Jerry B's Old Growth DVD

[gf beranek]

Always glad to help.

Most of my old videos I converted to mp4 files. Which play better, less glitches, that the dvds. Either off the hard drives or thumb drives.

I even put the Working Climber Series on thumb drives. Much better than dvds.

Though some vids, not all, the audio is out of sync. I don't know how that happened, but easily fixed with any good mp4 editor.

 

[MatthewMMeckley]

fmecky,
Good to see you back here. It seems it’s been a while since you’ve posted.
I follow you and tree being on Instagram.
You’re quite a pair.
Some pretty great falling you both have been doing. All that smoke and burn residue, though. It makes me wonder about long term exposure and your lungs! The AQI here in LA hit 181 yesterday, and you’re a helluva lot closer to the fires; and dropping them while still burning !!

Jerry, I’ll DM you about the website.

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Yeah Katelyn is pretty dang awesome! To be honest her and I just takes about the air quality and this year we were barely in the smoke. If I’m not around structures and it’s just the forest that burned I’m not to worried. The thing that gets me is all the super dry dozer roads.

 

[gf beranek]

Road dust. Oh baby.

I recall many a skid road covered over a foot deep in road dust. It looked like a liquid. waves pushed ahead by track and wheel machines. And it makes breathing difficult besides.

On cool morning the dust hangs low in the air and it settles fast. But in the heat of the afternoon road dust can hang suspended in the air for an hour. On a busy road all day long. Gawd, where's the water truck?

It's not surprising I have asthma today. But I think a bigger part of that was breathing redwood bark dust. It was worse than road dust, I'm pretty sure. As a climber I'd be in a cloud of redwood bark dust for hours at a time. And then shaving bark on a burned old-growth Douglas fir, to prep it for falling, now talk about dust! That's got to be the worst.

At the end of the day you come out looking like Mat and Katelyn. My hats off to ya.

 

[flushcut]

If you would just learn to sharpen your chain it would cut down on the dust

 

[lxskllr]

Bad situation all around Jerry. Don't know about redwood dust particularly, but I know a lot of wood's bad. Ground dust is definitely a problem though, and you had both of them. I wouldn't discount the ground dust for your issues.

 

[Mrs.B]

I have been meaning to write an email on how I can buy those dvds. This might be funny to most but most nights my old lady and I fall asleep to the working climber series. Since I first watched the series when I worked for David Driver my whole career has changed. I would love to get the old growth and second growth videos. I’ve read the high climber book and it was interesting. Heck the way it was written my imagination took me to each site you described like I was actually there. My career has taken a different turn and I do more falling work due to wildfires. The baileys always speak highly of you Mr. Beranek.

I fell asleep every night for at least a year listening to Working Climber. Jerry did all the voice over for the series at night because the street traffic during the day came through on his recordings. I actually believe that after a year of sleep-listening to it over and over everynight it was like subliminal messaging....I was memorizing every word and could repeat it back to Jerry. I also think I learned quite a bit from it without watching it.

 

[gf beranek]

Road dust is bad ju ju, that's for sure.

It is documented, locally, in the good ol' days of old-growth redwood logging here, among the fallers some were diagnosed with "redwood lung disease." I knew a couple even. I did a search of the term with piss results. But is is real. Locally anyway.

What really stuck in me through the years, talking about road dust, were the ghostly operators running the skid machines. Those boys were in it thick of it from sun up to sun set. Few I knew wore masks.

I always figured my exposure to road dust was pretty light compared to theirs. Which reminds me, many of those guys didn't live much longer past retirement. Hmmm...

 

[gf beranek]

It has been document, in the Tree House Forums, exposure to the Working Climber Video Series can cure insomnia.

 

[lxskllr]

One of my favorite guys from my client has COPD. He's been a dirt guy his whole life. He has a lot of other confounding issues too, including being a former smoker, but he isn't much older than me. Seems young for COPD based on what I've seen around, and growing up when pretty much everyone smoked. I suspect the dirt work exacerbated/accelerated his lung problems.

 

[cory]

Matt, why are you cutting the big burned trees? Logging? Hazards?

 

[MatthewMMeckley]

Matt, why are you cutting the big burned trees? Logging? Hazards?

It’s to secure roads and protect fire lines. When it’s fire season I either go out with my best friend or girlfriend and we go out with the wild land fire fighters and cut all the hazards. We usually snag to prepare for burns. Cut burnt trees where firefighters are working or we cut trees so they don’t cross the line and cause a slop over. It’s can be pretty boring at times but most of the time it’s long hikes and shitty tree cutting. After fire season I’ve been going out and cutting roadway hazards, powerlines work, or salvage logging. Not much of the full time logging yet.

 

[cory]

Thanks for the info.

Even though you're working in burned country, nevertheless you must be close to the middle of nowhere and seeing country few others ever do.

Do you see much sign of wild animals out there who didn't escape fires? Or maybe some who did but then are trying to figure out what to do in a burned area?

 

[chris_girard]

I have been meaning to write an email on how I can buy those dvds. This might be funny to most but most nights my old lady and I fall asleep to the working climber series. Since I first watched the series when I worked for David Driver my whole career has changed. I would love to get the old growth and second growth videos. I’ve read the high climber book and it was interesting. Heck the way it was written my imagination took me to each site you described like I was actually there. My career has taken a different turn and I do more falling work due to wildfires. The baileys always speak highly of you Mr. Beranek.

Love watching you guys work!

 

[MatthewMMeckley]

Love watching you guys work!

Thank you Chris, I always feel like a nerd but I know people have the same amount of passion as I do.

 

[MatthewMMeckley]

Love watching you guys work!

Thanks for the info.

Even though you're working in burned country, nevertheless you must be close to the middle of nowhere and seeing country few others ever do.

Do you see much sign of wild animals out there who didn't escape fires? Or maybe some who did but then are trying to figure out what to do in a burned area?

Yeah actually, the first few days on the Dixie I ran into a few burned Cubs and Doe.. but the other parts of the fire I’ve run into heaps of healthy bucks and fawns and tons and tons of healthy looking bears.

 

[ruel]

You ever work with David's brother Matt?

 

[gf beranek]

I first met David and Matt Driver at the TCI Trade Shows in Baltimore. Around 2010. Later spending a few days at their home and meeting their parents in the original family home, which was built of hand made brick and lumber. Strong family bonds there.

I'm a lucky man to have met so many fine people, like the Driver's, with a passion for trees.

 

[MatthewMMeckley]

You ever work with David's brother Matt?

I’ve done a few jobs with Matt Driver. I got to play around with his 60 ton crane with David. That was a cool experience working with the both of them. Hey Mr. Beranek do you think you will sell copies of those old growth videos again?

 

[gf beranek]

Yeah, but I'm not sure which ones I have anymore. I'll have to check the list. Some titles were lost.

 

[MatthewMMeckley]

Awesome just let me know. Katelyn and I are going to need some new videos soon once we finally get off fires. I’m currently in Santa Rosa and just got done doing a podcast with Jared Abrojena. little by little I’m trying to give back.

 

[Mrs.B]

Got a link to the podcast with Jared?

 

[SeanKroll]

little by little I’m trying to give back.

That's the way.

We can't all be Gerry, but we can all add a little.

 

[MatthewMMeckley]

Got a link to the podcast with Jared?

I’m not sure if any of you guys have Instagram but the link I have is from the live feed. It’s a rough video on the talk. I’m sure the edited version will be out soon. I got to do the podcast to kind of promote a cool opportunity I’m getting. They are dedicating a day at the academy for me to teach and go over my past experiences since I’ve been in the industry and I’m going to touch on all the fire scars I’ve been on also with the utility work. It will be a workshop on falling and climbing. They are also having a BBQ after with live music. November 20th is the date and I’m currently working on getting sponsors. I would be thrilled if some of you guys just made it to hangout and what not, especially Mr. Beranek lol.
I posted the link below if interested .

 

[chris_girard]

I first met David and Matt Driver at the TCI Trade Shows in Baltimore. Around 2010. Later spending a few days at their home and meeting their parents in the original family home, which was built of hand made brick and lumber. Strong family bonds there.

I'm a lucky man to have met so many fine people, like the Driver's, with a passion for trees.

Hey Jer, and that video that you made of David and his crew using that zip line setup was great as well!

 

[gf beranek]

Thanks for posting that, Matt. You guys were having a good time.

I made a video about yarder logging you might enjoy. Featuring the Washington model 88. Logging virgin second-growth redwood on the Mendocino Coast

If you don't know much about yarder logging, and the machines doing it, you will after watching that. About 90 min.

The machine featured in the video I worked under for 2 seasons, and under two different loggers.

PM your address Matt, I'll send you one.