How'd it go today?

Almost finished the dead tree from hell with a high line job today. Have to go back and drop a 150 plus foot crispy pondo tomorrow. Wind came up and I don't wanna slice a house in half. Wish my camera worked.
 
Its amazing how a swim at the end of the day refreshes you, I reckon it's the almost weightlessness, no weight on your feet, back shoulders... not to mention all the muck getting washed away!
 
Misjudged taking the top out of a dead Ash today and popped a $50 outdoor light with the tip of a branch. :|: Thinking it over, we probaby could have tip-tied it and turned it in the air after it broke loose. Third & last job of the day -Last tree of the week (I hope) - should have taken a bit more time on it.
 
Don't feel too bad Dave. I squished a Natl forest sign out on the border of BLM land today... Oooops...
I was wrong on the size of that tree. I was guessing a tad over 150 feet. HO paced it off at 195 feet. I am gonna go average and say about 175....
Sign?? What Sign???
 
Yesterday was one of the toughest work days that I can think of in a very long time. I've had this big job in the hopper for two years. Tons of logistical problems solved in order to work in this place. It was a creek bank restoration project and involved cutting a bunch of snags and trees very close to all of these weird little abstract hippie commune style buildings in this village tucked away and private way out in the boonies. Trees then going to be skidded in as long of logs as possible by the riparian crews for the Creekbank (they wanted 60 foot logs). Super tight quarters everywhere. Bunch of other contractor types also scheduled to follow right after me and crews waiting on the work that depended on me. Job called for myself and two other climbers +3 ground guys. Both climbers called in sick, and the lady couldn't reschedule. Long day yesterday. Feel like I got hit by a truck. Ate an egg sandwich in the morning. Worked until 7:30 PM after starting at 6 AM. 100°F. When I first showed up in the morning with just my three ground guys. I was a bit overwhelmed by how much needed to be done and the technical aspects of these big snags in tight quarters. I felt like a newbie. I felt like maybe I wasn't cut out for tree work after all and I had only just deluded myself. (for the last 28 years). I just started putting 1 foot in front of the other and trying to make the best decisions possible. Once I got rolling I became confident that I was, in fact, an actual tree man. Shot 100% perfect bull's-eyes all day long. there were several times when I had to concede that there wasn't an easy way and forced myself to do things the right way. It's amazing to me how a rough start can affect my entire paradigm.


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Some people roll with the punches quite well. I am not one of them. I have a tendency to shut down if my plan takes a few hits right off the bat. I always seem to fight back and get the job done, but it takes a fair amount of whining and hand-wringing!

Nice post August.
 
I had to make a deal with the girlfriend, I'd change her wheel bearings on her hyundai......
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And she will help me work on my parent's trees, some deadwooding and a small removal in a tight spot. It's by far the worst job, I have my girlfriend who hates me up in trees and my 82 year old father who also hates me up in the trees, soon as I make any progress they band together yelling at me to get down.... I can only get about an hour of work after that starts..... can't hear them half the time so that's a plus......

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What I been doing for the last couple weeks...
Sorry, no cool tree pics..
Our trees sorta suck..

Wheat ran pretty well though...
 
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