Q-link/ loony alert

[Al Smith]

Lucky lady always rides with me!

I've heard of a "bad hair day " but never a bad face day

 

[woodworkingboy]

There was one photo of MB quite high up on a relatively small diameter trunk. I'm not qualified enough to say if it was safe or not, so I assume that it was. I got tingles looking at it. I thought then that he must be fearless.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Not this one, eh?

I call this shot "Fearless!"

 

[woodworkingboy]

Maybe the same tree, but the shot was more from underneath looking up. That's a great photo too!

 

[stig]

When someone asks me if I ever fall out of the tree, I usually camp it up with a "My goodness, what a horrible question to ask!".

I just tell them that I fell out of a tree back in -83 and broke my back.
That got it out of my system, so I haven't done it since.

I say it with a smile, but it usually shuts them up.

Hell of a picture, Butch!

 

[woodworkingboy]

People sometimes ask me if I have ever cut myself on the tablesaw. Enough people have, so I guess it is a legitimate enough question. I usually just say no, and that I don't plan to. Guards are impossible to have on a saw for anything but the most basic of work, they just get in the way. Close attention is the only guard, all the time.

 

[cory]

Quite the good, wide ranging thread. Paul, good news, keep it up! Sounds like you are busy as hell with the big TDs, nice.

Jerry, interesting your thoughts on the Henry tree, one would never know it judging from those pics- the Henry tree has been one of your avatars, right? Maybe on TB?

Tucker943, your uncle sounds like quite the treeman, have him join here! Re the slipping tulip bark mishap, I wonder if it was choked with nylon slings instead of steel chokers. One of my crane ops prefers steel for that very reason.

Jay, I'd be more worried about the way the rental bucket has been run, than the maintenance of it. Smooth operation and good maint. make for almost no wear.

Darin, fantastic retort to that oft asked question.

 

[Tucker943]

Not a chance of him joining. He doesn't use computers for any reason at all. Never got with the times I guess. I'll tell ya who hates my said uncle. Murphy. They are in the same community. Murphy bids 4k on a job. My uncle goes 3k. Not because he is cheap, but because he blows Murphy away in the time it takes to put shit on the ground..... Murphy bitched at me via pm one time about him.

 

[cory]

Nice! How old is he? I gather he is still climbing despite the hurdles he has encountered, or is it most/all bucket work these days?

 

[CurSedVoyce]

You could always start singing the TIGGER song

Not a chance of him joining. He doesn't use computers for any reason at all. Never got with the times I guess. I'll tell ya who hates my said uncle. Murphy. They are in the same community. Murphy bids 4k on a job. My uncle goes 3k. Not because he is cheap, but because he blows Murphy away in the time it takes to put shit on the ground..... Murphy bitched at me via pm one time about him.

This just made me LMAO! I love it!

 

[SkwerI]

Chris, that's a riot about Murphy. Thanks for making my day!

 

[stig]

Made me smile, too!

 

[Burnham]

It's interesting how threads evolve.

Back to the subject of being scared to go up. On a photo shoot of the Henry Tree the first ascent rope was set 200 plus. The tree leans over a canyon and so when you get your weight in the line you swing to the low side of the lean and it puts you over a hundred feet in the air just to get started.

That puckered me up. after reaching where the rope was set I advanced the lines to the top for the rest to follow. Another 100 plus. Being in the limbs of the tree the nervous tension subsided. Still a long ways to look down on the low side of that tree hanging in free air.

This reminds me a bit of a series of trees I climbed years ago, picking cones. Old growth Noble firs, all set right along the spine of a really narrow knife ridge, 120% slopes off both sides. The tops were maybe 180 feet, but the next tree downslope either side would be 50 feet or so lower, and the next below that another 50 feet more...and so on. The bottom of the ridge was over 800 feet below me. So the trees I was picking in felt like their tops were in the sky.

Y'all will recall some pics I've posted of how high in the tree we go to get cones . It was a little nervous making, at first .

 

[rskybiz]

Burnham now I can daydream for a spell thanks Not quite the same but here in flatistan some of the pines will give a 360 view of what seems an endless distance. Miss my Vermont hills sometimes!

 

[Tucker943]

He is 49. Still climbs several times a week. Lots of bucket work too. I can tell he is running out of steam. Loads of cranework as well. The area he lives and works is home to some of the biggest trees on the east coast. Cranes are common place there for removals. Last I counted he was subbing on crane removals for a dozen companies. I asked if he knew Murphy. He said he has never heard of him. I pulled up one of murphs videos to show him. He watched for a solid 30 seconds and wrinkled his face and said "is this cat for real?" and walked away.

 

[cory]

Funny. So he is a contract climber full time. Nice. He hates puters, is he old school taut line climber or new school split tail and hitch tender pulley type?

Have you worked with him much? Do tell some more!!

edit: these big trees, are they like alot of oaks and tulips, in the Philly area?

edit: maybe he's not a contract climber, you said he out bids Murph so that sounds like he owns a company??

 

[Al Smith]

There was some mention of some area on the eastern side of Pa ajacent to a river where giants oaks grew at one time .Accounts were made of unbelievable size oaks cut for ships masts and floated down that river and all the way up the coast to Boston and NY .

Now it takes one hell of an oak to yield 100 plus foot of log straight enough and clear enough for a ships mast .

 

[cory]

Now it takes one hell of an oak to yield 100 plus foot of log straight enough and clear enough for a ships mast .

That's for sure. I heard that alot of those masts were made of virgin white pine from Maine. They were called King's Pines cuz the king of England had his mark cut into the most desirable trees so they were reserved for that use.

 

[Tucker943]

He doesn't sub full time. It's getting less and less. He built a large and successful tree service starting when he was 20. In the early 2000s a bad divorce, followed by a hard drug binge left him with nothing. Nothing at all but a few tee shirts. He lost 3 homes, his whole business, and everything he ever worked for. Some by his own choosing, some not. He cleaned up and put his life back together 7 years ago. He survived for 5 years without a drivers license by subbing for guys. A lot of guys. He was often booked a month out during that period with subbing jobs. He got his license back 2 years ago and has been soaring since. Several beautiful tree trucks, a bandit 250, skid steer. He is a freak about saving money and making cash purchases. Yes, I've worked with him a lot. My father left and died when I was 2. My uncle raised me as his son after that. I grew up in tree trucks, literally, it was my entire childhood. I was running saws at the chipper and loading trucks with a skid steer at age 10. I never saw a summer break once I turned 11. I went to work 50 hours a week until school started in the fall. He told me I would thank him one day for that...... Yes, philly is loaded with trees that would make most men flinch. 130 foot oaks and tulip poplars are everywhere. I mean everywhere. Yes, old school climber. Half inch line with a tautline. Cigarette in the teeth type

 

[woodworkingboy]

Not many of those types left, I only know one...now two. If he is funny at lunch and breaks, make him a national treasure!

 

[Al Smith]

We have a few 120 or so feet oaks .It would seem to me though that to get a real tall straight one the size for an immense sailing ship it would have grow in something conducive for that .Like for example on the east bank of a river with steep banks like some of those in the Pa hills .

The tree would have to fight for sunlight and to get much would seek the sky .I'd about think to get a 100 foot good log you'd have to have at least 140-150 foot of tree .That's something in spite of the size of these oaks I've never seen . Fact from historical documents of the giants of the great black swamp no mention of any much over 120 .

For the life of me though I cannot remember which part of Pa or the river but later there was much iron production along that river .

 

[cory]

Chris, Wow, that is a really great story! He sounds super hard core. You sound pretty hardcore too, like the excessive hard work alarm might be going off about you....don't kill yourself by never taking a break! We pretty much all here work stupid hard but when I hear guys working trees since age 10, I get a little worried. It is very impressive but I wonder if it is too much. Maybe I'm too soft on that notion.

So, I for one would still like to hear any more tidbits or stories about him, and still wondering if he climbs old school taut line or new school split tail/pulley

edit: ok, I see you edited, taut line, cig in the teeth type...that pretty much says it all

 

[Tucker943]

I'm not hardcore. I work, and work hard, but there's guys on this site that would make me look like a dead beat. Jeff was balls to the wall in his younger days. He is running out of steam now. I'll see if I can find pics and start a different thread on my childhood for those interested......I have vague memories of pulling mature oaks against their lean away from houses when I was 10 or so with a case skidsteer. Hell, I crushed a saw for the first time by running it over on a job with an old gmc c60 knuckleboom when I was around that age. A brand new husky 394........

 

[cory]

Geez, I didn't squash my first say till I was 20!!

That would be a fun thread. Does he have a fair amount of employees to forstall running out of steam?

 

[pantheraba]

Chris...do find those pictures. They would be fine to see. This is a great thread.