Old Monkey
Treehouser
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2005
- Messages
- 8,764
Well this is a little bit of a confession. I bid a tree a while ago that had obvious rot issues and many cavities that were easily visible from the ground. On my copy of bid sheets I write down any specialty tool I might need for that job if I get it. On this bid sheet were two words "bucket truck." Well I have been slow of late and not having a bucket truck and not wanting to share the money with a bucket truck owner, decided to just climb the tree. I knew it was bad but felt I could pull it off. The job was scheduled for Tuesday and over the three day weekend I tried my best to forget that I owned a tree service.
On Tuesday we arrived at the job. My only conceit to the trees obvious defects was to use the big shot to set a line and to pull heavily on my tie in with two guys. I didn't trust the tree to rig off anything super heavy so decided to use a portawrap instead of my GRCS. That was probably a mistake. The whoopie sling was just a little too small to make it around the base of the tree, so I used a saw to score around the tree and make a groove for it. The tree removal took a little longer than I thought but otherwise went smooth, I'm alive and well, both houses and fence underneath the tree are fine too. However, when I chunked down the main spar where I was tied into and an off shoot of it that I rigged part of the tree off of(everything was rigged off itself and then eased back to this spar to get it to the drop zone), just about every piece exploded into little bits as they were either rotten or hollow. I wasn't surprised about this. I expected it. What did startle me and why I am writing this is that down at the base it was so rotten that the groove I cut for the woopie sling was almost through the only good wood on the tree. An inch deeper and the whole tree might have gone. I should have snapped a picture to share.
Why didn't I sound the tree at the base? I knew it had a lot of rot in it and just assumed it was bad. I had the mind set that this was just one of the shitty things you have to do to pay the bills. I think I am going to stop taking the real nasty tree jobs that other services are referring to me. I am sort of known for doing these sort of trees and at 42 I don't see a future in stupid.
On Tuesday we arrived at the job. My only conceit to the trees obvious defects was to use the big shot to set a line and to pull heavily on my tie in with two guys. I didn't trust the tree to rig off anything super heavy so decided to use a portawrap instead of my GRCS. That was probably a mistake. The whoopie sling was just a little too small to make it around the base of the tree, so I used a saw to score around the tree and make a groove for it. The tree removal took a little longer than I thought but otherwise went smooth, I'm alive and well, both houses and fence underneath the tree are fine too. However, when I chunked down the main spar where I was tied into and an off shoot of it that I rigged part of the tree off of(everything was rigged off itself and then eased back to this spar to get it to the drop zone), just about every piece exploded into little bits as they were either rotten or hollow. I wasn't surprised about this. I expected it. What did startle me and why I am writing this is that down at the base it was so rotten that the groove I cut for the woopie sling was almost through the only good wood on the tree. An inch deeper and the whole tree might have gone. I should have snapped a picture to share.
Why didn't I sound the tree at the base? I knew it had a lot of rot in it and just assumed it was bad. I had the mind set that this was just one of the shitty things you have to do to pay the bills. I think I am going to stop taking the real nasty tree jobs that other services are referring to me. I am sort of known for doing these sort of trees and at 42 I don't see a future in stupid.