How'd it go today?

Finished my taxes & sent them in.
Still waiting on a part for my truck to get it going...been about three weeks now...running low on grocery items.
About done with the first book in a new series I'm reading

The excitement never ends!!
 
Went to 90’ once and 75’ three times today stripping out some white pines. Zip lined the biggest one and was able to throw some big tops on the other three. Debating between dropping the spars or stripping one more before the day is over. Spars are winning at the moment. That’ll leave me with 8 for Monday and Tuesday. Gonna be a rain out tomorrow by the looks of it. Another beautiful day😎
 
Average day. Nothing exciting. I did remember a mulberry I wanted to climb and trim when the weather got better, and completely forgot about it. I have something to look forward to. It's got a bit of everything in it. Looks like it got thrashed by a strong wind, so there's broken stuff in the canopy, and it partly fell over, so some of the branches get in the way of the tractor. I'll get to venture out from the trunk, do some redirects and stuff. If it was anywhere but next to a farm field, the whole thing should come down, but it'll make berries for the birds, and looks don't matter, so it'll give me something to practice up on.
 
Headed off to give a talk to the local Senior's Group (and hopefully some other demographics).


It'll be my first speaking gig.
I think I'll be setting up another one for the general public, via Nextdoor for my local neighborhood/ target market. Fruit tree pruning at a friend's place that also has big trees.

Should help fill the schedule a bit, at least.
 
I took a break off from logging and took 3 large cottonwoods out at one of our numerous castles/ estates..
They were 5 feet diameter and totally core rotten.
I could have dropped those with a 10" bar.
I had asked the guy in charge for a LARGE 4 wheel drive tractor to pull the trees.
What showed up was a lame little Valmet from last millenium.
That thing simply couldn't get traction enough in the mud.
So I ended up doing a lot of climbing instead of pulling.
Came out fine in the end.
I'll show pictures once I learn how to get them out of my new phone.

On the way home I bid a job of felling and bucking 550 poplars in the parking area of an amusement park.
Bid it on the value of the chips.
Be interesting to see how that turns out.
 
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Mick, I hope you'll bomb us with pictures of the new loader.
I really want one, but we don't do enough arbo jobs to justify it.
So I'll just have to be content with drooling over yours.
 
Laid out some road today. Kind of a PITA. The paving was existing/staying, and it was all over the place. I had to throw to an offset I thought was close, then use my tape to match existing and book it. Had to do that cause it's all wedge and level, so they'll need good grades, but it'll look kinda stupid.

After that I got a couple hours of bushwhacking in. Hit so much crap in the brush. My blade is thrashed. Asked my boss if he got rubble delivered to farm via helicopter. Looks like it was just spread everywhere from the air :^D. Getting closer...
 
Ya, been the winter slow-down with no storm work. Last winter had a Dec wind storm, Jan wind storm, Feb Snowmaggedon. Year to date precipitation for Olympia 13.9", 50" is normal for the entire year.


Next week should be turning the corner, full id work and heading into the next week. Fruit tree pruning starts up more this month, as freezing weather has mostly passed. Fruit trees lead to canopy raises and such.

A Homeowner's Association whose work I get, has some work along roads (6 trees with hangers, some canopy raising for road/ sidewalks, and some smaller ornamentals needing some early structural pruning. They need to finish up their budget!

I called a customer who I know has a dead tree next to his house, visible from the road. He was happy to hear from me. He has two dead ones next to his house, and other stuff we'd previously discussed.
He's a good friend of Paul Stamets (the Mushroom Man www.fungi.com), college friends from here in Oly at the Evergreen State College, from way back in the day, who lives up the way from here.
My customer has a 50 acre piece next to Paul Stamets' property. He says there is a plan in the future of building a tree house or fire-tower with 360* views that Paul would also use for seminars, etc. Maybe in March we'll go look around up at that property when Paul is available, he suggested.
I've wanted to meet and connect with Paul for a while.
A couple times I've found Agaricon conks on big doug-firs. Paul is collecting/ preserving/ researching various genetic samples of Agaricon, and others. Its a heartwood rotter in some old-growth trees.

Just saw Fantastic Fungi shown locally, featuring Paul Stamets.





The presentation went well today, about 20 attendees.

I think may put on a fruit tree pruning demo locally, next month, at a longtime customer's house, something we had discussed before.
 
But it's not unusual for treework this time of year. One Jan we worked 3 days, maybe 4 in Dec.
 
Do you guys that do this full time not bid work with enough backlog to usually cover that? I would imagine that most guys would have a backlog of about a month or more? Or explain that winter is actually the best time to do tree work because the trees are dormant and the ground is frozen (location specific obviously)?
 
I try and save a nest egg for winter big enough to cover the bills, but for the most part winter is steady enough. Frozen ground helps plus dormancy helps sell work. You just have to schedule work accordingly. Like when you get a custy in the middle of summer that has twenty oaks to prune, Bingo, winter work. My February is booked solid and depending how the weather pans out that might spill over into March.

Mud season with posted roads can be tough but you really don't want to be in yards anyhow regardless of mats or plywood. Spring thaw mud is a whole different kind of mud thin and very greasy.
 
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