How'd it go today?

Gun is a colloquialism for 'the instrument', which in this case is a total station. A total station is a refinement of the theodolite, which itself is a refinement of the transit.
 
Right now I'm waiting it out. It gets a bit better every day. Once this is done with, I've been thinking about starting a stretching routine, and see if it helps going forward. Honestly, what really feels good is climbing. As long as I'm not just hanging there, it feels great footlocking up a rope. I wouldn't want to do any work, or pull myself over branches, but maybe just going up and down a rope would help something. If nothing else, I'd get better at doing it.
 
Violent and rotating motions aren't really in the good "repair" practises, at least for myself.

During the crisis and in the afterneath, it's slow, very deliberate, well balanced movements, and zero hoverhang of the both upper and lower body. If you have to, prop it by all means like the arms, elbows, hands (on the chair, table, toilet seat, wall, mattress, floor...), head (against the wall when using the kitchen sink for example), legs (one leg holds the pelvis still while the second moves when turning on the other side in the bed).

Basically put the less work possible on the spinal column and no torque at all. Lessen the strain as much as possible and put the rest on the other body parts.
Make sure that your body knows what movement is next and be prepared for it. It seems stupid said like this, but a reflex action is out of control and generate some massive constraints in many body parts (action somewhere, reactions elsewhere to compensate/balance). You don't want to do that to your spine at this moment. One example I tested for you is hiting a door knot with my hip. Holly f...! That made me loose one full week of recovery.

Driving is really hard on the back at this time. Go in and out of the car carefully and very slowly, separate the movement in many steps to be sure you master each one. Use the arms to hold everywhere like I said previously (door, car body, whell, seat ...) use one too to help lifting a leg. Put yourself down in the seat, in slow motion, not drop you down.
When you go out of the car after a long drive, don't try to straighten your back and walk on the go, it's a killer for the spine. It's curved and locked as is to stand the drive. The pelvis isn't at all in the position to walk now (folded toward the back). Moving now will completely hard lock again the area. Take all the time needed, but allow the muscles to slowly relax. Stay in the opened door, holding on it to reduce the weight on the back. Monitore the tensions and try to straighten just a bit when you feel a little relieve. Don't try to force it. Bit by bit. That could take several minutes to retrieve the right angles spine-pelvis and pelvis-legs. You feel it when you get to this point, then you can walk.

When the crisis is over (barely), no more pain, but very sensitive and fragile, the body calms down and you have to move to pursue the healing process. The body needs to find again its usual range of motions, the "zero" postions, angles and forces associated. Moving is mandatory, but carefully, to not destroy all the previous/precious work. Use the same principles as in the crisis, just help your spine and don't put immediately the usual burden on it. Actually, climbing is very good for me at this point. Almost zero gravity ( holding point at the COG cuts the stress by half), moving arms and legs in a 360° range, spine can follow some ridicoulous movements/positions without much trouble. That helps immensely to normalise our machinery.

After that, a big risk is that as soon as it gets better, we immediately forget all the drama and go head first in the bad habits like abusive positions and careless moves. I saw that many times (and been bite again).
 
Last edited:
Right now I'm waiting it out. It gets a bit better every day. Once this is done with, I've been thinking about starting a stretching routine, and see if it helps going forward. Honestly, what really feels good is climbing. As long as I'm not just hanging there, it feels great footlocking up a rope. I wouldn't want to do any work, or pull myself over branches, but maybe just going up and down a rope would help something. If nothing else, I'd get better at doing it.

Have you tried Pilates?

I know a few hardcore treemen, who, (after getting over the fact everyone else was ladies with incontinence problems) enrolled in a Pilates class and their back problems were sorted.
 
Flexibility and core strength are crucial.

Massage therapy does wonders.





Sounds like it cramps your style, and worth getting sorted out.
 
Not exactly sure what pilates is, aside from some kind of exercise. Maybe I should look it up? I don't really like exercise, and have avoided it since I was a teenager. I'm fairly task oriented, and don't like work for it's own sake. A lot of times I'll add effort to a task by doing it the hard way to get exercise. That way I can point to something tangible when I'm finished, and some of the effort goes towards health, or maybe greater competence in some kind of art when the "hard way" isn't physical.

One could say the task exercise accomplishes is greater health, but it's hard to see on a day to day basis. Just feels pointless to me. Seems like the effort could be put into getting something done. I'll checkout pilates though. I'm not very sensitive about masculinity. If something's good, it's good.
 
This dove-tails in to what @Marc-Antoine posted...he gave a very studied and excellent description of how to heal. I put this together for a friend that was on the way back up from an HPV/cancer of the throat process. As he got over the radiation/chemo process he wanted a gentle way to get back into shape. He has habitually been a fitness fanatic his whole life...same age as me...68. He is the guy I mentioned who loves the cold water doin's.

This video is about dhanda yoga (pronounced "donda"...it uses a staff (bamboo here...I learned with a wooden staff) to take the place of the spine for support. It lets you be in positions with safe support (provided my proper use of the staff) so that areas that need stretching can relax to effect the stretch.

 
Superb on many levels.

Good attitude shown in general, making suggestions of where and how to move, rather than Ok you have to do this and this to get results.

Fine looking squat you do. I'm working to get mine to heels down without using a counterweight in front.

Great staff too. What wood is it made of? I'm a huge fan of hiking staffs, my current fave is a nice straight ash stem, it was the trunk of a sapling that someone at the park tried to snap off at ground level. It has the bark left on and it's funny how when you need a good grip in various different positions, there always seems to be a nice bump or irregularity or healed over collar right where you need it. My staff comes up to eye level, seeing yours in action looks like a bit longer would be better for what you are demonstrating.

I would think wood staff on the wood floor would be a bit slippery though you seemed fine with it

Have you seen those "mobility sticks"? Seems to be the same thing as a staff but apparently more flexible and pricey Stick Mobility - Active Stretching, Strength Training, Joint Mobilization - https://stickmobility.com
 
Last edited:
Thanks for commenting on the staff. It it reminds me that I meant to add in my description about the video that working on the floor like that no matter what staff you use, it's safest to have a crutch tip or a tennis ball split and insert it onto the end of the staff. You need the friction to keep from inducing an injury accidentally.

That that is actually bamboo that I've grown. And your comment about a bump or a bulge on the wooden staff is very appropriate. With bamboo I'll run the joints over a belt sander and it smooths out any sharpness but it leaves a slight bulge that is useful in the grip of the staff.

My teacher first insisted on the staffs being about 5 ft tall but many people didn't have the flexibility to use the staff that short. Now we use at least a 6-ft staff and sometimes he specifies 7... taller folks especially need the longer staffs. The rule of thumb I use is that the staff needs to be higher than your head and I usually have it at least 6-in just to 12-in higher than my head. The longer staff allows you to use it especially in the twisted postures so that it can be the support you need that touches the ground. The staff as I said serves as the temporary spine that allows you the support you need to achieve a position. The purpose of a position is not the position but for the accessibility to the stretch it affords the associated muscles, tendons and ligaments.Yes, I have seen those commercial flexible stretching staffs and they look very good. But a simple stick or bamboo works very well also.

When things slow down a bit I would love to revive the bamboo thread. I'm still in love with bamboo.
 
Any recommendations about drilling through an old bench vise? I wasn't sure if they are some extra hard metal or not. I need to put new pins in this one, probably vest to tap it and use screws to keep the big jaw screw from backing out. Someone apparently sheared the pins off.

20210327_140934.jpg
 
Treework sure has it's ups and downs.
After logging season was over, we had nothing to do.
As in NOTHING.
Had to rent the apprentice out to an arborist firm and Richard and I haven't drawn pay for a month.
We were seriously talking about closing down.
Then I called a guy from HedeDanmark, the biggest operator in the country and asked him if they had anything for us. I used to do a ton of work for him 10-15 years ago.
He said, they were busy as hell with line clearing.
So I asked him why the hell they hadn't called us, since we did a slew of it for them 5 years ago and still have all the necessary certificates.
Well, he said, new mid level leaders who don't know you, let me give them a call.
2 days later we landed a line clearing contract that'll keep us busy for at least ½ a year.
Same day I got a mail from a head forester, who runs 3 major estate forests, could we cut 2500 cubic meters of Beech this summer.

Ups and downs indeed.:|:

So we'll be clearing ROW for 180 KV lines for a while.
The kind of stuff where a mistake will turn you into a grilled chicken.
Hell of a fate for a vegetarian, that.
 
Back
Top