2017 International Forest Industries Magazines June July 2017 | Page 71

Who says there are no hills in Saskatchewan? The 630E pulling out of a steep gully
When asked what it was like
to make the adjustment from
employee to high production
contractor, Gary shrugs. “Nothing
too much different. I have always
tried to look after things and
run the show like a supervisor.”
Gary feels that he has naturally
progressed into a role of managing
people because even as an
employee he found himself taking
responsibility and really caring
about the job and the equipment.
He admits managing people can
be a challenge. “It is hard to find
good guys but a whole bunch of
my family are involved in logging.
Everyone but Bob Head and Melvin
Gladue are family. So now we have
a really good crew, eight guys with
low turnover.” When they are camp
based, Gary’s girlfriend, Rolanda,
runs the kitchen, hauls water and
moves fuel tanks for the machines.
“Dad runs for parts and does
anything else needed to keep the
operation going. He is very proud
of us. We have a real good team
here – everyone works together.”
“Dad lets me run the show,”
says Gary. “I do most of the
repair work and sometimes we
will get Redhead in.” Darren
bounces between the skidder and
a processor. All the operators do
their own daily maintenance. “We
want to have guys that care about
the equipment like we do. We cut
loose an operator that doesn’t
look after the machines or doesn’t
produce. They don’t work here.”
Chuck Miles from Redhead
has spent a lot of time with the
Thomas brothers, seeing how
they work and watching their
rapid progress. “Since they have
been in the bush all their lives,
they know they need to keep
the machines running. So right
from the start they set up a fully
stocked mobile shop with a hose
crimper, fittings, a compressor and
an inventory of wear parts. When
guys start out, sometimes this stuff
gets overlooked. They made it a
priority when they first started so
that they would have the machine
availability. They are down for one
hour instead of running to town
and having a machine being down
for half a day. That can kill a new
contractor.”
Gary is happy with the
relationship with Redhead
Equipment as well. “The machines
are solid and Redhead has been
good.” Tigercat harvesting head
customer support specialist, Blain
MacDonald has also been integral
to the successful start up of the
operations working with Thomas
Logging and Redhead to ensure the
processors were optimally setup
and that the operators had the
right knowledge out of the gate.
“It is a big investment but it is
worth it,” Gary says as he sums it
all up. “You can’t really think about
how much in debt you are because
these machines are going to pay
for themselves ten times over. We
plan to really look after them and
keep them as long as we can.”
This article originally appeared in
Between the Branches, March 2017,
the official publication of Tigercat
Industries Inc.
International Forest Industries | JUNE / JULY 2017 65