How'd it go today?

I'm not sure what caused the washing machine drain pump to fail, but I wonder if chainsaw tooth filings getting attracted to the magnet could be to blame? It was hard to tell if the black grit in the pump was from it's magnet, or from filings, or if the impeller attachment point just simply wore out due to a bad design. I only started lots of saw filing last year, so I need to make a change. I'm thinking apron.
 
If it was made in the last 10 years, my money's on bad design.

Got in my pine today. Used TrueBlue rope. That's a nice line. Got to give it a decent workout. I suspect it would be too stretchy in normal lengths, but my 50' piece is pretty good. There's still vines in it. They're way out on the end, and coming up from the neighbor's property. When everything greens up(so they can't see me), I'll get over there, and cut them at the base with my silky. I really doubt they'd care, but I don't want to be in a position to owe them. The woman's a weirdo :^D

I didn't free climb as much as expected. A lot of the limbs I intended on using didn't look great. Left the big stubs, both as a firewood bank, and to maybe go up again in the future, and use them to stand on. I trust them enough to hold my weight while lanyarded in. Got to use the grapnel also. Tossed it out to hook a vine going into my spruce, and dragged it to me to cut. Had a pretty good time aside from getting sticky.
 
Dragging logs today. I hate dragging logs. Any single part of the process is fine, but getting in/out of truck, setting ropes/chokers, and lining the truck up without help is tedious. No redirects today I don't think, so that's good.

I was sitting on a stump thinking how much I hate dragging logs, and saw the stump piece that trapped my saw last week. Pic is the backcut with the section removed to free my saw...

IMG_20220304_105243.jpg
 
I had a hell of a fine day.
The project with dying ash trees around an old army base, that I'm involved in has come up hard against a bunch of angry treehuggers.
Exactly the reson the army boys brought me in at first. ( I'm one out of only 23 certified arbs in Denmark right now)
So I was asked to come and meet with them today and try to calm them down.
They were bringing their own "experts", since they don't trust me any further than you can spit a rat, me being paid by the enemy.
I was told the "experts" were a guy running a company called " The happy treeman" and someone whose claim to fame is that he has written a book about how to bring nature into your garden......................................!
I was not looking forward to waltzing with those 2 idiots.
When I arrived at the meeting, there were some 30 angry tree lovers already there, arms akimbo and one expert.

Lo and behold, it really was an expert, biggest one of them all.
They had hired Iben M. Thomsen, the leading expert on wood fungus and hazard trees in Scandinavia.
Iben and I know each other professionally, I have a huge amount of respect for her.

So I told the treehuggers, how about we all walk through the area together and Iben and I decide what to cut and what not and you can stick your oar in if you have something to contribute.
They accepted that and after about ½ hours show and tell, I suggested the time had come for me to get the marking spray and for us to get to work.
If they wanted, they were welcome to follow us around.
By then they had all calmed down and apart from one woman, went home, much to the relief of the army base commander.
The woman stayed because she found it fascinating to watch us doing our stuff.

Then I did a 5 hour walk through with Iben, assessing the trees.
This is something that I would happily have paid a lot of money to do, having her brain to pick all on my own.
I knew a lot about armillaria, but after today I know a lot more.
We also found some Ganoderma and one Kreutzmaria that I never would have spottet on my own.......never!
All in all it was like taking a master class and being the only kid in the class room.
And they paid me a good wage to do it.

How lucky can a man get :) :) :)

Tomorrow my forwarder/feller guy shows up and we do the job over the weekend.

I'll try to get some pictures.
 
Dragged six logs today. They were 8'-12' long; not that many. Just got tired of it, and the next group will have to be staged differently. I'll have to think on it a bit. I'll need a new prusik soon. Down to two strands on that one part...

IMG_20220304_130313.jpg

I'm loving the treemaster. There's a lot of things that make it a PITA, but I doubt a tougher line is made. Next step up is probably steel.

edit:
Holy Shit, I managed to get the figure8 knot out of the end of the treemaster! Bent the tip of my marlinspike, but I can deal with it. What I want to do is cut that end off to make a new prusik, then splice an eye into the end. I think I'm gonna go with a single fishermans for the new prusik. It'll save a bit of rope, and I don't think it'll slip as hard as this stuff locks up when loaded.
 
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Rain day, but I earned it after the last three weeks . Yesterday, slayed out two 100 plus footers and only have the wood to haul out. All the logs roped out And 90 percent of the brush on a twin too (actually had three left after losing one lead/marm). A buddy of mine working rope and had never negative rigged before. He watched me ride that fishing pole and told me, "you should have taken up riding bulls, (and he has) looked easier on you than that, being a paddle ball on the end of a fly rod.".
I laughed at him, knowing how cowboy work has tore him up over the years. Then I said, "it only happens once in a while. I am ready and expecting it because its always the newb that does it to you."
 
Sorry you had to go through that, Stephen. After getting beat up by rookie groundmen for years, I quit negative rigging logs. They got chunked down regardless. Unless I was rigging them down myself with my bucket. I HATED getting paddleballed!
 
Started getting into the black cherry I milled last year. Sanded it and applied the first coat of boiled linseed oil.
 

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SkwerI said:
Sorry you had to go through that, Stephen. After getting beat up by rookie groundmen for years, I quit negative rigging logs. They got chunked down regardless. Unless I was rigging them down myself with my bucket. I HATED getting paddleballed!
Click to expand...
I want him to learn. His kids are about all grown and gone and good labor is hard to find up here. He refers me the climbing work he gets calls about. If I can teach him some rope work, it will indeed come in handy for us both. Him and his wife helped on the job. Good people and good workers. They have their own gig. But when I can use them.... See if I can break him in. Took him a bit, but he did better after several tries and a change of rope.
 
At an event this evening I saw the couple who own the home where this photo of me in an oak was taken. I’ve only ever had a low-resolution image from an email. I asked them if they could find the original. I’d love to have a poster print of it in my shop. Fingers crossed!

640EB829-AA1E-4329-8894-6A7E572AF14C.jpeg
 
Can you expand on the change of rope? Did something else have better characteristics that made it easier for him to handle?

edit:
That's a great picture Pat.
 
Basically changed the Teufelberger to Stable braid. Teufelberger is not as soft and can be more friction on a bollard than the softer Sampson Stable Braid. Both ropes were close in diameter, stretch and breaking strength characteristics. 9/16th Stable Braid. Cant remember the mm on the Teufelberger. But just a tad smaller than 9/16. not by much.
 
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