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QUIET LIFE: For workers, camp life is a quiet and solitary one. Most workers do
it for ihe money. A bit of tv. early to bed then up and at em is the consensus.

Life in a Logging Camp

by Maureen Kafer

Living in a logging camp takes a special
kind of person. Day after day spent in vir-
tual seclusion, living in closed quarters
with a small group of people.

For the majority of loggers, camp life is
a necessity, one that they accept.

People who work and live out in logging
camps come from a variety of different
lifestyles.

Verla Cassidy is a processor operator.
She and her husband work and live in a
logging camp. ,

They have been living together like this
for 11 years. Verla cooks their meals for
the both of them in their trailer as opposed
to eating with the rest of the crew in the
cook shack. .

At Christmas time, Verla puts up a tree,
“1 do it every year because that’s where
we spend all of our time,”’ she says.

The working season usually lasis from
August until March, During the holidays
Verla and “her husband Norm take ad-
vantage of the time by traveling 10 places
like Bahamas, Mexico, Jamaica and this
year they will visit Australia.

Verla doesn’t mind being away from
home for such long stretches because she
makes her trailer as homey as possible for
her and her husband. ;

“For us, it’s all right,’’ but Verla doesn’t
think it would. be that much fun for a man
with a.wife and kids..

- Family man Jim Fehr agrees. “It sucks,"’
he says. oS

Fehr has been living in camp for 10
years. He met his wife before he went out
into. the bush and when he started the job
he figured the money. and the time off dur-
ing the summer was worth the sacrifice. ,

He has two children and feels compelled
to spend as much time with them as he

‘Where they can S

erve a logger’s special

20 oz. Steak- 16.95

can, ‘I miss out on fots so on the
weekends I take them out tobogganing or
out for an ice cream, but you’ve gotla do
stuff with them.”

Fehr says that being away isn’t as much
of a strain on his relationship with his fam-
ily as when he comes home again.
‘“Nobody's used to each other.’* he says.

Fehr is a quiet person and doesn’t mind
spending time alone. He fulfills his social
needs with his co-workers, ‘‘It’s like a
family,’” he says.

However, he says there is always the tisk
of getting too much of another person,
‘*¥ou put two best friends in a shack and
within a month, they hate each other.”’

One element that keeps everything
stirred up a bit is mobility. Often camps
change and depending on the crew, there is
often a turnover in staff.

Seasonal workers are common in the
logging industry. One such worker is a
young, single Ryan Kurz. He works as a
handy man around the camp and is in it for
the experience as well as the money. *‘I’m
doing this because it’s probably my last
season in forestry and I wanted to spend a
winter oul here,’’ he says.

Kurz uses his spare time lo study, read or
watch movies and has forged a small so-
cial group out at camp.

However, it’s not all a walk in the park,
“Is a bit of a drag being away all the
time, bul it. rejuvenates you going back
into town,'”

One thing that everyone seems to agree
on is that it takes alot of sacrifice to live
in a camp. But every one feels it is worth
it, because the money is good.”

Fehr says people don't understand why
they get paid so much. His answer is, “‘All
you do here is work and cat and sleep, you
are sacrificing your social life and that’s
worth something.”” ,

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