Getting Old

[Mick Dempsey]

4 minutes ago, peds said:

 

Hard agree. Climbing is great exercise, groundie-ing less so.

Like every type of good exercise though... you need rest days mixed into it or it's draining.

We’ve had some great weather here lately, ground is hard enough for the loader. 
So been knocking the work out in good fashion. 
Even those intimidating ones that visit you at 3 in the morning to give you something to mull over. 
 

[maybelateron]

I am 65 now, and knee replacement last November. Very grateful to have had a fantastic result from it. Lots of other joint aches too. Working in the day they ease off, just stiffen up in the evening. Use it or lose it.

I use a good young lad for climbing jobs that are day long, as shoulders don't like a full day trying to pull branches through the crown then throw them over it to avoid getting hung up! Still happy to climb within my limits, as Mick implies groundie work is tough or tougher. If machinery can help I use it, have invested in a good tracked mewp and sub myself to a couple of other teams. Experience and cunning compensate for the ageing body, as does being able to choose what job you do on what day.

[Mick Dempsey]

An unusual film featuring Clint. 
Not his best, but worth a watch. 
I love a bit of Country, and here’s the title song, germaine to the thread I thought. 
 

[maybelateron]

Sometimes I have to remind myself when I see a frailer older person that they were once a baby then a toddler, teenager, young adult etc. Time and tide wait for no man (or woman or person).

[AHPP]

2 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Even those intimidating ones that visit you at 3 in the morning to give you something to mull over. 

 

I used to ask for a photo of the tree so I could come up with a plan in advance. Couldn't sleep. Stopped asking. Far better. Have since even cut people off on whatsapp to say don't send a picture. It's reassuring marketing too, that I don't need to see it.

[Mick Dempsey]

1 minute ago, AHPP said:

 

I used to ask for a photo of the tree so I could come up with a plan in advance. Couldn't sleep. Stopped asking. Far better. Have since even cut people off on whatsapp to say don't send a picture. It's reassuring marketing too, that I don't need to see it.

Fine if you’re a freelance climber. 
Not as viable if you’re actually pricing/selling to

a client. 
 

[AHPP]

Just now, Mick Dempsey said:

Fine if you’re a freelance climber. 
Not as viable if you’re actually pricing/selling to

a client. 
 

 

Well oui, monsieur évident. But being mainly the former, it grants me the inner peace you will have no doubt noticed radiating from me.

[Ty Korrigan]

2 hours ago, 5thelement said:

Unfortunately I am climber and groundy on most of my jobs, still, at least were both reliable and turn up on time. 👍

Bet the climber part is a moody bastard and the groundy only took quick to accept offers of clients coffee...

[topchippyles]

Quite a few of us on here go for a weekly treatment to keep the aches away. Doug even has his own personal thai bird 😂

[AHPP]

2 hours ago, maybelateron said:

climbing jobs that are day long

 

I've long thought a big job should have two climbers on it, a little one and a big one. The little one can scamper around being fast and light, set ropes, while the big one is humping the bollard in and setting it up. Chop and change as appropriate but definitely leave a good bit in the big one's tank for the big saw work at the end of the day. I (a little one) will often get to the 661 stage of the tree and ask myself what the **************** am I doing up here with this massive heavy bastard (doing simple chogging that anyone can do) when I'm already tired from being fabulous all day on the branchwork.

 

Or just two little ones if it's gay stuff like pruning. Either way. Negligible extra cost over a groundsman only. I'm not sure I'd hire someone that couldn't climb, unless they had some other skill.

 

And there's no site down time when the climber needs to eat but the groundsmen don't. 

Edited Friday at 19:45 by AHPP