How'd it go today?

I woke up, I lived through it... twas a good day.


Next Monday is now debatable. I got the call from my boss this morning. Instead of going to our branch office in Chesapeake, I've got to experience pleasures of getting up at 5:00 AM, and being out the door no later than 6:30 AM, all so I can be at our state (central) office by 9:00 AM, on the north side of Richmond.

Yes, that means I will have to battle rush hour traffic in the state capital on a Monday morning, with a cross town trip via I95. :pissed:

Stay tuned, I may loose the last shred of religion, and pick up a bad habit again if it's anything like the usual commute through there.
 
Todays spoils, plus another load dumped off for a neighbor. The joys of lot clearing, oh well atleast I'll have firewood for next year!
 
I would have made more money if I stayed home. Well not really but it felt that way. I made a couple of mistakes that blew the day.
 
I went to the nearest dump available and didn't think about the fact that it was in a different county. This dump weighs you coming in and ways you on the way out. You get charged on the way out. $175 Ouch. If I had driven 30 minutes farther away I would have paid $15.

The second mistake was while pulling out a large branch out of a cottonwood. I didn't want to climb the tree because you would have to climb under the broken branch. Instead I got nifty with the bigshot and got a lowering line attached to it in the tree. I took that line and wrapped it around an adjacent tree and tied it off. I then used the big shot to attach a pull of line on the branch. We pulled the branch out of its bind with the truck. No problem. Until I tried to lower the branch. The piece was heavier than I thought and I hadn't taken enough wraps or even better put in on my porta-wrap which I had today. I could not get the tie off knot out and lower the piece. It took about an hour of screwing around to finally loosen the rope and lower the piece.

No one to blame but me today. I suck.
 
I know. Did I mention that I got stung too? I tried hard not to get grumpy toward the end of the day. I tried to drown my sorrows in a tall root beer but that didn't help.
 
True confession is good with a fillet of soul.

Besides pruning out 3 Globe Willows and slaying an Aspen I "Crown reduced" 2 Lombardi Poplars. It WAS a reduction rather than an indiscrimnate topping but 50% kinda strains all the "proper" aspects of anything.
 
I did a bid at a convelescent hospital this morning. Glad I'm not in there. There were some guys looked to be about my age in there too. I bid $2800 to thin a couple of fruitless mulberrys. The guy ahead of me bid $5500. Either I really screwed up or I owe that guy for softening them up for me.
 
How ginormous are those Mulberries?

They are about 24" dbh and about 30' high and about the same width. They were pruned 5 years ago and are hanging over a fence and a storage yard to the south and to the north are over the hospital building, but not much. I figure there will be 2-3 loads of chips and I was thinking I could sub out the climbing for $800 and I could just do the chipping and hauling away and that way I could finish it in 1 day or I could do it myself and do it in two days. The 1 day option is pretty tempting because it is almost a hour drive from my house to the job site. I should have taken some pictures but I had left my camera in my bucket truck. If it was a huge mistake it wouldn't be my first.
 
How the heck do you get a load of chips from pruning a 30' tree that was pruned 5 years ago? I've trimmed some thick, bushy trees before but I cannot imagine that much bulk (or time) in pruning a 30' tree.
 
These trees grow here like you wouldn't believe. They are growing in an almost unlimited amount of fertile top soil from the aluvial fan of Orestimba Creek in Newman, CA. With plenty of water in the summer they will grow like mofo. Several of the large limbs have cracks in them and will have to be removed. I may be overestimating the amount of wood but I usually underestimate this. They are pretty thick and bushy.
 
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