How'd it go today?

Cool.

Splits pinch.😆 Just had a go round with a junk paperbark euc yesterday.

I like MA setups. Always wanted to get a rope and pulley setup, mine are all winch and cable and 20lbs each 😆. But that seems to be appropriate for the stuff I deal with.
 
That would have been more appropriate for this task as well :). My personally owned gear is much lighter than what I had to call on in my working life...I was bringing a knife to a gunfight with this job :D. Burned up a couple of prusiks and glazed the main line when the prusiks slipped a bit a few times under heaviest loading.

I set up a 6:1 block and tackle pulled by a 1-ton comealong with 8 feet of cable available. I had a second comealong rigged 2:1 to capture the gain during the MANY resets.

@davidwyby You are surely correct about splits pinching...fortunately I anticipated that and cut that split slab out before the main bucking cut.

Some pics from yesterday.

Cottonwood blowdown Oct. Day 2 work 005.JPG Cottonwood blowdown Oct. Day 2 work 006.JPG Cottonwood blowdown Oct. Day 2 work 009.JPG Cottonwood blowdown Oct. Day 2 work 010.JPG Cottonwood blowdown Oct. Day 2 work 012.JPG Cottonwood blowdown Oct. Day 2 work 014.JPG Cottonwood blowdown Oct. Day 2 work 016.JPG
 
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Last week, my baby chipper spilled all its hydraulique oil, luckily on some crappy grass instead of the paved alley. It seems that the hydro oil filter on the return line got clogged, the pressure built up behind it and its gasket gave up. That surprised me because I replaced the filter not so long ago. Of course I saw that too late, only when I noticed that the feed roller was acting funny. Next day, I mounted the spare filter, tightened it with the web wrench, filled back the tank with the last remain of hydraulique oil in my jug and went back to business. Ok for the day.
Next day, at some point, the feed roller begun to act funny again. What now?
Same thing, the filter was covered with a fountain of oil. But this time the cartridge just went loose between the heat and the vibrations. It's as if I had only tightened it by hand ( like they recommend in the instructions).
After some chosen words, I went hard on the web wrench. But I had no hydraulique oil left, so I used half a gallon of motor oil for my diesel van. Baby chipper, baby tank, so it was enough to work (seemingly) properly. That isn't ideal, but better than the canola oil for the chainsaws.
Second work day now and it's ok so far. I guess that I have to replace that soon by the proper oil tough.
 
Back to work today. Three big ass white pines. Estimator missed that the septic was close. Made access a pain. Also neighbor was not happy that we were taking her trees down. Property pins were clearly marked and clearly not hers. To make things better the temps dropped and it snowed all damn day. I’m determined that by this time next year I’m going to figure out how to take 4-5 months off every year. Guess which months I’ll choose
 
That would have been more appropriate for this task as well :). My personally owned gear is much lighter than what I had to call on in my working life...I was bringing a knife to a gunfight with this job :D. Burned up a couple of prusiks and glazed the main line when the prusiks slipped a bit a few times under heaviest loading.

I set up a 6:1 block and tackle pulled by a 1-ton comealong with 8 feet of cable available. I had a second comealong rigged 2:1 to capture the gain during the MANY resets.

@davidwyby You are surely correct about splits pinching...fortunately I anticipated that and cut that split slab out before the main bucking cut.

Some pics from yesterday.

View attachment 147786View attachment 147787View attachment 147788View attachment 147789View attachment 147790View attachment 147791View attachment 147792
would a backup knot behind the prusik help with that?
 
Also neighbor was not happy that we were taking her trees down.
I hate neighbors, either the customer wants the neighbor to pay, or the neighbor gets pissy about trees that aren't even theirs, had one call the cops on me last year and threaten to shoot me over a trim job, shoulda seen the look on his face when I said I'd call them for him because I've got paperwork from the state saying he can't stop me

had a bid a few years ago for a lawyer, I mentioned the tree being a codominate and NOT 2 seperate trees, meaning the neighbor by law has to sign off in writing saying we can take the tree down, upon hearing that the lawyer demanded the neighbor pay 50%, neighbor said he wouldn't do that while I was doing the bid, come time to email the quote the lawyer sends it back saying I had to change it so the neighbor would pay 50%, I politely told him to never call us again since I had been told the neighbor wouldn't pay and I wasn't going to deal with getting money from two people, especially when the first half wouldn't have covered my expenses on the job so we all know I wouldn't have ever made money on it, lawyer dude was livid that I refused the job

speaking of lawyers, about 6 months ago I had one claim I damaged her fence come time to pay for a job, funny thing is the damage was in a spot I never even got close to with anything and it was on the outside of the fence where I couldn't have scratched her poor aluminum (the scratches were small enough you couldn't see them unless someone pointed them out, telling me she knew about them ahead of time), her husband had to tell her to shut up as he already cut the check LOL

I'm happy I'm getting out of tree work, I will miss the good days but I will never miss neighbors, maybe we need a crappy neighbor storytime thread?
 
I hate neighbors, either the customer wants the neighbor to pay, or the neighbor gets pissy about trees that aren't even theirs, had one call the cops on me last year and threaten to shoot me over a trim job, shoulda seen the look on his face when I said I'd call them for him because I've got paperwork from the state saying he can't stop me

had a bid a few years ago for a lawyer, I mentioned the tree being a codominate and NOT 2 seperate trees, meaning the neighbor by law has to sign off in writing saying we can take the tree down, upon hearing that the lawyer demanded the neighbor pay 50%, neighbor said he wouldn't do that while I was doing the bid, come time to email the quote the lawyer sends it back saying I had to change it so the neighbor would pay 50%, I politely told him to never call us again since I had been told the neighbor wouldn't pay and I wasn't going to deal with getting money from two people, especially when the first half wouldn't have covered my expenses on the job so we all know I wouldn't have ever made money on it, lawyer dude was livid that I refused the job

speaking of lawyers, about 6 months ago I had one claim I damaged her fence come time to pay for a job, funny thing is the damage was in a spot I never even got close to with anything and it was on the outside of the fence where I couldn't have scratched her poor aluminum (the scratches were small enough you couldn't see them unless someone pointed them out, telling me she knew about them ahead of time), her husband had to tell her to shut up as he already cut the check LOL

I'm happy I'm getting out of tree work, I will miss the good days but I will never miss neighbors, maybe we need a crappy neighbor storytime thread?








So what are you going to do? Or have I missed something?
 
a guy i used to work for told me how he send a signed invoice to a lawyer customer of his.
the lawyer put a „paid“ stamp above the signature… he learned his lesson. i‘m glad i learned it trough him.
 
So what are you going to do? Or have I missed something?
to be determined, going to get a 9-5 job somewhere, most likely equipment operating, preferably logging, I've got too many medical issues to keep up with the all day manual labor of tree work, selling off equipment as we speak, also moving the next state over for family stuff, got 2 small humans I need to take care of and I can't do that from 300 miles away


the lawyer put a „paid“ stamp above the signature…
lawyers are the scum of the earth, atleast in the US where everyone is sue happy, I've only worked for one that was happy at the end of the day and even tipped extra, but thats probably just because I bid a 14 hour hedge job as a 3 hour job thinking I'd fly through it with the bucket truck and some pole hedge trimmers, learned my lesson
 
Is there a fair amount of logging near you or where you are going to be?
not as much as I would like, but it is an area with lots of pine forest a few hours away from Ft Bragg NC so I'm sure I can find something if I know the right people
I'd rather run a feller buncher than run most anything else, but if I don't find a job doing that then I can always get into construction, I've got experience on forklifts, excavators, skidsteers, wheel loaders, dump trucks, dozers, tractors and cranes, only stuff I haven't ran is specialty stuff like pavers, rollers, graders and pile drivers

may go into operating a crane for a tree company if I find one, sennebogen would be my favorite to run but I doubt I will find anyone willing to give me a seat in one, I can run a crane pretty damn good, fast and smooth but getting my CCO will be tough due to certain medications for my ADHD, and I'm medically disqualified from getting a CDL at the moment so I doubt I can get anything running a crane, even tho legally I don't need any certification for it on a tree job
 
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Back to work today. Three big ass white pines. Estimator missed that the septic was close. Made access a pain. Also neighbor was not happy that we were taking her trees down. Property pins were clearly marked and clearly not hers. To make things better the temps dropped and it snowed all damn day. I’m determined that by this time next year I’m going to figure out how to take 4-5 months off every year. Guess which months I’ll choose
Real nice here then 😁

We are just coming out of summer hibernation.
 
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