How'd it go today?

Heck I'd prune apple trees, but no one wants to pay me thick for it so it hasn't happened yet besides my own trees.:D
 
Mutilate apples sure do suck. Some of these are so bad that I'm just going to recommend removal. Too far gone.


Holy moly that's a lot of sugar! Why are you feeding them? Not enough flowers right now?
 
Today was the first day attempting to restore 90 mutilated and abused apple trees. It'll be several pruning cycles before most of them are in decent shape again. Not my favorite work, but the owner is an agreeable guy and that always helps.

Good luck with that, Rumy. Next April will be my third and final cycle on the orchard I'm working, except for the pears, which don't tolerate much growth removal per cycle. A quality set of loppers is my preferred weapon. Nice clean cuts.
 
I wish loppers would do the trick. These trees are so crowded with suckers there's no way I could get a loppers into them. I can barely cut my way in with the handsaw. Plus, I've got 5" deadwood in some of these, chainsaw required. It ain't pretty.
 
I was craning again today but forgot camera. We had a tall dead red oak about 60' from crane. Got up there and man it was dead. I was working for my buddy again who has the bad back and I guess it was hurting bad because he was grumpy:( I had one lead that went way out the backside so was about 100' out and we only had a 20ton with the jib on so not much pick. The lead had all that funky black fungi on it and I just had the feeling it was going to be bad to try to crane it out over my head. Any way I set a line in a tall pine to swing it away from me and crane and just used the crane to position to make the cut. My buddy who's job this is starts whining about a bush that was in the lowering zone and even says that we've got the crane so that there will be NO damage. He almost got me to crane it but then I said F### the bush I dont want to get it and cut it with the rope on. I had a running bowline around a 5" thick piece roughly in the middle of a 30+ lead. Where the rope squeezed the limb it broke as it was swinging away and there literally wasnt a single piece left over 5' long:|: When I got down I pulled him aside and made it clear that he NEVER 2nd guesses my calls again. Oh yeah the bush survived;)
 
Good for you, Paul. That's what separates the pros from the wanna-bees who stand on the ground and try to second guess. Glad you called it right.
:thumbup:
 
5' pieces... that really was a dead one.

I don't tolerate that second guess crap. If I'm in the tree and I've got a plan and I'm ready to cut... I don't want to hear suggestions. I'm real prickly about that.
 
I always say if you know so frigging much, how come you called and I'M the one in the tree?
 
I'm boring!!! We went to Lowes to get some new windows yesterday. Someone had special ordered a pair, and they were wrong. Not quite the right size for me, but I am creative:) $429 each, marked down to $110 each:O
One window came out, two went in, then we changed out the other window on the front of the house.
My help has done nothing but ROCK!!! I had a Milwaukee cordless tool kit (two drills, circular saw,reciprocating saw and two chargers. The batteries are toast) He got to take that home tonight. There is no way I could have pulled that off solo, and I needed to make that right.
Talked to Dave and Brian tonight, seems dinner is on tomorrow:D
Mama agrees now I need a new phone (I've broken the cool old one, and the back up needs charged at least four times a day!!) I THINK I am getting a new one tomorrow afternoon. Yeah, the one you can catapult:D
I guess I need to go work on a tractor backhoe in the am? This could be fun:?
I hope Brian can deal with a leather couch, I told him if Dave offered better accommodation's I wouldn't be offended:lol:
It will be VERY nice to finally meet the person that has done a lot for me face to face.
It kind of sucks, there are so many here that have done so much for me. I have no idea how to even begin to re-pay them all:cry: VERY good people here!
 
Good for you Paul. It boggles my mind that people want to tell the climber what and how to do their job. It's so specialized and situational that every person will do it differently. Earplugs do wonders.

Called a meeting right after lunch with the crew and laid it out. I'm a supervisor so technically oversee the foreman and general crew but I certainly don't act that way during the day. I try to lead by example. Sometimes that doesn't work because some people like to abuse power when they find themselves in that situation.

Told them all that there will be no more badmouthing behind each other's back and no more yelling and screaming at each other. Sometimes these guys act like caged animals, I swear. Had to pull the card today, guess what I'm setting the tone and that shit ain't flying. We're going to be a civilized tree crew or I'll show you the door. I think some guys appreciated it some didn't.

jp:D
 
Good for you, Paul. That's what separates the pros from the wanna-bees who stand on the ground and try to second guess. Glad you called it right.
:thumbup:

and you get to live......bushes are cheap to replace/ wheel chairs are really expensive
 
Told them all that there will be no more badmouthing behind each other's back and no more yelling and screaming at each other. Sometimes these guys act like caged animals, I swear. Had to pull the card today, guess what I'm setting the tone and that shit ain't flying. We're going to be a civilized tree crew or I'll show you the door. I think some guys appreciated it some didn't.

jp:D

Soon the crew will appreciate it, maybe minus a member or 2 but thats fine
 
Great day. My son helped me this morning doing some fencing, so I took him out for a big meal (Burritos at Taco Bell.) We decided to look for garage/yard sales on the way home. Didn't find any until we were almost home.

Bought:

>>> a brand new exterior metal framed door for....still with the Lowe's paperwork attached. I've been looking for one for my blue storage box/shed. $25

>>> a slightly dusty set of Peltor Worktunes, looked brand new once I wiped off the dust. Work great and there's NO DUCT TAPE ON THEM! $5

>>>AND a Stihl FSE 60 electric grass trimmer, again, a bit dusty but barely used. My MIL needs one and I KNOW she wouldn't buy anything worth paying for. $30

:D
 
The rain subsided for a few hours today. Went to my cousins to grind a stump, a guy stop so I ground his on the way home, then decided I was in the area of a job I did where they went them ground so I stopped there too. Pretty boring.
 
I had a little stump job this morning. Ground one stump in the front yard and when I tried to get the grinder in the back yard for a couple more stumps it was about a half inch too wide to fit through the gate and that was if I had removed the gate. I had to go down and rent a stumpgrinder at our local hardware store for $60 and all was good. I run into this gate thing about once a year and usually I can squeeze mine through. I guess I should carry a tape measure with me. Nice score Che.
 
Puttering around today. Made some nice scores at a business aquaintences quitting business sale. 190 dollars worth of stihl carbs and I have 2 more good running 200t's since I never managed to pin Brian down ofr a tuning lesson:D My dealer is proud of his parts
 
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