August Hunicke Videos

treebilly said:

Awfully BOLD. I would think that living in an area of tall skinnies, you would use them a lot to reduce the drag. I've done a few that were a waste of time but quite a few that saves my ground crew a ton of work.

Great video August. When you switched to the double lines, did you tie them as one or seperatly to your tensioning device?

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Here is the big wood zip formula...

Have to disagree w the Speedline Nays , first time or two it did seem to be only slight improvement but as we got better and dialed it .... Well , the Speedline saves time and effort. Not waiting for hook to come back up plus lower impact on ground as in all those trips dragging brush and humping chunks (especially uphill). I just don't get enough big Softwoods here w an alley for the line often or I'd use it more.

August Hunicke said:

Jed gotta be joking or buzzed.

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I was August. (buzzed, not joking) I apologize to you, YLTG Cory, and whomever else I might have ticked with the assertion. The fact that I now still stand by it cold-sober could merely attest to my own inefficiency at it. The two or three times that I've utillized it.... I've just gone mad with impatience waiting for the stupid stuff to get back up to me. I dunno... maybe a haul-back line or something?? I just hate, hate, hate it. Doesn't mean that some of you guys couldn't have done a tree faster than I with it... it's just that I personnally don't see it; and that, of course, is a very different thing.

Besides saying that the vid was incredibly cool. I also gotta say that the idea of minimizing dings to the landscape seems pretty cool also... although (and alluding to the point that Cory brought up) since you still have to take down the stob conventionally... ya know?? Doesn't it defeat the supposed gain a bit?

Nah, tree leaned hard uphill to the south and was very tall. The MAJORITY of the wood was placed in a beautiful location for pick up AWAY from the SIDEHILL which was, DIRECTLY ABOVE ROCK WALL AND NEW HOME. It wasn't until the stem was very short that it no longer leaned over the retaining wall on the uphill side which was very close to the base of the tree. I was able to pop the last (16" length) chunks uphill with a 1"1/2 piece of plywood against the tree between tree and wall. Those few chunks were then carefully sidehilled out just like you wanted us to.
; )

Thanks for the reply August. I was wondering how you got even tension. Got it now. My guess wasn't far off.

lol @ Jed😂😂👍

Man, I deserve to get laughed at. Thing is... we tree guys have so very little to compare ourselves to. Ya know??... No two trees are quite the same, no two methods are quite the same.... Think of how seldom you actually come across guys who are taking down huge trees in your area. I actually saw another co. today taking out several huge Cottonwoods... here's how big of a geek I am (I'm begging you guys to actually believe this.)... I actually pulled my truck over to the side of the street to go try to talk to em'. Can you imagine doing that? Who DOES that? That's why we waste so much time jumping on the stupid internet (Butch: Your own very noble Forum is the one noteworthy exception) just to try to get a glimpse of what's being cracked up out there. All of ya know what I'm talking about: What good tricks could I be missing out on?... What sweet gear could I be missing out on?... Are there guys out there who are busting stuff out in a way more efficient manner than I... ya know?... Don't act like you guys don't know, cause I know you know what I'm talkin about.

So anyways. Back to the zip-line stuff......... uh... if there are any new guys who are out there... please understand that both August and Reg have way more experience up in the trees than I do, so please... listen to them and take me with a grain of salt. Still: what if I just have to get in my two cents? Here they are:

1) I've been climbing for 13 years. I have worked for three different tree services. In that time I have NEVER (Well... that's not strictly true--I did work one day for a guy named Wade Fagen out of Bend, OR who belived that sometimes zip-lining could be faster.) besides Wade, met a single guy who thought that zip lining was ever faster. Could it save on groundwork? Sure. I just currently doubt that it could ever be faster as a total process from A to Z.

2) Rich: The tall skinnies you're referring to, generally (in the winter) suck to speedline. I can hardly believe that Reg is as comfortable as he is with it... we deal with a ton of very saturated root-wads up here all winter long, and speed-lining just personally freaks me out. August sells his kit with the advice: "Don't die!"... Good advice!! In the Puget Sound area, one could almost translate that as "Don't zip-line if the ground's wet." I can't even believe that Stephen has said what he has said on here with regard to zip-lining dead trees... but, again... them boys got a lot more experience than I.

Two cents boys... and not a penny more.

It's a nickle's worth!

I was referring to your 'drinking' comment fyi....😮 %100 such different scenarios every where,endless variables. There are rarely times that I actually get to utilize it but I did get the hang of it after like the 3rd time ,it's very simple rigging imo and like others said the climbers rigging task is alot easier than setting block and sling for every few cuts,again so many variables I'm definitely not saying it's always the case. I see AH videos and others in norcal and I'm like man,must be nice having all them straight trees,maybe it gets repetitive idk. We have lots of shitty trees here as I'm sure others do also

Jed. . . It's faster and easier.
My wonderment at a failure to grasp this has taken quite a toll on my explanatory word count here.
The earth is round also.
: )

Jed , it won't pull the Tree out by the roots ... Really , the load at top anchor is minimal.

http://youtu.be/WC9A802Uawg

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WC9A802Uawg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Your screams! I was dying pal, that was a hoot!

Yeah, that was dang fun!!

Hahahahahaaa!

The first time I did it, it was a pecan TD, using a HiRanger. I was setting it up, when I noticed black hornets flying in and out of a hollow spot on a low limb. Just the action of me driving up set them off... they were dive bombing me, the crew, and even stung the homeowner's dog. Ha!

I scratched my head, thought... WTF am I gonna do? So, I went to a rental company and rented Bee Gear. Read that as a hat and face screen.

I thought to myself... I need more protection. I stopped by my crib and grabbed some extra clothes (shirts, coveralls, duct tape) and headed back to the job site. I also stopped and bought 6 cans of hornet/wasp spray.

Upon arrival, I donned all my extra clothing, wore the hot gloves we (we also trimmed HiLines) had, closed all my shit off with duct tape, and headed up to do battle with these black bastardos. I could barely move... and it was 90 degrees plus.

The amazing part was how loud they were, attacking me. I couldn't hear anything but the buzzing of these fuckers all around me. The groundies could have fired a shotgun and I wouldn't have heard it. I just persevered, emptying all of the cans into the hollow. They told me I was surrounded by a black swarm and they couldn't believe it.

When I emptied all of the cans, I lowered the bucket down and stepped out. I could feel the crunching of all the dead hornets that fell on the (plywood covered, as all of them should be) headache rack.

They were still buzzing me, but not near as much. I disembarked, walked FAR away, and they stopped following me.

The homeowner made some coffee, we took a break for about 45 minutes, then I went back and slayed the pecan.

It was a hell of a job!

DaYum!

AWESOME Butch !! Loved reading that.

hahahha...agree...great story!!

It was supposed to be an easy Saturday job, lol!

The funniest part was the poor dog being attacked... he hauled ass into the house, howling!

I reinterate.. I couldn't believe how loud the buzzing was as they attacked me.

Lordy!

Wow. So do you think the bee suit would have been enough thickness by itself?

Hey, if it worked for you - sweet!

I had no bee suit, just the hood... kinda had to wing it.

Ohhhhh, OK I understand.

Yeah it worked for me. Scary tho

I couldn't believe it.

I just wanted to do the job and collect the check...