How'd it go today?

Nice Justin! Horses are pretty costly here, all sand, no soil to grow grass, have to keep them in hay all year, feed 'em bran to keep 'em cleaned out. We got out of the horse biz several years ago, can't say that I miss them except when the wife and I used to ride on the beach. That was pretty cool.
 
Managed to get the chainsaw out today...cleared brush from the dam in a "pond" at the golf course. Muskrats been diggin some new relief channels. I was pretty much covered in black muck by the time I was done. At least it only took about 3 hours to clear it all out, load it on a trailer behind the tractor and dump it in the field next door.
 
Pretty tough crane removals the other day. Mullberry's and catalpa's behind a house with plenty of wires and yellow jackets. Blind picks so we were using the headsets. I didn't realize how many broken leads there were being held together by the vines. ( good mix of English ivy and poison ivy) long day but good day. image.jpeg image.png
 
Two water fills and about $700.00 including a new pool for the kids and the NEW pool is up and running.. Of course I should had tested the old pool for leaks before I took a 200.00 water delivery. :|: But they got a few days out of it and I bought another one, then more water, and then the hoses did not fit
Oh well, back to the drawing board. So that's all tidied up. Final new hose clamps today on the newer hoses seemed to have limited the leaks. Well that, and some rescue tape :lol:

Last couple days at a clients we trade some of the work out for some acupuncture for Katy. They called the day before we show up and there is an emergency. Vacation rental blocked by a large downed oak tree. Returned the call. They called back, no worries, come on out in the morning, have help on the downed tree, please continue the pine tree killing.
So just for in case, I towed the Dingosaurus in and found the road still blocked and a couple guys trying to move the mess with only a couple chainsaws. They had cut a new road around it (grass) so the guests could go to Yosemite.
I walk over to the HO and tell her, "hey, if those guys get into the big wood, and need our help, I brought the skid steer and I'll move the wood for them if you like, I doubt two guys are going to lift those rounds.... "
She wants to see it... take her behind the trailer... here this thing.... Look of amazement on her face.
Decides right then and there, they need me and the machine... I send the two guys I have to go get started on the trees we came for.
I come back with the dingo and there are now two guys on saws and one dragger. Move over boys!
We had that drive cleared in 3 hours. Then I went and took down a 100 foot pine barber pole style in an hour. and helped my guys straighten things up for the next day.
Met with the client on my way out the gate......
Damn...that is a lot of material... She says... I hope we can move it all so it does not sit here all summer before we can burn it....
So I suggest we reduce it with my chipper. I tell her to give me 1.5 hours and see how much we get done. I told her it would probably take 2.5 - 3 to do it all. But we could shrink the pile drastically. Of course the guys are going to whittle firewood off it all anyway....
She approves. We had more than 3/4 of the slash chipped and dumped (2 loads) in that 1.5 hours. My two guys feeding and cutting, me and the Dingosaurus feeding them and tearing piles apart.
She kept the "nice chips" for her garden and we took 3 more trees down to boot.
Happy happy homeowner... And Katy had her acupuncture visits (3) paid off ;)
Well go back in a month if we don't get a call sooner :/:
 
Damn Page, I can't even look at poison ivy without getting some on me. Cool picture.

Stephan, way to sell it. That, yes, I need that! haha

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64.42" DBH. This moose of a Eastern White Pine was still alive and standing in 1975 based on our records, and probably would have given any colonial east coast tree a run for it's money back in it's prime. The wreckage of it's demise was still relatively fresh, so this top couldn't have been out for more than 4 or 5 years. Already almost gone to nothing. . . Almost. I've got a couple more to document, that might easily take the state record at 147'.
 
I wrecked a nice garden and a wooden fence today.

Pretty weird, really.
I got a call from someone who wanted 4 medium oaks removed from their yard.
Gave him a price for lowering and removing everything.
Too expensive!
So I went to just bomb everything, wreck a few bushes and no clean-up.
Too expensive!
So I asked, what he wanted.
" How about you just fall them into the garden and cut them into firewood, no clean-up."

I told him it would smash nearly eveything in his ( Nicely kept) garden and wreck his wooden fence.

So he asks how much?

I told him and he said go ahead.

Went out to the truck, got a saw and commenced slaughtering trees.
All had lean the way the were supposed to in a perfect world, so any fool could have felled them.

Easy job, OK money, but still left me with a weird feeling.

I've encountered a lot of strange clients over the years, but this was my first,: " Sure you can wreck everything in my yard, as long as it doesn't cost too much" type.

Takes all kinds, I guess.
 
Did you go into the house? Like you're sure it was the homeowner and not his neighbour or something while the owners were on holiday?
 
Welcome to my type of world Stig :lol: Lack of money for trees can lead to some interesting carnage. No buildings yet, but .......

Here is my "apprentice" climber in training, Jason. He is gradually doing bigger and bigger trees. Had a great opportunity with two sugar pines side by side I had previously pruned dwarf mistletoe from. Nice to be able to train right next to a guy on a single stem. Only 3 of us on this little job. We were close enough to pass the tag line back and forth to each other :lol:
Fun little day :)
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Did you go into the house? Like you're sure it was the homeowner and not his neighbour or something while the owners were on holiday?

I did some work for his brother who lives next door, so yes.

Both Afghan or Pakistani.
Kind of funny, one brother wears the shaved head and hipster beard of a true muslim, and his wife covers her head.
The other looks like any Dane, omly a bit darker and his wife wears tight clothes and is hot........hot...............hot!
 
Paige, great picture.

Stig, interesting story,,,wreck the place if it'll save a couple bucks... Reminds me of a few different jobs, people beat me up relentlessly on the price of the job, we finally settle on a price, I do the work, they give me a giant tip:?
 
I do that face cleaning thing often...since I don't do that much cutting like a lot of guys I have to go back and nip and tuck them...find all kinds of overcuts, bypass, etc. that I have to correct.

Good seeing him pay attention. All the details matter up in a tree top.
 
Made the drive back home today, everyone seems ready to head back north already lol. But a 7 hour car ride is difficult to justify back to back isn't it?
 
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