How'd it go today?

Shit day, where nothing went right. If there was an opportunity for a problem, there was a problem. No major disasters, but about 10 railroad cars of papercuts. Hard to pick a favorite, but I think it was sliding ~20' down a 1:1 slope on my ass and side, and working harder than I have in any tree to get back up. What's that? Doesn't sound that bad? I did it four or five times trying to get a point set, and finally said "I'm not setting that one", and walked off. On the plus side, my back didn't bother me much. Rage must have been good for it...

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Oh, and I got home, and found cleaning cat was at it again. By the backdoor, there were some leaves, a kid's mitten, a small portable speaker, and a piece of paper in a little pile. Under that little pile was cat puke; probably from Schnookums. I just look at this shit, and shake my head. I wish she'd learn to use a rag...
 
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New custy today. Had the first grey pine (24"dbh) rigged down and chunked down next to the house to where the spar would fit in the lay in 3 hrs. Rob forwarded whe brash to the HO that then dragged it down to his burn pile damn near 100 yards out. Then SRT into an oak that was near it and took off the hazard dead over his trail in about a 1/2 hour.
Then went down the drive way and stripped a 36dbh gray pine with 30' plus limbs till I could cut it in half to fit between a set of trees and in a slot between others. 2 hours the truck was packed back up. HO doing most the clean up.Tipped us, paid us, and off we went. I think we wore him out though :/:
Nice day. Stayed cool and sprinkled a bit.
 
It actually crossed my mind, but it would have taken a lot of setup just to get a single point. Would have been nice just leaning back into a rope, and getting it in.
 
I did, what I thought was an impossible thing today.
I'm still at home, sickish.
Got a call from a very polite, very near panic gentleman.

The storm we had 2 weeks ago ( The one that cost me my 500i) knocked over a bunch of trees around his vacation cabin, but for resons unknown, let 1 tree stand.
Now there is another storm forecast for tomorrow ( We were going to do a cabling job on a historical Horse chestnut, but had to call it off) and he just knew the tree was going to eat the cabin.
A local arb company had promised to deal with it, didn't show up, didn't pick up their phone.
So for some obscure reason he called the county and screamed "HELP!!!!"
The guy at the county is a former forester, that I've done tons of work for, so he gave him my number.

I told him I'd drive down and see what could be done.
His wife went down to meet me.
Turned out the tree was a largish Larch, COMPLETELY covered in ivy.
As in: a giant green ball, no branches visible. Green popsicle!
Leaning towards the "cabin" ( these "" are because that is a "cabin" that costs more than my entire property).
We've had 3 days of solid rain, the ground is soaked through, so I had to tell her, it would definitely go and the cabin with it.

I tried to get hold of the crew, they were in the opposite end of the island, of course, and I knew whoever I asked to chew their way up into that green jungle in high winds and heavy rain, would do a Gollum on me.
( Hates it, hates it, hates it forever!!!!)
Nobody picked up their phone.

So I figured, why not give it a try, dropping it full size.
I'm a logger, felling trees is what I do.

So I shot a line across the green ball, got a rope across it, set a block in the neighbours flagpole and tightened the rope with the truck ( Didn't have a skid steer with me, sorry)

The whole time I was thinking: " This is not going to work etc.....etc.....etc.............)

Lo and behold, the rope went right through the green ball and tightened up fine.I never would have thought one could be so lucky........................in one try!!!

Then it was just a question of tightening up, keeping a close look at the flagpole ( Never can tell how well those are set) And felling the tree perpendicular to the rope.

Bingo!

That is one client, who thinks I'm god!

Except for the fact that I got hit by a fit of coughing that lasted 30 minutes and ended with me blowing cookies on the neighbour's lawn, twice............................ god doesn't puke on lawns, I think.

I must have looked real bad, because she asked if I wanted to come in and lie down before driving home.

Corona got me worse that I thought.

I was thinking I'd go out tomorrow and kill some trees, forget about that.
 
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Buried mom today. Everything went well. Having a glass of whisky now. I bought this when my father died ~22 years ago. It's been in the bottle as long as it spent in the cask at this point. I didn't intentionally save it, but I don't think I touched it after the day my father was buried.

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Skål!
 
Routine day. Second job I went to, there was a topless lady holding her breasts. I brought her back to the office. W00t!

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Went to mom's to water the plants, and bring mail in. I also brought the tree home I gave her for jul. It's a little crispy, but I'm hoping it'll bounce back. That was a huge win as a gift. She really liked it. My brother brought this in yesterday I guess. I thought it was nice...

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Rain day so we had a quick meeting and inventoried trucks. I helped a new hire with some saw maintenance as well. Picked up 6 more IBC totes on the way home around noon. Came home to find that my father in law was helping with cleaning the basement. It looks much better down there. Problem is my garage is full of boxes now😡. I cheered up by vacuum sealing 15 lbs of bacon into single pound bags. Bacon always makes things better😎. Still raining out so I guess I’ll start trying to find my garage again
 
Worked my first referral from Facebook today. Triple trunk camphor removal (over a brand new asphalt driveway) and a bunch of trimming. I spent a good part of the day coaching the rookie climber and running ropes. Decent guys, but is it normal in the tree business for most of the guys on the crew to stop and smoke a joint every couple hours during the day? I didn't say anything because I need the work, and kept my eyes open so I wouldn't be involved in any mishaps. I'm just not used to working with those types. Boss man showed up twice for a total of about 2 hours during the day.
 
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