HARDWICK, Vt. -
When logger Eric Stratton showed up for work in Hardwick Wednesday morning the wind chill was 28 below zero.
"It's extreme when the wind's picking up," Stratton said.
But in these bone-chilling temperatures, the to-do list remained at the Timber Resource Group Lumber Yard.
"Log scaling, grading, loading trucks, unloading trucks," Stratton said.
Fuel deliverers showed up for service.
"This is my first load I have to go back and get another load later on," said Steve Harrman of DeadRiver Company.
And the truck drivers were ready to roll.
"Another day, cold or not you got to go to work. That's what it is. I mean cold or not, we've got to move this stuff," said Marcel Roy of KRB Trucking.
And as these guys soon learned, taking a break quickly created new problems.
"I had a cup of coffee that was in the loader and then I shut the motor off and when I went back to get the cup of coffee it was froze up right in the cup," Stratton said.
By lunch time it was -10° and windy. Still, this team would need to move more than 1,500 logs before they could call the day.
"You've got to move the wood and as you can tell this yard here is pretty busy, so we have to move the wood," Roy said.
It's work that requires attire you won't find at the office.
"You don't go to the office with three layers of ski pants on pants two jackets on," Stratton said.
"T-shirts, two sweatshirts, a winter jacket, that's it, long johns," Roy said.
Stratton says he's loved his job in the log yard for more than a decade, but admits on days like this 5 o'clock couldn't come soon enough.
"I just want to go home, lay down on the couch, watch a little TV, 80° house," he said.
