How'd it go today?

Anyone from around Boulder Creek, California? Met a tree service owner from there today. He was in my area elevating a bunch of spruces for friends he was visiting. They called me to come chip it ASAP so it would kill grass by laying there for days or weeks. Poor planning, but it was a mile from where we were working.
 
There is a member here with some land there or close to it, it is close to Santa Cruz, in the Santa Cruz mountains. I can't recall which member. :|: Nice area, heavily wooded with Redwoods.
 
This fella was visiting. Had a saddle and skinning line. I offered him a climbing saw, pole saw, anything he wanted when I stopped and looked at the job early in the day. He politely declined. Used his friends rear handled poulan to get by. He was probably about 60. Leather skin, trim and lean, and had a way about him that made me think he was the real deal. I encouraged him to come to The House. I'm going to email him the address later. He had a nice demeanor, and his boots told the tale of hard work. His 2 sons work for him. Here's his website.

Www.Christiansontree.com
 
Excellent, I hope he and the boys show up. Old school in big trees... :thumbup:

Sorry you had a day like that Paul. May the next one be more fruitful to make up for the last. :)

PO removal in a grove of Quercus lobata (Valley Oak) last couple days. They had me also raise them up just a hair (since they were on the ground mixed with the PO) so they can enjoy walking and relaxing under them.. The two bigger ones are at least 48" DBH. I hope I get to climb some of their oaks in the future. They have a few biguns there.

Before and afters.

PANO_20120524_092703.jpg PANO_20120525_142702.jpg

HO is making a pond down in there below the trees and off to one side. The PO went from the face you see in the before down to where that lower burn pile is....
 
Looks like the work is going nicely, Stephen. Tell me, what's it like in your area to burn. Do you have to get a burn permit or meet any other specific requirements. We have to notify the authorities at the beginning of any burn and then at the end - but no fee or permits. ... just curious :)
 
We get to burn as soon as we get enough rain in the fall.. That can range between October to December. December they pretty much open it up anyway. Depending on the amount of moisture we have, they will open with permit with less, open burning no restrictions for more precipitation. This will stay open until May 1st when we go back to permitted burning with restrictions. You have to call Air Quality Control board every day for permissive burn days. As of today restrictions are as follows. Permit only, no burning below 3000 foot elevation. Above 3000 8 PM to 7AM only. 4'X4' pile, 10 foot bare dirt around pile, fire fighting tools and water, manned at all times until extinguished.
Now that is for burning on residential....

If you are burning for commercial and development, whole nudder animal.
You have to file for a permit with estimated tonnage and clearing and burn plan with both CARB and Cal Fire. You then are subject to restrictions as laid forth by CARB as to how much at what time and during permissive days during open burn season. They will also dictate what equipment you may have to have on site for your burn.

I stick with residential :D
Oh.. And residential permits are good for 3 years and free 7 days a week during permitted required season ;)
 
Looks nice, Stephen.


Picked up a used 18.5 HP craftsman garden tractor with mower deck. Now to get a trailer. Mowed some TALL grass on our property, and blazed through the regular mowing with a 46" deck. A great improvement over the self-propelled walk behind Honda that I have, which I bent the crankshaft on. I found a small chunk of firewood the hard way in tall grass near the bonfire pit. Cheaper for me to get a new engine and swap it myself than have the shop replace the crankshaft, I think. Honda Commercial engines are not cheap. Ooops. Lesson learned--don't try to avoid the string trimmer so much.

Erik just told me about a job he bid for me that has to go across an ancient septic field where the HOs are very concerned about ground pressure. I don't know if we can just skid the trees and brush out a long ways, but otherwise I might try the mower and a trailer or build a log arch for the 3 tree removals, full disposal. Erik tells me he put it in at $5k because of the lack of access and distance from town. This is the same bid as a competitor put in, basically, but the HOs didn't like the rushed competitor's bid for some reason, whereas they liked that Erik spent a lot of time talking to them and taking notes and such. We'll see.

Good thing the business bought this piece of equipment for such work, even if it mostly mows our lawn and 'trails' through the field, and hauls mulch to the young trees in the field, and gravel to the bonfire pit.
 
Nice job as usual, Stephen.

After planting 54000 trees, we figured our karma was restored, so me and the apprentice killed a maple, a birch and a horse chestnut by a plumber's house today.
He'll be installing a new electric/furnace-run waterheater at my house to pay for it.
I love deals like that:)
The job stated out badly, while unloading the Bandit stumper, the ramp broke.
A 2400 pds ramp breaking under a 1200 pds machine, go figure.
Fortunately there were some guys working at the next house with a forklift, so we got it upright again before all the gas ran out.
I called Richard and he went out and bought some 2 ton ramps and brought them over.
I'd like to see the Bandit break those.

In the evening, I did a major branch walk at the home of an old school buddy.
He had a new thatched roof put on and only later figured out that this branch would brush against the thatching and destroy it.
Cracks me up, because he is a world renown astro physicist, and figuring that out isn't exctly rocket science, is it!

The job went well, but I found a large rot cavity in the leader going towards and over the house. Bummer!
It is such a fine tree, planted when the house was built ( he asked me to estimate the age of the tree, and I said 150 years. Turned out the house was built 151 years ago, so I was pretty close:D).

I'll ask a fellow certified arborist to look at it for a second opinion, I think we can get by with a severe reduction of the leader.
I'd hate to have to fall the tree.
 
The 262xp that I picked up at the auction here arrived. The engine started right up, but when I cut some wood the torque seemed rather lacking. My compression tester only showed 110 psi, I thought uh oh... Pulling off the muffler, the piston looked quite clean, a good sign. I could see that the saw had been worked on before, the way the slots in screws can get rounded over, maybe not a good sign. I pulled off the cylinder and both it and the piston appear in excellent shape, and so did the ring. I pondered what could be the cause of the limited compression, then I noticed that there was no cylinder gasket ....go figure? No sealant goop either, so it wasn't like someone intentionally dropped the head, it would seem more likely just bogus work where who needs a gasket? A new project, but one that would seem to have a lot of promise judging by the look of things. I think I'll clean it up, get some new parts including a gasket :roll:, and put it together stock to see if it is really such a hot rod as sometimes gets stated. I will open up the muffler, it looks like it could use it. I put a new headlight in my truck, putzed around in the vegees and whacked some weeds, and failed in an attempt to get myself motivated to do some woodwork.
 
Oh yeah, I got my Class A CDL last week. Now my boss is ready to play hookie from work while I can go out on my own and have a park staff watch me work (big change :roll:) as my second person on the work site. Well not hookie, but taking Leave time.

To clarify from a past discussion about CDLs, I thought that the .04% BAC limit was for anybody with a CDL, not someone driving a Commercial Motor Vehicle. I mistakenly thought that this applied to any vehicle.
 
Gotta hate those man! Had a similar problem Wednesday, 2 throwballs stuck in a Pin Oak, Luckily Dad had his on hand, otherwise it woulda been a very shitty day haha.

Taking it easy today after a tough day yesterday. More work on the basement, we should have all the carpet ripped up by the end of today, along with having all the walls patched and ready for primer and paint. Went and saw BattleShip this morning as well, decent movie. Dad and bro went to see Men In Black 3 and gave it two thumbs up. Tomorrow I'll probably go check out some couches and help finish getting the basement ready.
 
four hours digging footers for HFH :)
two hours waiting for Home Despot to fill an order :roll:
two hours assembling six chairs & table for porch :( ... but Mama Happy :) ... so Pappy happy :D
all in the upper 80's @ 90% RH :cry:
all-in-all a good day :D
except no climbing :whine:
 

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Just got home from racing all day. Went up last night and camped, raced four moto's today at Southwick, MA.

Took 4th overall in one class, and 6th overall in the other. 30 rider gates. I am freaking whooped! I cannot count how many bottles of water and Gatorade I drank and am still pissing yellow. It's incredible.

Hell of a time though, came home in one piece, and with a good outcome. I'm stoaked.
 
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