Yeah so no noteworthy pics but I'll post here anyway. Took down a $10k tree today (which is alot for me), well that one plus a smaller adjacent one, used a 60t with 150' boom to reach it from the neighbor's driveway which we had permission for but oh by the way the neighbor lost his shit when he saw the tree parts were being processed in and around his driveway, he thought the crane was just going to park in his drive sans outriggers down and sans his driveway being the LZ. Alrighty then.
Anyway, reason I'm posting is cuz I love treework like all the rest of ya and I feel like I met a serious tree man today.
Because I had smelled a rat about this job re the neighbor, I didn't want to be stuck up in the tree in case there were problems on the ground ( yes very prescient, lol) so I hired a local climber with a good rep from another local company and his two groundies cuz they come as a team.
They showed up on time arriving in their chip truck with chipper, the climber driving. The rig looked about like it had been rolled over multiple times off of a high cliff... mostly every square inch battered, mauled or ripped. Alrighty then, we got some hard core tree guys here...
. They start laughing more or less hysterically while they're still in the cab as they and the crane op start hurling insults in spanish back and forth at each other, they are all bi- or tri-lingual and they have done alot of trees together over the years. I'm taking it all in and when i hop up on the running board to introduce myself to the climber and I see he has a pony tail roughly down to his waist. He probably weighed 150, 5'7" tall, Mexican.
This climber survived a 60' fall out of a tree 4 or 5 y ago, he slipped while free climbing. The crane op, who is has done literally thousands of crane tree removals and is the best I've ever used, frequently describes this climber as fearless.
Well the bottom line is that this climber did a fantastic job today, very smooth, skilled, methodical and calm. He also cleaned up an adjacent 90' 3 leader pepperidge of nasty vines in one of the leaders, made it really shine after getting a crane ride to the top.
He climbs 5-6 days/week. His gear is super duper old school, except for the Sena's the crane op loaned him. Namely, a 150' hi viz orange safety blue climb line, double half hitched to a large steel auto locking biner and good ol taut line hitch (no split tail ). Old school Buckingham leg strap 4 D saddle with 'floating bridge' ( is that what you call it?) with steel core flip line with friction cord prussic. Did his cuts with a 201 with 14" bar (too short imo!) and a beat up Echo with 20" bar for the bigger cuts.
He had a very humble demeanor and was inspiring to have OTJ. Near the end of the day I spotted him hauling on his shoulder a huge log that had somehow escaped the chipper. He was quite obviously there to work in whatever capacity he was needed.
So with the glaring exception of the neighbor's foaming at the mouth, it was fun day.
Moved wood to the road and ground stumps till 7 after guys left at 3.30.
