Rare PNW lightning storm brings a fun fir removal

[rbtree]

Rare PNW lightning storm brings a fun fir removal

We did this Sunday...Been really busy...but this is cross posted from da buzz...dunno why I put it there Sunday night and not here first....sorry gang

(PS, I got my helmet from my bud where Ileft it ~June 29 before my week plus vacation.....to Oregon for a great family reunion....and trip to the Gorge where I shot a couple thousand pics of rad kite boarding...and of course scenery like the River, girls, fireworks, girls, My Hood, more skin, Adams..

<<The appx 100 foot tall, previously topped 36" dbh fir was at the top of the steep bluff leading to Puget Sound, in Everett near Mukilteo, and with the RR tracks down below, but not close enough to be a factor. As I did not want to send Mike down the steep slope to pull sections over, I planned to only remove the limbs on the uphill side, so I didn't want to just gaff up the tree. Instead, I set an access line for the Wraptor, which took forever, as I got my only good throw line stuck. Having lost 4 line puch sets in the last 18 months, I'm left with that one, and another old old line which has been knotted together a few times. Well, it broke twice, ruining two good line sets...and one of these had taken a good 30 minutes to strum the throw weight to the ground. Needless to say, the appx 1.5 hours it took to get airborne was frustrating.....

After that, I slowly worked up, using the Wraptor, cutting and lowering the large down sloping uphill limbs.

Then. I took my time backweighting the top, and letting it fly, as well as the next two sections prior to coming down and felling the last 30 feet, as all the splintered wood kept me very cautious, and tying in to my bridge, to keep out of the "Circle of Death" should the tree come apart during a cut. I did leave my flip line attached to my side D=rings, but I kept it way loose.

A bunch of images are here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rbtree/sets/72157630598466604/

And, as a slide show
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rbtree/sets/72157630598466604/show/

 

[rbtree]

Here you can see the stuck throw line, and Mike strumming the second line down, which took ages... and then it broke, just before we got the access line over the top limb, ruining all that work.

Also, it was a no haul, and, when transferring gear to my pick me up truck, I forgot to get our helmets out of the chip truck........my bad.....

 

[rbtree]

I did a quick wrap with the Trueblue line prior to taking out the three tops--just below the old top cut...(which was where the strike first contacted the tree)

and here:

 

[rbtree]

I thought this would make a good habitat snag, and conversation piece, but the customer's wife was unconvinced.

so down it went

The ground really dropped away. Woulda made a good spot to fashion my first springboard (there was a handy splintered piece of fir.....)

Unfortunately, after taking ages to get an access line set...and an hour to drive to Snohomish and pick up Mike, who is carless....and it was faster than him taking the bus (I hadn't seen the tree, and didn't know it couldn't be felled-by me alone- till I got there,) it was late, and we failed to get pics or video of the last 30 feet disappearing way down the hill....I had made a deep face, and had wedges in, but cut a little too far, and over she went before we could roll the film......

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Fine Job Roger.

Looked at a lightning struck tree today that will have to go up at Camano Island, up north of you.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Great pics, Roger. You needed a bigger saw!

 

[rbtree]

How perceptive, Butch!! Yep, though the 36" equipped 660 woulda been the ticket, the extra weight would have made it a bit hard to keep my footing...but that woulda been just long enough to not have to finish the cuts from the off side.

 

[pete mctree]

Nice job Rog. Shitty, horrible tree to work out

 

[sotc]

Nasty one for sure

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Uggggly bugger. I think I would have used some straps on the stem myself. Nicely done Roger

 

[Burnham]

Rog, in that second pic, looks to me like you're working off the Wraptor, running the saw with no second safety. Correct me if I'm wrong...if so, that's a super risky move brother, take care.

 

[gf beranek]

Now you done it. No more Atta-Boy's

 

[Burnham]

 

[PCTREE]

but since we are talking bout Wraptors how is it that that sucker is still so shiny???

 

[gf beranek]

Great machine!

 

[bonner1040]

Really nice pictures Roger.. What kind of camera do you use?

Are they HDR? Did you edit the color at all? It looks so vibrant!

 

[gf beranek]

It's probably his Canon Mark IV, or whatever. Top of the line. A 24 meg imager I think. A good sharp shot with that rig can yield 10X zoom cropping power in post editing.

It's great!!!

 

[bonner1040]

shew... sounds nice! looks great!

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Roger probably has as much or more invested in cameras and lenses than some have in saws.

 

[bonner1040]

I have probly 1 to 2 ratio, however I am done mostly with cameras and only have a small growing family of 2 personal saws. I imagine some of yours, and likely Rogers saw collections are far more substantial.

Hey should we all list our saws in our signatures?

 

[rbtree]

Burn, you are absofarkinglutely right. TITS and all that stuff.

The camera used was the brand new 22mp Canon 5D Mark lll, which is simply the best Canon yet...well, maybe besides the 1DX, which was finally released just 10 days ago, but it is $3500 less than that $7000 body...which has 4 less mp, but shoots 12 fps, and apparently is capable of 14!!! It is far and away the best yet action and sports camera, but it is full frame, so it loses the 1.6 crop (read magnification) factor of my 7D (which I careless dropped the other day....a few days later it died, cost me $460 for Canon to repair it. Luckily the $2500 lens that was on it at the time was fine.)
The lens used for the fir was the 24-105 f/2.8L which has IS. It was on a tripod, and neophyte Mike managed to follow my directions quite well, only three sequential shots were out of focus.

I did two bids this morning before doing a $900 twin fir wreck which took about 2.3 hours with one helper...gotta love that, eh! Then I hit the Ballard Locks to see if the osprey babes were stretching their wings, but alas, they were snoozin', and mom was perched just above the nest for the hour or so I was there. So I stalked a blue heron along the beach....haven't even downloaded the images yet. but they looked danged sharp on the screen....maybe they tweaked the 7D to factory specs eh!? I just walked in and had a quick dinner and am still downing the second of two Red Hooks, after changing the chipper knives; boy were they dull!

Got 3 easy jobs for manana..gotta leave early, and put together two bids, one for Waste Management to crane out some cottonweeds.....and one for a fella I met at a party named Roger...it'll be a go fo sho at $3000 or more.

 

[bonner1040]

Good luck.. .thanks for the details. Meg and I just got a DLSR last year, just an entry level Cannon, but it takes better pictures than I do

 

[rbtree]

Are they HDR? Did you edit the color at all?

No HDR, but this amazing camera is capable of processing HDR images in camera, and also does multipleexposures. I've dabbled with both, but will be doing much more!

This was shot this morning, and it is at the high ISO of 1600. At that ISO, noise is barely perceptible. The 5D can shoot in dang near dark, at up to 102,400 ISO....and the images at 25600, two stops less, are very usable. I used 1600 as the wind was moving the flower around, and I wanted a good large f/stop to maximize the depth of field, and stop the movement with 1/400 shutter speed. There's been some lightening of some dark areas and darkening of the highlights in post.

 

[bonner1040]

102,400 ISO Did I read that right?

I have just started learning about f-stop... ISO i have a good handle on..

 

[rbtree]

Now I'm downloading the shots from today with the 7D...geesh, I shot 233-in ahour or so...and about 30 of those flowers with the 5D. That's well over 8000 since early June....frickin makes for too much couch time editing, dang it.....