--
and put that crane on it. My family mortgaged their
house and land for it, but I don't to
lose my crane, man. Man, I mean, that's
my money, man. That's like-- like my
heart, Jack, you know? [music playing] NARRATOR: With his
livelihood on the line, Shelby's not stopping with
the morning's one log. We're going to come on
some logs in [inaudible] in the swamp. You got to find them
before you can float them. Yeah, you got to watch out for
the alligators, the snakes, the damn turtles, the damn fish
hooks that's on the logs when you down there diving. Yeah, a lot of
people die down here. There's an alligator, see his
head sticking up right there in [inaudible] creek. [music playing] NARRATOR: After decades
logging in the swamp-- SHELBY: Where is he at? NARRATOR: --Shelby's confident
he can take on the gator without getting hurt. SHELBY: Probably went
in that damn slough. Yeah, he went down. He's probably
laying right there. See his bubbles coming up? Pull right up on top of him. I wonder which way his body is. There's only one
way to found out. Yeah, I'm going to grab him by
the tail, grab him by the head. [music playing] [splash] It's day 1 on the
Louisiana bayou. There's an alligator. See his head sticking
up right there? NARRATOR: And nothing
will stop the Swamp Man from getting his log. SHELBY: Probably went
in the damn slough. He's probably
laying right there. See his bubbles coming up. There's only one
way to find out. [splash] I thought it was
a damn alligator, but it was a damn log. NARRATOR: Shelby missed the
gator, but landed on the gold. Cypress. [music playing] It's over here, pawpaw. NARRATOR: Using
just his bare feet, he digs through the mud to
determine the exact species of log. I'm walking in this mud. This mud is about
4-foot deep here. I'm-- I'm feeling for them-- them saw logs. Oh! Eww wee! Oh, there's another good one,
really good [bleep],, really, no [bleep]. Look, here's one right here. Look at this one right here. It's a big one here, pawpaw. Can you see it? Look. I've got a-- I've got
mark these [bleep].. X marks the spot, Jack. NARRATOR: Four logs marked worth
up to $12,000, Shelby's one step closer to raising
the cash for a new barge. Use this for a cup. I want that. NARRATOR: 2,700 miles northwest,
Browning is trudging ahead. [crash] I don't know about
them Rygaard guys, but they better get a bigger
yarder and a better rigging crew because we're going to be
[bleep] putting the loads out. Rygaard, get ready. Browning's coming for you. NARRATOR: 200 miles
north, the Rygaards can't pull any logs until they
finish stringing their skyline. We're going to be tailhooking
way over there up on that hill, that other mountain. See that mountain over there.
- Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's
where we're going. NARRATOR: On the heels
of veteran Rick Loftin, greenhorn Dave hauls an
80-pound pulley half a mile through the dense forest. This block is like having a
chest full of beer on my back walking up a mountainside
and down a mountainside. [inaudible] right here. DAVE: This job is very important
to me for my son, for myself. If I don't succeed out
here, I'm basically screwed. I've been looking for
work for too long to let this opportunity pass by. NARRATOR: Up the mountain,
Rygaard's other new greenhorn, Travis, helps drag the
3/8-inch steel haywire out to the pulley. [machine sound] There's a lot of
resistance behind it. I mean, it's like pulling
100 pounds behind you all the way down this hill. Easy. Pull, Travis. Pull. You've got to pull. I'm pulling. Pull more. You can do it. Pull till your
guts want to puke. Then pull some more. [bleep] NARRATOR: Already
behind the eight ball, Gabe's not going to wait on a
greenhorn to get his company up and logging. GABE: Plenty of haywire. Go ahead. If he don't get it together,
and I get done with this, I'm going to go over
there, and I'm going to drag him down the hill. NARRATOR: An hour later,
the pulley is set. All right. NARRATOR: And the
haywire is strung. OK. [whistle] GABE: Go ahead. OK. [machine sounds] Here we go. The skyline is on its
way to the back end. NARRATOR: After
completing his first task, Dave is sizing up
his competition. Gabe said that he's got
room for a hardworking guy with a good attitude, and
I want to be that guy. Travis is slow. I'm faster. I'm [bleep] tired. If you're not me,
don't do this job. You can't. MAN: Why is that? Because only I can do it. I'm telling you right
now, it's some hard work. [laughs] NARRATOR: Dave is
ready to get logging, but before he even
makes it up the hill-- [squeak] [thud] --there's trouble
raising the skyline. [thud] The haywire is stuck. It's pulling
really, really hard. [click] Somewhere between here and
2,500 feet down the hill, we have some sort of a
hang up with the haywire. Sounded like it hit the water. Did you hear it? NARRATOR: Rick and
Dave spot the problem, the cable is hung up in a
pond full of tree stumps. In the middle of those stobs,
the haywire is burning into it, and it won't clear up over them. Let's see if we
can get it free. I'm going to try to walk out
there without falling in. NARRATOR: The eager greenhorn
goes right for the snag. Hey, there might be
too much tension on it. NARRATOR: What Dave
doesn't know is that when a line's
this tight, it can snap at any moment and
slice right through a logger. [groan] DAVE: Whoa! [music playing] NARRATOR: At Rygaard Logging,
a greenhorn's first day has taken a potentially
disastrous turn. Dave Schroeder was trying to
free the haywire from a snag-- Hey, there might be
too much tension on it. NARRATOR: --when, suddenly-- [groan] DAVE: Whoa. Ah, [bleep]. NARRATOR: Fortunately for Dave,
all that broke was the stump. Ain't that some [bleep]. I was pulling that cable
off, off one of these stumps here sticking up. There was a lot
of tension on it. As soon as I got to the top,
I had to pull real hard. It just jerked me. Whoa. Ah! OK, go down again, Eddie. NARRATOR: With the
snag clear, the skyline goes up without a problem. Got her? [inaudible] NARRATOR: There's just
three hours left in the day, and Rygaard's
finally pulling logs. But Gabe isn't happy. I got a greenhorn
that's supposed to be up here on the landing,
and he's disappeared. I don't know where he's at. Oh, I got some water in me. I feel a little bit better. That's something to
get me all energized. I can't teach somebody
nothing if they're not here. So-- oh, he's just
now wandering back. I couldn't find my gloves. Get up here. NARRATOR: So far,
Travis hasn't done much to make a good impression. Come on. Hustle, hustle, hustle. NARRATOR: Especially with Craig,
who's not fond of greenhorns. Watch. You're a big boy, right? TRAVIS: Yeah. Pull on that. All right. And release it. There's a lot to
teach those guys. Neither one of those guys
have even started a chainsaw. GABE: Watch out. It scares me. I just don't want
anybody to get hurt. NARRATOR: The landing is a
minefield of danger zones, especially for greenhorns. The space in front of the
yarder is vulnerable to attacks from incoming turns. The area surrounding
guylines can be a kill zone if a stump uproots or a cable
snaps and the ground in between is full of blind spots
that constantly change with every move
the machines make. There's almost no
safe place to stand. And as Craig swings a
20,000 pound log overhead, the greenhorn finds
himself in the wrong place. CRAIG: [inaudible] [crash] Travis? NARRATOR: The log missed
Travis by only inches. [crash] CRAIG: You could
[bleep] and you [bleep].. What in the [bleep] hell
are you thinking about? Get the [bleep] out of there. Oh, my god. Jesus, help us. [inaudible] [bleep] help him. Get [bleep] down the rope. Get the [bleep]. Get the [bleep] [inaudible]. I'm telling you,
boy, get out of here. You [bleep] greenhorning
mother [bleep].. GABE: Right underneath that log? Son of [bleep]. Don't you ever send one
of them stupid [bleep] down there like that without
telling them what to do. I said it right here, dad. He [bleep] walked right
over that [bleep] log. Well, dad, you know what? [bleep] could have killed him. [bleep] GABE: You don't walk
out underneath anything. All right. Same thing with that. Same thing with that. Until they look at
you and say it's OK, you don't walk out there. I'm done. Why don't you just
[bleep] calm down, dad. If you can't [bleep]
hack it, then go home. NARRATOR: Rygaard is down,
but 290 miles south, Pihl is pushing forward. Get some logs. [whistle] NARRATOR: The yarder is set. MAN: Nice. NARRATOR: And it's new engineer,
Melvin Lardy, is going hard. The previous operator,
Leland, is still on the crew, but he isn't happy about
losing his seat in the yarder. I've been working for
Pihl for four years. The fact that Melvin's in
the yarder is [bleep] to me, you know? NARRATOR: But Melvin
is not apologizing for taking his key position. Mike gave me control
to motivate these guys, so if it's ass
kickings, or firings, or whatever it takes to
get the logs out and get a lot every day. NARRATOR: The turns are
flying up to the landing. [whistle] But Kyle, the chaser, isn't in
position to unhook the logs. Hey, we're waiting on you. That's your job to
unhook them things. And you're slowing us down. We gotta wait on you. It's not that I'm
frickin' [bleep].. It's just I like to
get a lot of logs. NARRATOR: In the
mountains of Oregon, Browning is going full bore. They've already pulled 22 loads,
two more than Jay expected, and there's still an
hour left in the day. I'd have to say that the
Browning machine is back. [crash] I'd like to think we're
a step ahead of everybody right off the bat. [whistle] NARRATOR: Down the hill-- Come on. Pull it up. [inaudible] the
son of a [muted].. NARRATOR: --rigging slinger
DJ is still going strong-- Ow! [bleep] NARRATOR: --after
being attacked by bees. Ah! [bleep] Life in the woods
for JM Browning. [inaudible] [music playing] MAN: [inaudible] Yeah, go ahead. Yah! NARRATOR: Keeping pace
with DJ is Cody Davis. Cody worked for Pihl
two seasons ago. Watch him. Watch him. That's Cody. Look at him. That [bleep] is an animal. Hey, that's [bleep]
a pulling machine. I doubt a 35-year-old
man is going to keep up with that [bleep] kid. But I'll give her
hell, as you can see. Describe DJ in one word? Brain damaged. Just kidding. He's a good guy. He works hard, always
got a good attitude, and makes the day go
by faster out here. It's why I like
working with him. [bleep] [inaudible]. [inaudible] [laughs] You know, you
called me brain dead. Check, son of a [bleep]. The kids in the brush [bleep]. NARRATOR: Energized and
ready to take on all comers, Browning is poised to
be the unstoppable force of this logging season. [inaudible] NARRATOR: As day
1 nears its close, Browning has already shot
ahead of Rygaard by 10 loads, and with 16 loads for Pihl,
Melvin is coming out swinging. Because I don't [bleep] talk. Because I talk with
these mother [bleep].. Get some logs, more logs. [whistle] NARRATOR: Melvin's been
pushing hard on the crew-- MELVIN: Hurry it up. NARRATOR: --and the equipment. The skyline is too
low, causing turns to drag through the brush on
their way up the mountain. MELVIN: The guy can't
keep the skyline in there, and it's getting so bad now
that everything is in the dirt. Yeah, he ground down
like crazy here right here on the top of this hill. They're just beating the
crap out of those five stumps right there. MAN: Every turn, no lip. NARRATOR: The last turn of the
day almost reaches the top. But then-- MELVIN: Oh! NARRATOR: --it gets snagged. [bleep] god. Oh, my, god, dude. [bleep] NARRATOR: Melvin
guns the yarder, hoping to break the snag loose. By revving the 460
horsepower yarder to its max, Melvin risks toppling it over-- Earthquake. Earthquake. NARRATOR: --or
breaking the skyline. [music playing] [whistle] I swear to god, [bleep]. Ah. [crack] [groan] MAN: What the hell? Dude, you all right? Melvin? You all right in there? Mel! [music playing]
