How'd it go today?

Worked in heavy duty heat today, knocked down thirteen Red Pines, all but three were pull trees. Never bothered to change my shirt or the towel around me head. Got home and handed them to my wife and she said, "That isn't sopping with just sweat is it?" I guess she thought that I went swimming in my clothes. :lol:
It's been brutal hot here too Jay but I've been trying to divide my between fishing, scalloping and work so I don't get overexerted.;)My wife usually heads me off at the front door and tells me to strip on the porch when I'm soaked and sappy.
 
Been pricing (and getting) some decent work in the last few days, heat has been ok, I know I'm in for some punishment through August.
 
The heat is kicking in here too, spent the weekend cleaning up a storm damage oak that I started on wednesday, then got persuaded to work with my buddy today on an ongoing job that he and I are doing. There was a big dead tree near the sandmound that the HO was worried about, and it was covered with poison ivy. I didn't want to climb through all that and there was a hole behind that looked big enough to drop it though so I tried to pull it there. Not long into my first cut I severed most of the good wood and it broke free. My inexperience showed on this one as I underestimated the amount of rot, and kept cutting searching for good hinge wood. It snapped free, went straight for the sandmound, got caught by the rope (thankfully) and swung over to land beside the sandmound as it snapped my rope. Scary Scary shit. Luckily no one got hurt, and it didn't hit the house. The only damage was one limb hit one of the pipes that stick out of the sandmound, so we dug down to the elbow below and fixed that. Quite a reminder for me that I have not been doing this long enough to think a big mess will be a simple job.
 
Warming up here as well. Was nice to make the pile go away in less than an hour instead of 5. 4 pines and an oak dead wood. We go back and dead wood and some reduction in 3 more. 2 climbers make a hella mess. :lol:
 
Broke the rope no less! Also curious what rope you were using? How were you applying tension to the pull line? Just curious. Good reminder that the rotten ones can just crumble sometimes. Glad everything worked out in the end.

cheers
 
the Lowell fire going on up HWY 80 east bound, pic was a few days ago on way home.....yikes!!!


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The Willow fire keeps growing here. I guess we are up to 1500 acres.
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Another fun day of clearing for the gas company. Had a meeting first thin this morning with a bunch of their guys and the contractor doing the pipeline. That lasted till almost noon. Then at one the environmental knucklehead showed up. He started marking "bat trees" and a new wetland that just magically appeared overnight. And let's not forget the "streams" (a slight dip in the ROW) that I had bridged and set up erosion control on Friday( that passed then) that are done all wrong. I started to lose my cool but stayed calm enough to have him call his boss. Now I have to have another meeting tomorrow with him and the gas company guys. Three different enviro guys in three days and each one of them wants stuff done differently! That's a crock of shit. That's what the meetings about.
Ok rant over. Other than that headache the day wasn't that bad. A bit hot, but bearable. Should finish it by the end of the week if I'm not having meetings that last half days. That'll be a 3 week project in 2 weeks. Should at least get an atta-boy from the boss.
 
The Willow fire keeps growing here. I guess we are up to 1500 acres.
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You guys have way to many disasters out there. Drought, beetles, and wildfires. When that's all over with you're gonna fall into the pacific. Stay safe out there.
 
Day 3 of really heavy rain. It's 6am & I am contemplating going back to bed. I'm thinning & short wooding a maple woodland (no harvester - all the trees are crosscut & stacked) &, although I usually cut in the rain, this is really pushing it.
 
Back to work this week...in the orchard. Pruning and thinning for the first time in winter (never been here for winter before, and always summer pruned the orchard)...taking the opportunity to thin out the fruit spurs a bit more.
Did my Elevated Work Platform licence last week, now I'm legal to operate anything over 11m. We wizzed around on an 18m JLG lift...well more a crawl than a wizz for me when driving it, never driven one before, always just been the up and down stuff.
Sounds really posh 'National High Risk Work Licence'...oooohh.

Had to pack a HOT drink thermos for the first time ever in my career, different.
(reminder I'm in the southern hemisphere right now)
 
Could've been worse Chris, glad you came away unscathed except for a rope a pipe and your pride. Sounds like a lesson learned. What size rope?

9/16 Atlas, attached to a come-along with a Klein rope grab, which is now missing. It also had a friction hitch at the tail to hold it while resetting the rope grab and come-along. I'm not sure which part slipped and or snapped, there is a clear break at the end, and a section that is unsheathed. There was tension on the rope, but not enough. I didn't want to start moving the tree before I cut my notch, and was going to crank on it more before I did my back cut. The rope caught the tree intially and swung it to the side, I think the added tension of going across other trees as it fell is what over did it.

Could have been much much worse indeed. I am incredibly lucky that everything went as well as it possibly could after it went wrong.

I'm open to suggestions if that system is not recommended for pulling trees.
 
If you are pulling trees, two essential items to have imo., are a Maasdam rope puller and a Tirfor endless line cable puller. The Tirfors are rather expensive, but believe it or not, there are some Chinese pullers based on the Tirfor design, that actually work rather well, and about a third to a quarter of the cost. When the chips are down and you're thinking, "Can I get that thing over", the Tirfors will get you a pay check. I love them, the nice even and powerful pull, or slow release you might want for some reason.

Some larger trees may not respond much or at all, but I like to try and move the tree in the direction pulling, before starting the notch. Especially cool if you can stand up the top of a back leaner before cutting into it. Heavy back leaners won't come up so much, but it does get them evenly moving in the direction that you want when you do start cutting. I feel that the more you get them coming over before thinning out your hinge, the safer it is. It kind of acts as a check on the system too before you are committed, if you're cable is attached to rope or whatever. The situation here around vacation homes in the woods, lots of pull trees, and ones where I say I dunno, and my partner says it will work, ha.
 
Well, another break in. This time a woman's home right next to a busy road. She would have been home except she is in the nursing home because of a broken hip. Being 93 and all.

I bought a gun safe. I would have rather spent the 1500 on more guns, but oh well. Its a 64 gun safe. Pretty heavy!
 
Seems like people should have gun safes. You can't use many for self-defense, at one time. Easy for many to be stolen. My dad lost two guns to criminals during a break-in when I was a kid.
 
9/16 Atlas, attached to a come-along with a Klein rope grab, which is now missing. It also had a friction hitch at the tail to hold it while resetting the rope grab and come-along. I'm not sure which part slipped and or snapped, there is a clear break at the end, and a section that is unsheathed. There was tension on the rope, but not enough. I didn't want to start moving the tree before I cut my notch, and was going to crank on it more before I did my back cut. The rope caught the tree intially and swung it to the side, I think the added tension of going across other trees as it fell is what over did it.

Could have been much much worse indeed. I am incredibly lucky that everything went as well as it possibly could after it went wrong.

I'm open to suggestions if that system is not recommended for pulling trees.
I'd be a little skittish about using a rope grab in a pulling scenario Chris.
 
Yep. I have a short barreled 12 guage with a trigger lock and a short .357 that I will keep in the house. I will buy a small lock box for the .357 and keep the key to the trigger lock for the 12 guage in there. Maybe one with the finger print lock.

Keep the kids out and now most of the guns are more secure from kaksuckers, I mean socially disadvantaged people.

Good thing all of our cops have a current machine gun endorsment, but no detectives on duty.
 
I'd have a 45 or 9mm for home handgun defense. A dang 357 will blast through the perp, go through a wall and maybe even farther... not safe if others are around.
 
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