How'd it go today?

Also, they think I'm bad and Seth, my son, lives there so he might get a ear full. But just they wait till the big kit shows up. Excavator, dozer, big skid steer. Dump trucks and trailers. They are about to remove all those stumps (20 or so) and re grade the entire lot behind the duplex. :lol:

I just wanna be there to watch :lol:
 
So, did the Linden lead removal today, and on the way home, it looks like Hurricane Elsa paid us an early visit. Noob and I driving separate trucks, him following me. Driving down I-78 back to my yard, and he lost control trying to get over to exit ramp. Jackknifed truck, trailer and mini-skid and looked like this:

f550_jackknife.jpg

State Police came, and called the on-duty towing company (who I know a bunch of the drivers from; I used to be friendly with the owner back in my youth, as I dispatched for AAA, and he was the local garage). Well, thanks to the position of it leaning hard into the guardrail and stuck in mud, they used the flatbed from the initial driver and the medium duty Peterbilt wrecker to separate the trailer from the truck, which I hooked up to my RAM to get out of the way. They then had to call in the big boy wrecker with the rotating boom to steady the truck to keep it from flipping over the guardrail as they pulled it up to the roadway with the Peterbilt, then towed back to my yard. Amazingly, it appears there's almost no damage to the old F550, but still taking it into shop for look over and some overdue maintenance. The ultimate bummer: State Police/Interstate towing charges: $4950.
 
Seems like everything can always be worse, and sometimes is, but on the good end of the scale, you say "Nope. This is as good as it gets. It'll never be any better than this" :^D
 
Fun morning removing a pin oak along the power lines. Very tedious work until I had the lines cleared. I hate how the regrowth seems to weave itself between the open secondaries and into the primary without burning off. Anyhow for it down with no sparks, flames, or smoke so it was a good job. Then off to driving around looking at trees. Met a few nice people today. Managed to get soaked though. A nice gentle rain turned into a gulley washer before I could make it to the truck. Wet saw pants kinda suck.
 
Put on the field portion of some basic saw training today. All went pretty well, and more importantly nobody got hurt. I had a couple of women in the class/ training and I'm always impressed by how they pay attention to the details and execution. Passing on information and knowledge to interested people are the rewards in the game.
 
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Got my chipper back in action!
New hydraulic motor for the feed wheel and a new custom machined coupling for it, manufacturer doesn't keep them in stock, had to be made to order, right when Melbourne went into lockdown a while back!
$2300 and change. Love my mechanic, he took care of everything, very reasonable labour fees too. His shop is two blocks away, Golden.
 
Removed a 50 foot x 16” Scots Pine and a 70 foot x ~24” Shagbark Hickory. Some close utility wires and nice cement driveway in range and I was alone so it was a lot of limb walking and handsaw work. I really had a lot of fun, it’s been a month or so since I’ve done any tree work. I love climbing.
Gotta go back another day for another similar size Hickory and a pretty big dead Ash.

I’m going to keep some of the Hickory and try it out in the smoker with a big slab of pork or beef. Maybe a bunch of chicken thighs.
 
@cory
I don't know about up by you, but everyone I described it to down here couldn't believe that price, even by overpriced NJ standards.

@SeanKroll
Fee breakdown:
Initial flatbed: 3 hrs @ $250/hr
Medium duty Peterbilt wrecker: 3 hrs @ $600/hr (juiced # IMO, as they charged me from when he got the call, and he showed up 30-40 mins after the flatbed)
Heavy duty, rotating boom wrecker: 2 hrs @ $1200/hr (juiced as above, and he was on the scene for about an hour, and only 15mins away from their shop)

As for tongue weight, I wasn't measuring it (based on small load w/the Dingo in the back), but normal driving around w/ just the Dingo in the trailer always provides enough weight. The bigger blame goes to the torrential downpour and slightly worn rear tires causing the hydroplane to occur as he changed lanes.
 
Idk about the individual prices charged, I was just thinking that if you were told your vehicle will be getting into a bad looking wreck today, but for the sum of $4950, it can be ensured that there will be no physical damages, or you can take your random chances on vehicles emerging unscathed, you'd pay the dough. Well at least I would. Bizarre proposition I"ve set up but point I'm trying to make is it could have been alot lot worse.
 
Jonny, any impressions from you about working with the hickory? I usually find them to be fairly tricky, higher level chit because the wood is so damn tough that you have to make sure most of your cuts are well thought out and perfectly executed
 
The sticks and twigs on these hickories like to get tangled up on each other and on the ropes. That and the big flakes of bark getting in the way of waving my lanyard up properly are my only complaints.


Flexible and strong, I would’ve been comfortable tying in to 3” diameter tops, I just didn’t need to. It holds a hinge amazingly, I guess I’d compare it to American Elm. Haven’t split any, but I got a feeling it’s stringy and probably not easy to split by hand. I might be wrong though.
 
Sometimes those bark flakes make my spurs kick out. And sometimes those hinges hold a bit too amazingly well, imo.
 
cory said:
Idk about the individual prices charged, I was just thinking that if you were told your vehicle will be getting into a bad looking wreck today, but for the sum of $4950, it can be ensured that there will be no physical damages, or you can take your random chances on vehicles emerging unscathed, you'd pay the dough. Well at least I would. Bizarre proposition I"ve set up but point I'm trying to make is it could have been alot lot worse.
Click to expand...

Cory,

Oh yeah, they did a great job ensuring I got the royal treatment on my truck for what essentially was a jackknife stuck in the mud. I showed my and other pics from tow truck driver to other towers/mechanics, and they went "WTF?!?!" They stated the 2 original trucks should have done it no problem, and the big one was overkill (but easy to see why called in because of how much they get per the State Police contract). I originally thought the same, but when you're dealing w/lanes closed on a busy interstate (and I'm a fireman who has to do frequent blocking duty for such incidents), you're basically at the mercy of the tow companies to get it done how they see fit,

Yes I know it could have been worse, but I could see the medium-duty driver's eyes light up when he loudly proclaimed to me "We're calling in the big guy with the rotator! Prepare for a multi-thousand dollar bill!"
 
Jonny, I've hand-split split hickory before, you just got to make sure it's thoroughly cured. Not overly difficult like elm. Better to chip as much as you can for smoking, as you described.
 
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