Tree felling vids

[Cold Logging]

I always enjoy your vids a lot. Part of its the accent. You sure your not from around Bangor?? :-) . That was a lot of work. !!

Reg; I almost bought a grapple from WesSpur last summer. I regret not getting one now that I saw your vid.

 

[gf beranek]

Head cam has sure come a long ways since I started using it 15 years ago. It was grass roots in the day. Editing programs started at 600 bugs. But that was nothing compared to having the hard drive space to story it. 36 gig hard drive was near $2000 and could only hold about 2 hours of video.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Just think what it will be 20 or 30 years from now!

 

[FireFighterZero]

Good video Randy. For some reason I giggled at the end when that last big piece plunked down with a nice thud. Good stuff!

 

[NHlocal]

That tree was just about the most challenging to date for me, especially not having someone experienced to "run ropes".....
When that last big piece of wood hit the ground I was about ready to fall over from exhaustion.....
Nothing more satisfying than finishing up a job like that.

 

[Cold Logging]

 

[RegC]

Well done Randy. Just watched that at the job site while waiting for the others to show. You sucked in some deep breaths a couple of times there I noticed some times you have to just grit your teeth aye!

 

[Cold Logging]

Looks like Coastal BC to me. SOP. Anyone wanting to knock that fellas techniques needs to walk a day in those Vibergs.

Yup. Been there ( not BC, but southern S.E. Ak. . ) that vid is in BC. Done that. !! Squishers is spot on. . Can't tell anything about his buckin but his falling looks very good. . The reason he didn't run up the hill. Is running is a lot more difficult than it may appear on camera. . You can't see what holes are in the ground. And that kinda ground is full of holes.
Bore cutting a tree like that is just begging to loose your saw.

 

[Cold Logging]

Much better analysis. Looks like an old windcrack right where it separated. Again as you said, easy to critique from a video showing one aspect. Fact is, if he bore cut everything, he wouldn't have been anywhere near that tree since he would have been about 2 years behind in his strips.

. !

 

[Cold Logging]

Ogv

Dave, have you ever heard me saying that borecutting everything is smart?
I cut everything I can get away with from the back, but on trees with defect and on gusty days, I'll play it safe.

But you are right, monday morning quarterbacking sure is easy.

The only reason I piped up was that Justin put in that remark about not critizising the guys tecnique unless we had walked in his boots.
That kind of PNW " we are so much more manly than everybody else, cause our trees are huge and our hills steep" just works on me like a red cloth works on Spanish bulls

I'll still say, though, that if a tree barberchairs on you, something has been done wrong.
Just calling it SOP doesn't change that MO.

The guy was doin good work. I've had several very similar trees do the same thing. It is just how the work is.
That's the reason I've outlived about 1/3 rd the guys I've cut timber with. Guys my age. And yes mistakes get made. The only mistake That I see that this guy made was he slowed grown and looked back. That's how Gary Thill got killed on Dall Island. He was a super experienced older faller that did good work and put a lot of wood on the ground.
. All of us know how to bore cut and we do it sometimes when we think we need to. But having seen several bars sticking out of 1 tree that was still standing I can assure you this old timber often has more problems than solutions inside it.

We even have a saying for it. " had to say bye to my saw today "
A good friend still has the first 064 I bought. . At least 3 times I've had to head back down my strip at least 100 yards to get it back. It got caught in fiber pull and left me and the stump with the tree or snag. One time it rode over 700 feet down over my fell and bucked. . When I got to it it was still in the cut.
I've smashed at least 3 saws while falling.

 

[Cold Logging]

(( he slowed down)) I've seen very experienced PNW fallers quit after a few days or less because the ground, the timber and the weather was nightmarish.

 

[Cold Logging]

So, while I not trying to wave a red flag, if you haven't been there and done a lot of that you prolly won't know why we say its SOP.
The sayin, no guts no glory means that there is a very reasonable chance of getting turned into a red smear on the hill side.
Proven out by the number of guys that have been.

 

[Tucker943]

I took a 372 out of the box once, filled it with gas, and smashed it 2 hours later when it got stuck in the cut. Sickening.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Atlas are my favorite.

Blue version is $1 cheaper:

http://www.palmflex.com/atlas-fit-300-gloves-black-dozen.html

I regard these as PPE, both from chronic and acute injuries. Gray winter weight, in season.

 

[murphy4trees]

I dropped a backleaning silver maple with 95% decay last week.... We had the skid steer on the pull line so I wasn't really worried about it... When it started to move I took off running and didn't look back until I heard it hit the ground... I was wondering later if I should have taken a look up on the way... I think a suburban situation is much different than the woods, with a straight drop, nothing to hit and throw back, no hidden deadwood etc.. When its only the falling tree that can get you, does it make sense to take a few seconds and look up, or just keep running?

 

[Tucker943]

Yes, you exit with one eye on it. Wouldnt want to exit into the path it decides to go if things go wrong.

 

[NHlocal]

 

[Cold Logging]

That's a Big? And there is no single correct answer. I've managed to out run everything that could have killed me except a couple times but that's another thing all together. Most everyone that has fell a lot of timber on the coast has had a time when they took off running but the tree or snag swung around andwe were running the length of the tree as it was falling. So we wernt really getting in the clear

Falling timber thru timber is the really dangerous situation. Which is why I hate select cut. And its usually best to run uphill at a 45° to the tree. On steep ground or other situations like having a big blowdown in the way, or a hole in the ground, or a rock bluff ect. Ect. Ect. Can keep a faller from doing things text book. Like being 3 boards up on a tree that is as wide as the ridge its growing on.

So, you need to be able to foresee what can happen then make a plan and hope that you can stick to your plan.

 

[murphy4trees]

the way I think of it is that when you're falling in the woods, there are a lot of things that can fall on you that you can't see much... so its better to just take the escape route and keep moving, rather than waste time looking up and not really being sure what you are looking for... in a straight drop suburban situation the only thing that can get you is the tree, so if you take a few seconds to look up, you can fairly quickly judge the direction of fall and your safety/best escape route... I never did any falling in the woods so its just a guess at what makes sense.

 

[Mick!]

I guess thinking things through isn't really an option. I've noticed whenever there is a near miss or I shout at a groundy in a panicked voice they never look up, they just hunch their shoulders and run, instinctive way of protecting your head from attack. Nobody ever looks up to decide on the best course of action.

 

[woodworkingboy]

The thing about not looking up in the woods, like when bucking down a hung up tree. Sometimes you might have to change directions as you run, maybe end up in the place where you first started to run from. No way to know that without looking up.

 

[Mick!]

Yes but do you? I reckon the instinct to protect your head and face means that you don't look up. Woods, garden or whatever.

 

[Tucker943]

I keep one eye on the tree. One eye where Im heading. Maybe back and forth between both sounds better. No sense making an exit if you cant watch where you are going. Tripping and falling could be a disaster. You have to know where to head too. Can only figure that out by looking up. The tree can head the right way, but you might still have to change your path. In select cutting, Its not just the tree you have to watch. Its the limbs that break/shake loose from the caanopy that will kill you also. Ive also, like everyone who has logged, been chased by the butt of the tree too. You dont always see that coming. I know of a guy that was found with his head and upper torso smushed down into the ground under the butt of the trunk. The tree went over, hung up and sent the butt backwards chasing him. He turned to leave the stump and the butt got him from behind and smeared the top of him down into the ground.

 

[NHlocal]

I keep one eye on the tree. One eye where Im heading. Maybe back and forth between both sounds better. No sense making an exit if you cant watch where you are going. Tripping and falling could be a disaster. You have to know where to head too. Can only figure that out by looking up. The tree can head the right way, but you might still have to change your path. In select cutting, Its not just the tree you have to watch. Its the limbs that break/shake loose from the caanopy that will kill you also. Ive also, like everyone who has logged, been chased by the butt of the tree too. You dont always see that coming. I know of a guy that was found with his head and upper torso smushed down into the ground under the butt of the trunk. The tree went over, hung up and sent the butt backwards chasing him. He turned to leave the stump and the butt got him from behind and smeared the top of him down into the ground.

 

[stig]

Look at the tree and more important, look up.
I saw a video of someone, can't remember whom, might have been Burnham, felling a free standing tree.
He looked up some 5 times as he was wedging it over, and I thought :" That there is a logger".
The habit learned in the woods are not lost easily.
I've cracked 3 hardhats over the last 38 years. Sometimes they'll get you from an obscure angle, like the log that was flipped into the air and took me from behind a couple of months ago.