the difference between a cant dog and a peavey

roll it bank it choke it saw it tag it

roll it

(I am thinking of the scene in Underworld by DeLillo where the jesuit priest instructs Nick Shay to name every part of the shoe. As Nick struggles, the priest says

“You didn’t see the thing because you don’t know how to look. And you don’t know how to look because you don’t know the names.”)

(Expertise comes from mastering the names of the little things. The ability to express larger ideas comes from this.)

saw it (Timber Tina’s Great Maine Lumberjack Show)

That is to say, I saw Timber Tina's Great Maine Lumberjack Show last night in Trenton, Maine. Trenton is towards the southeastern coast of the state, near Bar Harbor and Acadia national park.

At the show, the lumberjacks, four college boys, competed in a number of challenges, many of which, as you might imagine involved cutting logs. There are many ways lumberjacks cut logs, at least in lumberjack competitions. They cut them with fast axes, they cut them with felling axes, they cut logs with saws two men to a log (this technique revolutionized logging, greatly increasing the rate at which logging could be done, accelerating the development of America and with it the flow of capital, while fundamentally changing the relationship to the natural world, the landscape of Maine, and setting the stage for ecological destruction. As it turns out saws are not as fun to watch as axes in terms of spectator sport.) They cut logs while standing on them and while standing next standing next to them. They threw axes at a target, sometimes hitting the bullseye, sometimes missing the target completely, the ax flying off into the forest behind the target. They climbed trees, or rather wooden poles stripped of bark and smoothed into a fine cylinder, with spiked shoes and harnesses. They stood on top of logs while they rolled in the water, competing to see who could stay on longest. They fell in the water.

choke it

At one point the phrase “roll it bank it choke it saw it tag it” was said. I love that phrase. I love the sound of the words. I love the monosyllabic thrust. I love the rhythm. The phrase was said quickly, practiced, in showmanlike eight notes. I love the repetition of “it”, the pronoun without reference, the tongue against teeth and alveolar flip tap plosive T, the K of bank and choke it, the hard velar stopping against the soft palate at the back of the roof of the mouth. The words are short and hard. T, K, like an axe against a tree.

I made a sort of notation of the vowel sounds of the phrase, approximately from lowest to highest. I enjoy visualizing the sonic qualities of sentences and breaking them down as if they were music. This highlights the up and down of the phrase and the way it returns every other beat to “it”.

A log was rolled, banked, choked, and tagged. Rolling I think spells itself. Banking is placing it in the holding cradle. Choking is wrapping a zip tie around it. Tagging may have just meant slapping the log to end the event for show?

bank it (the difference between a cant dog and a peavey)

There was a tool, wooden rod with a metal hook and spike at the end. Timber Tina asked if anyone knew what it was. The crowd was silent before a child shouted something out. I couldn’t make it out at first and neither could Timber Tina. The child shouted it out a few more times. One of the lumberjacks told Timber Tina the child was saying cant dog. It was clear that no one in the audience had any idea what he was talking about. The silence by this point was maybe a little awkward, maybe everyone was worrying the child had just embarrassed himself. Timber Tina assured us he hadn’t. She said “close, it is a peavey.” She wanted to stress to the audience how close the child was, that he wasn’t just shouting nonsense but was actually naming an incredibly similar tool, and in fact from that distance it was hard to tell the difference.

Both tools, cant dogs and peaveys, “allow for rolling logs where you need them, share the same handles for leverage and swinging hooks for gripping logs”. The difference between a cant dog and a peavey is that a peavey has pointed end on its hook. The peavy is better for jabbing, the cant dog, which has more teeth, is better for rolling. The peavey is “designed for separating logs, sticking in the ground for sliding or leveraging logs, and easy storage access”. I’m sure you understand.

The peavey is named after the peavey family, who are still involved with the manufacture and sale of the tool.

I learned (“learned”) about the difference between a fast axe and a felling axe and when it is better to use an axe and when it is better to use a saw and when it is better to use an axe. Axes, at least those used in Timber Tina's Great Maine Lumberjack Show, are usually made of some sort of carbon alloy.

Balsam fir is the predominant tree in Maine lumber. It is a softwood.

tag it (“I knew the name. I just didn’t see the thing.”)

It is helpful to me to focus on the names of the axes, the names of the parts of the axes, the names of the trees. Other wise I might have written something like: the lumber industry.. simulation thereof..built america.. sport now… copy of things now.. .. cosplaying the industry of the past.. wow…

(I love the precision of words. I love words that from their sound alone can conjure the atmosphere of the world they are a part of, the kind that can be worth half a page of description. I guess that is what poetry is, but that is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the names of things, the little languages unique to a discipline or community. Some words just have a little more energy to them, and for me they can propel a scene forward while also clarifying the parameters of the world.)

Stray words bouncing around my head from other industries:

from the lumber industry’s cousin, mining, we have muck, jumbo, rip, stope (ore or rock that has been broken by blasting, rock drill carriages, a method of loosening a soil or rock before the final excavation, a large underground room or tunnel in a mine that's created by excavating ore).

from the sail of sailboat we have luff, tack, clew, batten.

For lunch yesterday I ate a lobster roll overlooking a harbor while listening to a guitar singer perform covers of classic songs with a nylon string guitar. (If you’re ever in Bar Harbor and in need of entertainment check out John Tercyak: over 700 songs for request, has music, will travel.) There were boats in the harbor, boats with sails. Something was not quite right with the harbor. The water seemed to have receded greatly maybe, leaving large stretches of muddy banks jutting out. Some of the boats were in this muddy stretch and not the water. (I don’t know the names of the world of a harbor and it makes it hard to explain.) I don’t know if this is how it always looks at this time of year or if this is a portent of climate collapse. It’s harder and harder to tell these days.