How'd it go today?

[Treeaddict]

Path of permission.

 

[flushcut]

You know it’s a big tree when your base tie burns up 60’ of rope. Lol

 

[cory]

Wth!?!

 

[stikine]

Heck of a nice day.

 

[lxskllr]

Do you do any canoeing? Looks like a lot of good boating out there.

 

[stikine]

I do a bit, mostly during moose season up the river.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Really nice tree for a rec climb. About rivals that black oak up the street from me. I may only have access to it for a short while longer. The HOs are selling all their land holdings and getting the hell out of CA. About broke my heart. Great neighbors and customers. I was really looking forward to them retiring up here and having another shooting sport buddy.
I'll try and communicate with the new owners if it's not just another investment group looking to make vacation rental money.

 

[Jonny]

Was exploring a mothballed area of the plant, and found a rusty old self retracting fall arrest reel with the carabiner for attaching to the anchor spot. The company switched from screw gates to auto-lockers sometime before I got hired 15 years ago, so it’s pretty old and has been out of service for a while.

Nice easy shift, so I salvaged the biner and cleaned it in the sandblast cabinet. End result is some pretty severe pitting, but I can read that it’s a DMM, and in happier times it was rated at 55KN.

I don’t have a proper splicing table, I just use my work bench, and if I need a rope cleat, I usually clamp a biner into the bench vise. This questionable old biner will just be a splicing cleat doohickey, so I can stop marking up my speed line biners on the vise.

Still probably incredibly strong, but nobody can really say for sure without break testing. I probably just wanted an excuse to use the sand blast cabinet. Very satisfying watching the rust and stuff just melt away.

 

[lxskllr]

That cleaned up pretty well. I might be inclined to use it for something better than clamping in a vice. A tractorsupply biner would work for that. That would be good for ground based redirects that wouldn't hurt anything if they failed.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Poor advise IMO.
Redirects can come under high loads. No one needs a steel projectile flying across a work site or property.
Once retired, what he proposed in the sanctity of his shop, no harm or foul.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Took some pictures at the church of the cabling after a couple storms and a season gone by after the prunes. Interior live oaks over structures.

 

[treebilly]

I
Not that I needed more stuff in my cluttered up garage but I couldn’t pass up on the deal. Now I need to order carriers for the suburban’s roof rack and get these things registered. Next is a canoe. That way the wife and I can go out together with the kids at the same time. Of course that means I’ll have to take a trailer to the lake but whatever.

 

[lxskllr]

You need to register kayaks up there? That's a hassle.

 

[stikine]

Yeah, that's a bit over the top.

 

[Jonny]

Sweet! Kayaking looks so fun, I’ve been wanting to try it for years. We’re definitely doing it this summer. There’s quite a few spots that rent them out, and lots of nice spots to do it. Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Niagara River, and who knows how many canals and creeks.

 

[pigwot]

Stig,
I attended a wedding under that tree in 2016. There were several 40 foot to 60 ft long, dead limbs over the attendees heads. I sought out the church members and gained permission to climb and deadwood the tree. Back then I organized six climbers from four states, along with two of my former groundsmen, to clean up the tree.
My contact had asked if we could revisit the tree. Not as much deadwood this time, but we did take care of about 90% of what could do harm during this climb.
Next time you come stateside we’ll go reassess the old girl, okay?

 

[treebilly]

Yep. Most people don’t though. I’m just gonna do it because I don’t have the best relationship with ODNR when it comes to watercraft and fishing. Maybe everyone feels the same but they always seem to find a way to pester me and try to issue a fine. I also tend to share my annoyance of them, to them. I lost politeness when they bumped into my fishing boat years ago so they could get a better look at what we had aboard. Never get that close when people are fishing. Now I’m half fired up again

 

[treebilly]

@Jonny Be careful on Erie. Little boat in big water. Storms roll in fast and that lake gets nasty mean in a hurry.

 

[pigwot]

I remember fishing for perch on Lake Erie with my grandfather when a storm blew in - like a roller coaster ride and us in a twelve foot boat with a 5hp Evinrude outboard. Caught 72 fish!

 

[Tree09]

I used to canoe a bunch, and ran a ton of trotlines from them. We ran a few rivers that were up, but mainly preferred the later season calm with cleaner water (and therefore better tasting catfish that have already spawned to maintain populations). Never tried the kayak, but the right canoe can be a very capable boat. It was my dad's, and is a relatively heavy riveted aluminum. We used to simply paddle because we were young but plenty of guys around here run around with trolling motors on the square transom. Ran that way they can pretty much go anywhere and do it fast and silent, carrying quite the load making them even more stable.

It's usually best to kneel for the lower center of gravity and back position, but this can be hard on some people's knees/ back so that might be a consideration too. When they got coolers and gear loading them down you can safely sit on calmer waters, but any quicker spots or spots where you might bump a log it's safer to be kneeling.

Some of my happiest memories growing up were on the water with my family, so I'm hoping to get the sailboat going this spring to start it with mine. If you're by big water like that you might be surprised at the price of a used sailboat, i got my 25 foot macgregor 25 for 3500 bucks with a trailer and it's been a blast. I haven't had it out in a few years but it'll clean up just fine, and there's nothing like a boat under sail. The flushing toilet really makes getting away much more enjoyable too. That's when convincing people to do a weekend trip becomes a great idea for everybody, so it's more likely to happen in my experience.

 

[cory]

Great post, 09.

The only thing I would add is don't overlook a SUP as a fantastic means to experience the water with the family. Inflatable SUPs are very low tech and user friendly, and they get you close to the water in a fun, unique way. Carry one onboard on the weekend trip and add to your water borne fun

 

[Tree09]

Agreed. Even a handful of inner tubes are a ton of fun. Just being on the water is what it's all about.

 

[Cobleskill]

Back in the '70s a bunch of my nutball friends put in the lower Niagara River at Devil's Hole on tubes. Whirlpools as big as a house. Nucking futs.

 

[treebilly]

Took some large dead wood out of an oak this morning. Used the crane as there was a spider web of wires below. Quick and easy. Couldn’t get vehicles moved at two other locations. Now I’m guarding a monster and it’s started to rain. Not one I really want to start after lunch but I’m running out of places to drive. The boss will be getting some form of sarcastic remark when I get in. Seems they forgot to notify residents we were coming and to keep their cars off the street. I’m probably just grouchy because I have a headache

 

[lxskllr]

Stressful day of not getting much done. I was checking a pier that has an alignment problem. It's kind of a mindfuck trying to figure out how the error got in. There's a non zero chance it's my fault, but due to the details of the layout, it's unlikely imo. I'm thinking the forms moved after marking the location. There was a peculiar issue with one set of boltholes also, and that was pretty close to zero chance it was something I did, but I have no idea how they could have gotten messed up. It's all just strange and stressful. I don't think the fix will be /too/ bad, but it's still gonna be thousands $

0.3' out...



Top of the pier...



Tethered to the rental lift that quit working earlier, and had to get a service visit...