The Official Work Pictures Thread

I used a throw line to set the rigging line as a support line, then advanced my SRS line out at the end rigging point, using a second rigging rope to piece out the end of the limb in 4 pieces from over the closest tank and fence.

Surprising how much rope walking was swaying the fir top!

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Nice job!

You seem very busy, any thought of getting a lift?
 
Most of my work is inaccessible to lifts.

I considered renting a 67' Haulotte lift. I don't know how much it would have helped. Definitely some.

I've considered it in the past. Not ruled out.

Most of my work is in "cottage country".
One driveway, at a regular customer's home is hard to turn my pickup around, 5- point turn. My chipper only goes there in dry weather.

Yesterday's bid was inaccessible.

Next bid is inaccessible. IDK if a bucket- truck would fit in/out.

A spider-lift is too expensive for me to justify... guessing $125k.





I used a smaller rental lift for these oaks, 10 years ago, for canopy-raising.

Part of me loves the climbing challenge.

Part of me dislikes having the lift closing up my drop zone.
I ran a lift for over 2 years at State Parks. 60' is a great start. Once we backed up to the gallery tree I partially climbed for major deadwooding. 60' up only left me 40' of climbing to get to a live limb. The tree was about 250'. 20240307_175609.jpg 20240307_172706.jpg


This was, at the least, in the top 5 A-game trees in my career. Definitely Miriam's most complex, high stakes.



A local, newer business owner stopped by looking for a job or subbing work. I was up the tree at the time.
 
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Because we sadly lack Wolves and other large predators, we are so overrun with deer, that we have to either plant behind fences or spray the lil' trees with Deer repellent.
The Firs are simply too attractive, so those we fence in, but Sitka with the sharp needles is less so, so repellent works fine.
@Burnham and @stikine will probably know about this problem.

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Interesting, not much eats Sitka around here except porcupines. We experimented with vexar tubing on some areas where we planted Alaska Yellow Cedar...it wasn't particularly helpful.

What is the repellent you are spraying and how long is it effective for, given rain etc?
 
It is made from Sheep's fat of all things.
Will last for the winters season, when the Deer really go for the top buds.
Back in the day we used a tar product. Made the person applying it smell like an old ashtray and was found to be highly carcinogenic ( Like, who ever would have guessed that!) so it was outlawed.
The one thing the Sheep's fat product doesn't work against, is the Roe deer rubbing their antlers against the trees in spring, nothing but a lead injection stops that.

I really wish we had more wolves. The single pack of 11 animals that immigrated from Germany are doing their best, I'm sure, but we'd need thousands to reduce the Roe deer population to a manageable size.

As for Conifers being tasty, anything freshly planted that has been fertilized in the nursery, is more full of good stuff than their naturally grown counterparts, so the Deer seek them out.
That missing top bud in the picture happened over night.
We didn't spray till next day after planting and I counted around 50 bitten trees.
 
Talk about a win-win!
Plenty of hunters, but trophy hunters the lot of them.
Shooting the bucks with the biggest racks doesn't do much to thin the population.
 
Most of my work is inaccessible to lifts.

I considered renting a 67' Haulotte lift. I don't know how much it would have helped. Definitely some.

I've considered it in the past. Not ruled out.

Most of my work is in "cottage country".
One driveway, at a regular customer's home is hard to turn my pickup around, 5- point turn. My chipper only goes there in dry weather.

Yesterday's bid was inaccessible.

Next bid is inaccessible. IDK if a bucket- truck would fit in/out.

A spider-lift is too expensive for me to justify... guessing $125k.





I used a smaller rental lift for these oaks, 10 years ago, for canopy-raising.

Part of me loves the climbing challenge.

Part of me dislikes having the lift closing up my drop zone.
I ran a lift for over 2 years at State Parks. 60' is a great start. Once we backed up to the gallery tree I partially climbed for major deadwooding. 60' up only left me 40' of climbing to get to a live limb. The tree was about 250'.View attachment 136853View attachment 136854


This was, at the least, in the top 5 A-game trees in my career. Definitely Miriam's most complex, high stakes.



A local, newer business owner stopped by looking for a job or subbing work. I was up the tree at the time.
A hitch plate for the mini is real handy for moving stuff in tight driveways.
 
Because we sadly lack Wolves and other large predators, we are so overrun with deer, that we have to either plant behind fences or spray the lil' trees with Deer repellent.
The Firs are simply too attractive, so those we fence in, but Sitka with the sharp needles is less so, so repellent works fine.
@Burnham and @stikine will probably know about this problem.

View attachment 136861View attachment 136862View attachment 136863
Here on this part of the Mt. Hood NF, we didn't have a great deal of trouble with deer browse for the most part. Some low elevation Douglas fir planting units needed protection, and what we usually used was Vexar tubing. Labor intensive, must be done to exacting specs, and stout staking is critical. I recall only one time we used a spray repellant. It was an egg based product iirc.

On the relatively rare occasions we planted Wester Redcedar, we always tubed them. Deer and elk just love cedar.
 
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It’s done. All the felling and bucket work anyway. Still got trash and big stumps to clean out. 2-3 years of working at it on and off.

The ones hanging over the house. Bug JLG lift. The height and reach were nice but it was handicapped and tedious to use due to all the safety stuff. Got pretty good at hitting the dump truck. Arms are beat from handling everything.
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This is why the regen has to come off. Went a bit lower than it. Easier to keep on top of in the future.

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The trees are rife with cracks and defects from limbs breaking off.


The yard from the inside out. To the right of the power line I pulled them all over a year or two ago. The one next to the line was hanging over it. I cut and chucked to reduce height and Back weight, then pulled it over with the dump truck. The two to the left were the criss cross. That was a mess. Pieced down reduction and pulled as well.

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This pic from the south really shows the difference finally.

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Good sized tree!
One day stripping out and chipping, one half day getting the wood out.
Local motorcycle trials club took the trunk sections to practice on (organised by my groundy who’s a local champ) 10 minute turnaround instead of an hour and a quarter. Saved a lot of time and money.
Made some very good coin on this one.
 
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