davidwyby
Desert Beaver
80, sweaty wood splittin...in the winter for crying out loud
How'd it go today?
- Thread starter MasterBlaster
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CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
About healed up here. Twas kinda deep.
Treeaddict
Treehouser
That’s awesome, John! Can’t wait to see how she runs. The John we just finished the willows for would be a great guy for maintenance or repair. He can fix anything, usually better than factory condition. He’ll return the favors of low priced tree work, for sure.
treebilly
Student of the Jedi. OH-7106A
I was down a guy today. Funny how he was sick for the rainy/snowy day we had🤔. We had to hop scotch mats for the bucket truck to remove a large multi stemmed sycamore and then a silver maple overhanging the highway fence. 3&1/2 loads of chips later we had enough. Going back in the morning to drop the logs and rake up. Kind of a miserable day but still a good one😎
davidwyby
Desert Beaver
solved problems all day then split some more Euc
Kaveman
Treehouser
I've not been getting much climbing work since I've got back in the game seriously. Makes it hard to get back in shape. Makes it really hard to train my protégé as well. Specifically, he's very nervous on spurs, not that I blame him. I live just far enough north of Showlow as to be out of the pines, so I had to make my own.
Planted that sucker about 3 foot into the ground. I went up it last night, it's rock solid.
Planted that sucker about 3 foot into the ground. I went up it last night, it's rock solid.
CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
I feel so lucky sometimes in that I have plenty on trees on my property to train climbers on. Low and slow and work up up.
Kaveman
Treehouser
I have a few of my shagbarks butchered and "lion's tailed" for training, but it's a cluster of trunks, and I've noticed he's nervous on single stems. He's gotta learn to trust the gear.
Nothing here has much height, not even a full 20 off the ground. Hell, that pole is only 16' total, and there's three feet in the ground. But, we make do with what we have.
There were ruins of a sawmill on the job I was at this morning. I never even noticed them. The foreman pointed them out to me. I didn't have time to really poke around. Doesn't look like much, but it's still cool...
Sluice from the millrace. I didn't have time to study where the wheel was...
A little closer on the walls...
Sluice from the millrace. I didn't have time to study where the wheel was...
A little closer on the walls...
Burnham
Woods walker
Just show him these, tell him it gets easier when you are old like this guy...
That first little limb over my head was right at 115 feet. I know because I climbed to there and my doubled 225 footer was almost touching the ground. I downclimbed 10 feet from there to set my friction saver with the rope in full contact with mother earth
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davidwyby
Desert Beaver
One of these days I'm going to learn to at least climb with spurs for chunking down removals.
Burnham
Woods walker
Burnham
Woods walker
Try this. If you have a question, just ask.
Way back machine...remembraces from an old climber
I followed a bot or visitor or who knows what on the who's online page to this set of pictures. Not sure how that worked, because it's still an active thread with current posts, but that's over my head... Anyway, I'm vain enough to bring them forward. From this link see three or four more...
www.masterblasterhome.com
Kaveman
Treehouser
Buy ones with comfy pads. I also recommend that you get both tree and pole gaffs, lots of guys I know don't like the long "western" spikes on eucs and other hard, thin barked trees. If you don't get enough spur sink, you end up kind of unstable, balancing on a pinpoint kinda thing, because you are. It's a personal thing, and I keep a torx and my short spikes in the harness bag, but I've yet to put them back on the climbers.
I find steel climbers perfectly fine, and if you're not doing palms on a production basis, you probably will too. My cousin loves his aluminum Notch Geckos, ive got the steels and like them fine. Huge pads, very comfy. I also recommend velcro lower straps, they fit better than buckles and are more comfortable, and will likely be my next gear purchase.
I've been trying a set of foot plates from Buckingham. They're coming off, mui Pronto. They suck, your shoe/boot can't get purchase on them and they slide around under your feet because the shank of the climber can't lock into your arch. Since I don't own a pair of lineman boots anymore, I thought they'd help save my arches lol. Screw them lol.
If anyone knows what the heck those two random holes on the shank are for, please tell me! I've heard rumors that there's to be a jetstep type ascender that will bolt there. I've also heard it's or an alternative gaff placement, which doesn't make much sense to me.
Also, see those bolts sticking through the gaff? The ones that hold the spikey bit to the strappy bit? Everyone should pull those out and inspect them from time to time, and the threads in the gaff itself. The ones on my old Kleins rusted, the threads of the gaff gave out and that's how I took my fall. Well, the mechanical reason, complacency lies at the core.
I'm too lazy to read it all- heart rot inoculations? You trying to save the tree, or maybe stop a disease from spreading?
Burnham
Woods walker
The meat of it...lazy @cory .
"We introduced phellinus pini, to encourage heart rot, so that woodpeckers could initiate cavities seeking food sources, and then neotropical songbirds could utilize those cavities for nesting habitat. Some of the biologists took so long a view as to suggest that once those trees got big, with significant levels of heart rot, when they fall could be exploited by bears as winter dens.
Short lengths of wooden dowel, heavily saturated with phellinus pini spores, were inserted into the bored holes. A short section of pvc pipe was inserted after the dowel, extending beyond the bark a few inches, to keep the trees from sealing the holes off with pitch...that would be their normal defense mechanism to a wound that might provide an infection vector."
."We introduced phellinus pini, to encourage heart rot, so that woodpeckers could initiate cavities seeking food sources, and then neotropical songbirds could utilize those cavities for nesting habitat. Some of the biologists took so long a view as to suggest that once those trees got big, with significant levels of heart rot, when they fall could be exploited by bears as winter dens.
Short lengths of wooden dowel, heavily saturated with phellinus pini spores, were inserted into the bored holes. A short section of pvc pipe was inserted after the dowel, extending beyond the bark a few inches, to keep the trees from sealing the holes off with pitch...that would be their normal defense mechanism to a wound that might provide an infection vector."
Nice, thanks for the quick info.
Btw, on a possibly related note, is it true that using spurs when pruning a D fir, is not problematic, aside from possibly aesthetic issue, but health wise it's not a problem?
Btw, on a possibly related note, is it true that using spurs when pruning a D fir, is not problematic, aside from possibly aesthetic issue, but health wise it's not a problem?
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Burnham
Woods walker
In my experience, true. But I have heard reports to the contrary from eastside Cascades climbers. Bark beetle infestation is possible if the population is large, which happens cyclically.
Dave Shepard
Square peg, round world.
Went out to the garage to work on the 4Runner. New battery is dead. Hood latch won't open.
Dave Shepard
Square peg, round world.
I won. It was more costly than I was hoping for, but I won. Definitely need a new grill and latch cable, and will probably replace the latch, which is the root cause, anyway.
The battery was at 1.79 volts. I used my little Li-Ion jump pack. I don't know how it works, but it spins it over like it has a 24 volt battery. I've done probably 6 jumps when it had the original dead battery, plus tonight, and the jump pack was only down to 80%. I let the Runner run for a little while, and after sitting a bit disconnected, it was at 12.61 volts. I'll checknin a day, or two, and see if it holds. I've never heard of a battery coming back from that low voltage.
Full sized day planner for scale. Best $130 I've spent in a long time.
The battery was at 1.79 volts. I used my little Li-Ion jump pack. I don't know how it works, but it spins it over like it has a 24 volt battery. I've done probably 6 jumps when it had the original dead battery, plus tonight, and the jump pack was only down to 80%. I let the Runner run for a little while, and after sitting a bit disconnected, it was at 12.61 volts. I'll checknin a day, or two, and see if it holds. I've never heard of a battery coming back from that low voltage.
Full sized day planner for scale. Best $130 I've spent in a long time.
I have a harborfreight lithium jumpbox I originally got to run the gun at work, but now just sits in the truck. I've used it to jumpstart a vehicle twice now. I go into it expecting nothing, but both times it worked well and fast. I can carry it in my cargo pocket. Very pleased with the purchase. It was around $80, but I can't remember exactly.
