Here goes, our big lombardy poplar job

[rbtree]

Where are they, Sean? Cali? Dave used to work in the Bay Area....

I'll ask him tomorrow.

 

[bergsteiger]

Western Star is in B'ham. Actually this looks like him on their website.

http://www.westernstartree.com/images/gallery/Cotton_Sequence/03_lg.jpg

 

[Oxman]

I don't know what the rules are on this board about cross-posting. The crane did show up, and 4 1/2 minutes of footage was added to the video. Check it out here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7664482503731221305&hl=en

 

[sotc]

doesnt work ox?

 

[rbtree]

doesnt work ox?

I dunno why that link doesn't work..or why it seemed to redirect to treebuzz and have two http's.... but this works..

Thanks again, Mike! I still haven't gotten to editing my footage, which is at least 8 gigs worth.....getting home at 8 and 9 pm after bidding isn't helping....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7664482503731221305&hl=en

 

[sotc]

nice! at least you had room to take big tops nearly 3 seconds for those chunks to hit the ground

 

[rbtree]

Western Star is in B'ham. Actually this looks like him on their website.

http://www.westernstartree.com/images/gallery/Cotton_Sequence/03_lg.jpg

Yup....just talked to Dave about those guys. Guess they run a nice business....He worked for them 5 years ago. So, I called and talked to the owner briefly, and his wife for 20 minutes......said I was lucky to have Dave...I agree, I've worked with some darned good tree men....and he's as good as they come...maybe not 100% safety oriented, but faster, capable, and more efficient than most anyone.

Today he's working with Mickey and Ian, for the company Ian is in charge of.. Mickey helped us on crane day, and Ian on the first day.

 

[rbtree]

nice! at least you had room to take big tops nearly 3 seconds for those chunks to hit the ground

3 seconds at free fall with no air friction to slow down an object = 160 feet....

The first piece Eli free dropped was from about 105-110....

I was in the air 2 seconds...at age 26....off a 50 footer on skis..never gone that big since.

 

[sotc]

how big was the boom truck? suprised to see a single part line on that wood. thanks for the work to put this together roger, looked like a big job gone smooth!!

 

[sotc]

I was in the air 2 seconds...at age 26....off a 50 footer on skis..never gone that big since.

 

[RIVERRAT]

What a Benchmark that I believe has been set here. To have it all documented in a professional manner just tops it off in a big way!!

 

[Drella]

When I was a kid, my dad picked up 6 of these exact trees.
Within 10 years they were already at 70 foot. Straight up growers and not much in the way of "finely branched" like their other tall growing counterparts...
He then decided to have them removed. That was the first time that I watched someone climb a tree,, I was around 14.
But those trees were nowhere near big at the base at what yours were. And out of all the work involved in tree removal, getting the stump flushed with the ground is the part I hate the most.
Brother, when I saw the diameter of those trunks you had to remove, I really felt for you all...

 

[rbtree]

Brother, when I saw the diameter of those trunks you had to remove, I really felt for you all...

aww, all ya need is my 3120, at 13 hp, and woods ported, it's the fastest working saw in these parts...

or was, it's now down on compression and seems to have lost some of its brute power. I have the muffler off just now and all looks OK. might need rings....wiley_p says to check the crank seals--it's 12 years old and sits a lot, they may have gone bad...so I'll have Andy pressure test it...

 

[rbtree]

OK, the crane day pics are up:

I chose about 55 of the over 200 shots....did some minor enhancing (to make the trees look biiger, ya know, stuff like that, being as they are only 50 years or so old...... :grin:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rbtree/sets/72157606451192509/show/

We did a double ball ride redux.....that'll be on the video.... Travis and Scott pulled that trick on another poplar job a few years ago. Pics are on my photobucket site, I think.

I'm at 65 feet or so blazing away here, after the fun ride

peekaboo

Duuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccckkkk!

The bottom couple logs of each stem weighed 6000-8000 pounds each. The heaviest one was about all Mike could handle, at 30 feet. (Remember, his crane is the only type that would fit, with its back outriggers only extending out 3 feet.

 

[rbtree]

The 17 mm wide angle lens skews the perspective--kinda cool, actually...

Twarn't no obstickles, wuz there?...

looks as though Mike wasn't properly positioned on this one, as it came off a bit toward Dave. Reckon Dave shoulda noticed that and had Mike boom in a tad....but he's done a crane job or thirty in his day....this was a cakewalk....

Up, up, and away.

about 1/60th second shutter speed makes these shots come alive...

gotta go, stand by for more later...and dat video...

 

[rbtree]

Dang, in the past, I've posted the photos here first, then copied it over to treebuzz. Went the other way this time, and it won't work. I have to change the tags to read instead of [image] odd, it works the other way around....

at least I can highlight and delete the text, and paste in a saved "IMG" between the [ ]'s...about 25 times...cra p.....

 

[MasterBlaster]

Different forum software, I imagine?

Nice pics! That slow shutter speed is cool!

 

[rbtree]

how big was the boom truck? suprised to see a single part line on that wood. thanks for the work to put this together roger, looked like a big job gone smooth!!

The winch is rated at 10k, and the crane was only good for maybe 8000 at the farthest radius, so no need to 2 part the line....it's slows everything down, and we like to fly through the work!!!

 

[RIVERRAT]

WOW!! Great Pics Roger!

 

[sotc]

and fly you do photos are awesome. crane ride for pictures sake? to cool!!

 

[rbtree]

and fly you do photos are awesome. crane ride for pictures sake? to cool!!

Oh, I did 3 picks.......I'm actually faster than Dave...cause my saws are fast...and he didn't have a spliced eye, and didn't trust his knot to go through that snap, so he was doing a lot of tying and untying. And I usually make one cut straight through....but know that two cuts works well also.

 

[rbtree]

Here's a tiny bit of video...the fun part, the tandem ball ride!
<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Bf7_ihT79gU"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Bf7_ihT79gU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object>

 

[Mr. Sir]

cool

 

[Drella]

Freakin AWESOME!!!

Those are some incredible shots. If you had done those here in the sub-tropics, we'd see a bunch more sweat. Looks like you had moderate temps...

 

[brendonv]

Pretty freaking sweet.