How'd it go today?

[pete mctree]

I am having a day off today, after a two week job harvesting ash trees with dieback and as usual they are on a steep bank and oversized for the machines. After not having cut timber since last September I have been sleeping well on a night 🙃
What made things even more interesting, was the fact that this is probably the worst managed stand of timber I have ever worked in. Many of the trees had poor form and were weighted heavily down hill and then there was this - one of several doubles that had not been thinned out. Each leg about 20 inches and over 70ft tall - just plain nasty.
At the end of the day I got paid very well & I don’t have to run the rigging in and amongst the thorn trees to extract the timber ! 😂

edit - got the saw sooo stuck it took a winch and two other saws to cut it out… 🙃

 

[stig]

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
So I feel with you, Pete.
Effing dying ash trees................toss some Armillaria mellea in there and it gets really "interesting".


Well, at least I have better saws

 

[pete mctree]

@stig do you find that infected ash trees are more susceptible to Armilliaria ? I ask as on another I did some edge trees and most of them were infected, mushy and falling over.

 

[lxskllr]

Le sigh...



I have a small axe handle I got for Terence I think I'll pare down and fit it to this.

Worked on my office job today. This was the MVP...



It isn't the saw I want, but it's the saw I need. I'm happy to have it to beat up on the trash I'm dealing with rather than my good saws. It was a fantastic value at $0.00.

The pit of despair...



That's not all from today. That's my hand carry spot for the most part. Might be 10% of the total I've removed. Yesterday the woman came out and talked to me for a minute. I was asked *again* if I was keeping the wood for firewood or something. Starting to kind of piss me off. The finest pristine white pine isn't worth much of anything for any purpose imo. 8' tall in when they hit peak value, cause they make a decent jul tree. After that, the value drops til it hits negative value when they throw limbs all over the place, and fall over.

I've taken pictures out here, but they never seem to capture the reality. Here's one from not long after I started last year...



And here's a few from today...

 

[Tree09]

I know I'm just like the carpenter who thinks everything is a nail, but why not just weld a chunk of pipe on for a handle? I couldn't imagine swinging it hard enough where vibration is really gonna be an issue, right?

 

[lxskllr]

Well, I can't weld for one, and second, I like the feel of wood. I also swing it pretty hard sometimes, and use it to drag/carry fairly weighty wood. I want something that's halfway ergonomic. That was ash that came on it. Hickory will be a lot better. If I get another failure, I might look into a Fiskars poly handle thing if they make one. I despise plastic, but I need something that's gonna work. Might be a good thing for Estwing to make. A solid piece of steel with a rubber grip.

 

[treebilly]

Got crane fixed today. Bad sensor in the reel. Bad news is the spring is going bad in it. That’s 8k to replace the entire thing. Going to order one just to have so the down time is minimal when it decides to crap out. The guys went out to work on things till I could get there. By the time the mechanic had me dialed in, they were starting the last removal and could finish without me. I spent the rest of the day setting concrete blocks around our dump pad. It was annoying working with the little boss. He couldn’t understand that he didn’t need to push the blocks to their place. I can set them and just need him to direct me. It was still a good day though

 

[lxskllr]

What does the spring do, and how can you tell it's going bad?

 

[Tree09]

John, you work around ironworkers and welding carpenters all the time. Despite my opinions, supposedly they can weld. Tell them you got a government job you need done, bribe with beer if needed.

 

[SkwerI]

Last night I got a call from a guy I climbed for 20 years ago, and we had a falling out about 10 years ago. He turns 70 in 2 weeks and still as ornery as ever. He owns a small tree service in the next town (2 miles away) and all his work is within 5 miles of his house. He subs out everything except the chipping. He owns 2 trucks and a chipper and has always subbed out everything else. His two trucks, one he owned before I worked for him and the other he bought right after I started climbing for him. He has replaced the chipper.

Anyway, Dave has always been a bit crotchety but he's honest and fair. He is the first person who ever paid me what I was worth as a climber. I went from $150-200 per day to $300 and more per day working for him (20 years ago). He can be a pain in the ass, but so can I. He is also extremely loyal. He's been using the same Bobcat guy to haul his wood for almost 15 years and his climber has been with him for 10. All paid daily as subs. Well it seems his Bobcat guy is losing his marbles. Ed has always been weird but he's gotten worse. Now he isn't showing up. Dave called me in a bit of a panic last night because he had a job today and no way to move the wood. I assured him my little baby loader could handle it. He called me today at 11 saying he was ready for me and I got there and loaded all the wood in less than an hour. He was blown away with my loader. Looks like I have a new steady client good for 2-3 jobs per week, all within 2-7 miles from my house.

I was sort of counting on getting Dave back as a client when I bought the machine. Very happy that it finally happened and we (hopefully) have put our disagreements behind us.

 

[treebilly]

What does the spring do, and how can you tell it's going bad?

John the spring is just a recoil for the A2B wire but the spool it’s on also relays my boom length. I opened up the box in front of the spool (really not supposed to do that)and there are a lot of wires and sensors and gizmos in there. For some reason you need to replace everything when the spring fails. At least that’s what two different crane mechs told me. Seems silly but is most likely true.

Got a bunch of IBC plastic liners cut up tonight. Ran out of daylight and still have 7 or 8 to go. Boss gave me permission to toss them in the dumpster at work so I better get them gone before he changes his mind. I’m also glad I did it tonight. They’re so big and getting them cleaned up really makes a visual difference.

 

[stig]

Here the

@stig do you find that infected ash trees are more susceptible to Armilliaria ? I ask as on another I did some edge trees and most of them were infected, mushy and falling over.

Hymenoscyphus fraxineus doesn't kill them.
Just weakens them enough that Armillaria can move in and finish them off.
The reason single trees in the open land has a higher survival rate is there are less Armillaria present, compared to dense forest stands.

 

[FJR]

Last night I got a call from a guy I climbed for 20 years ago, and we had a falling out about 10 years ago. He turns 70 in 2 weeks and still as ornery as ever. He owns a small tree service in the next town (2 miles away) and all his work is within 5 miles of his house. He subs out everything except the chipping. He owns 2 trucks and a chipper and has always subbed out everything else. His two trucks, one he owned before I worked for him and the other he bought right after I started climbing for him. He has replaced the chipper.

Anyway, Dave has always been a bit crotchety but he's honest and fair. He is the first person who ever paid me what I was worth as a climber. I went from $150-200 per day to $300 and more per day working for him (20 years ago). He can be a pain in the ass, but so can I. He is also extremely loyal. He's been using the same Bobcat guy to haul his wood for almost 15 years and his climber has been with him for 10. All paid daily as subs. Well it seems his Bobcat guy is losing his marbles. Ed has always been weird but he's gotten worse. Now he isn't showing up. Dave called me in a bit of a panic last night because he had a job today and no way to move the wood. I assured him my little baby loader could handle it. He called me today at 11 saying he was ready for me and I got there and loaded all the wood in less than an hour. He was blown away with my loader. Looks like I have a new steady client good for 2-3 jobs per week, all within 2-7 miles from my house.

I was sort of counting on getting Dave back as a client when I bought the machine. Very happy that it finally happened and we (hopefully) have put our disagreements behind us.

I enjoyed reading that Brian. I am really happy to hear that the Avant and your new adventure is working out well for you.

 

[flushcut]

John the spring is just a recoil for the A2B wire but the spool it’s on also relays my boom length. I opened up the box in front of the spool (really not supposed to do that)and there are a lot of wires and sensors and gizmos in there. For some reason you need to replace everything when the spring fails. At least that’s what two different crane mechs told me. Seems silly but is most likely true.

Got a bunch of IBC plastic liners cut up tonight. Ran out of daylight and still have 7 or 8 to go. Boss gave me permission to toss them in the dumpster at work so I better get them gone before he changes his mind. I’m also glad I did it tonight. They’re so big and getting them cleaned up really makes a visual difference.

You can use one side as a roof for a full basket of wood. You can also cut drain holes in the bottom and sides and use those for wood as well. I used to use them as a dump basket fill them up, load them up, and dump the out the truck at the customers place.

 

[treebilly]

I need to find a paintball course or something like that.

 

[lxskllr]

Located wetlands today. Boring. I saw this guy today, which was pretty cool...

 

[lxskllr]

I made this today. friction-saver-0.1alpha2



I really liked my well pipe saver, except for the way it worked :^D This will partially address some of those problems, but maybe not enough. It's pvc flexible conduit with a rubber band taped around it to hopefully hold it to the tree. Biggest problem, is it could slip off. It doesn't hold it's shape like steel does. If it works though, it'll be slippery as hell, and will be the next best thing to a pulley.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

Excepted that the rope will melt it. Pvc has a too low softening point (as it doesn't melt really ) and this temperautre is easily attainable by friction. Plus it's too britle when cold. Since you doesn't look like a summer's guy, this can be a concern.

 

[lxskllr]

Yea, maybe. What I liked about the pvc, is no chance of sharp edges against the rope. If it doesn't work, it'll only cost $10, and about 5 minutes of time. Fairly cheap failure consequences.

 

[Jonny]

CPVC is a little more heat resistant.

It’s a bit more flexible too, or seemed so when my uncle bought the wrong stuff to winterize his sailboat, which was also his home at the time.

 

[Raj]

After a couple months of having my a$$ho1e jiggled out of place I decided to change my rotors and pads, only to find broken coil springs and a loose steering shaft. There is a parts place on the rez, $50 cheaper and no tax, and I happen to drive by it often.

 

[lxskllr]

Good day. Climbed with Pat and another man. I particularly enjoyed watching Pat maneuver in the tree.



My friction saver was a failure. It worked in the most basic sense, but it has too many issues to pursue it further. I'll keep it in the truck for my work system. It'll be alright as a 'better than nothing' device if the need arises. The HitchHikerXF is wonderful. It's everything I wanted in a hitch system. Smooth, reliable, and compact.

 

[flushcut]

I had a 17 third grade girls for a bowling birthday party. It wasn’t bad until the tornado warnings, yes warnings two of them, went off on all the phones. Kids crying and scared shitless. I told my wife I am glad your girls aren’t “fragile”. My two stayed calm and did damage control. No tornado just strong thunderstorms off and on with heavy rain.

 

[lxskllr]

17 3rd grade girls will make the worst day you ever had at work seem like a pretty good time :^D

 

[flushcut]

Well none of them tried to kill me like a few trees attempted to. Lol