— Letters 04 / 04

A Goose and a Log Truck: What’s the Problem?

Way back in my buckeroo logging days preceding formal education as an architect, I was taking a load of prime grade red oak across the Berkshires to a sawmill in upstate NY.

By Stuart Peaslee October 19, 2026

Log truck being loaded in a wooded clearing, the operator seated high on the loader as it lifts a log onto the stacked rows, with cut logs on the ground in front

Way back in my buckeroo logging days preceding formal education as an architect, I was taking a load of prime grade red oak across the Berkshires to a sawmill in upstate NY, to which they would be processed for upscale foreign markets… all the more precious. This is a heavy load, stacked 4 rows high when on average the rows are often double that. As well, the loader could only lift and drag some of them one end at a time! — this is a thing of beauty as anyone who's ever driven a log truck will attest.

We worked as a team of 3, the ‘chopper’, who felled the trees, the skidder operator, who winched the tree lengths without branches out to the ‘yard’, and ‘bucked’ them, 8′–24′ lengths, and the log truck which would sort out by species & length, load up and make 3–4 trips a day to the sawmills, which would then process into the lumber markets, good, hard work.

Goose family in a grassy field: one adult standing watch, another resting, and three small goslings in the grass

One morning, second load heading West on a rural countryside Rte 57 to Great Barrington, MA, doing a solid 40–45 mph, turning a bend on the two lane I saw a goose with her goslings blithely strut from a barnyard crossing the road, looked at me, we're heading straight for the same spot… it doubled-down, ducked its head, spread its wings and lunged straight for me and my 35 tons barreling towards it…

Two choices, behind schedule, I considered the ‘blind-eye-keep-going’ option but something inside said, ‘Nope’. Geared it down, braking carefully so as not to lose them, I saved that goose's destiny as a hood ornament, slowed it down — full stop within a few feet of a massively bad day for the goose. It stood straight, gave me stinkeye, turned back continuing across the road, unscathed, unfazed! I looked around, just me and that goose. We both kept going, actually made it on time…

Of the choices and outcomes, here are 2 takeaways:

our choices make us, as we make them, (I know some squirrels that weren't so lucky)!
it was the goose's attitude, the goose's naivete that fed its bravery, and my realization of it informed my response. I blinked, the goose probably went on to thrive, I can ‘talk story’.

Canada goose running across the water with its wings raised, taking off

anticipate~coordinate~execute

building visions · Stuart Peaslee, Peaslee Architect, P.C.