RC0

Been up at Cathedral Grove, Vancouver Island for a couple of days, helping out fellow Brit Martin Evans of VI Tree. Mainly hazard tree work....topping, falling blasting etc. Some pics from a dead fir. Had to resize to low res for the forum, so not so clear. Tree was probably 220ft. Left it as a big wildlife pole. Its been a cold snap up there, but no wind thankfully.

shut it Bolam

Yeah we were on the cold side, but that was ok. The top was a leaner and heavily weighted with snow. The stump is about 18 inch across there. So the face is narrow and Humboldt style (bottom cut is angled, top is horizontal). I cut out the sides too so it couldn't spilt out on me. A ground view of the lake is below. Nice spot

A topping cut with a view, from today

So you live to fight another day, mate. You get a feeling like that, best not to tempt fate. It's usually a sequence of things that build up to a mishap,....red flags, so to speak. I've heard so many stories of people ignoring all the warning signs only to regret it later. Not an easy decision to walk away, but the right one by the sounds

You just get a bad feeling about it or ?

That's the thing with accidents of any kind. It's easy to say what should have been foreseeable thereafter....but the fact remains that they still happen. There's no easy fix, if in fact you think there's anything that needs fixing. That's why we're just discussing and not arguing about it. No harm in looking at yourself once in a while and asking if there's room for improvement. I think a lot of people one handle because they don't want to rig stuff. Not necessarily because either is faster or slower, as every tree and location is unique. But often is the case, and especially if there's just you and a single ground worker, that it's not a cost effective use of the ground worker to have his time spent helping with the dismantling the tree when he could be clearing it up or being productive elsewhere on the site. So we use our free hand in the tree to catch, hold, flip and steer our work away from targets. Many times with Darrel I'll do a lot of self rigging to help him out down below. Sometimes in conventionAL style, and others via a more static means ie a fixed line is used to move, hold or hang sections in the tree, and I'll then disect the suspended piece up there, leaving Darrell free to get in with other things. Doesn't work on every job, but on many it's been the difference between finishing inside if budget, or not. Pricing jobs higher to allow for extra time can often result in not getting the job at all. So we have to improvise.

Totally understand that Dave, and pretty much sums it up for a lot of our generation. Here's the bit I'm stuck on though - the lad who cut his neck and died just recently, be it the worst case scenario. I'm training up a lad called Darrell right now, who's already a good pruner, but I want to get him proficient at take downs too. Just because it'll do him good, whether he stays with me or goes off in his own. Same as you training up your lad really. Now what if either of them took one in the neck and died....inspired by what they've seen us to. Because, like you say at some point they are going to do their own thing. It might be next week when we have our backs turned. Or in Darrell case when he's doing one of his side jobs. It could happen. Doesn't bear thinking about how either of us would feel about that after the event. Now they're both grown men and ultimately responsible for their own actions. But so are we, and in that sense have to think very carefully at times how we are influencing people who look up to us. The do as I say but not as I do thing is a bit hollow. I'm just being honest.

Well, whether you like, dislike either or both Mark and myself, raising awareness is the best and most important thing that can come out of it. Getting people to do some self evaluation.

Just a short vid update here boys. Thanks for your patience

Close to 30 years now actually, but thanks for the acknowledgement. Do I look that old ? Actually, don't answer. Cheers

He has, and without my asking. So, I can't argue. I realise too that I probably should have first contacted him directly, instead of making a big thing of it in public. If nothing else, hopefully it's provoked some self reflection on how we all work. Never a bad thing. http://www.treemagineers.com/blog/we-can-do-better/

Exactly. Or I'd just cheat if I thought I might lose. Anyway, I did hear from Mark today, and we agree that it's creating a pretty negative vibe, that not much good will come of. So, I'll delete the videos and sort out our differences. Sorry for all the fuss.

It's no surprise at all that I'm far from everyones cup of tea....as I'm reminded often. That's life I'd go so far as to say there's plenty in and around where I work now that absolutely despise me. But then, nobody should be beyond reproach either, including Mark and others that pass themselves off as industry leaders. It's not unreasonable to ask questions of anybody.

Yes, I remember saying that. But it was actually my idea of a joke, and not to be taken literally. I think I've demonstrated enough times that I'm far from a lazy f..... In regards to saying stuff about Mark....well, it's not made up, and hardly attacking him either. Just pointing out some of the things that don't add up. Unlike the forum, or youtube or whatever, his blog does not facitate any kind of feedbaclk or debate. Just one way traffic. If I'm wrong or out of order about anything, I have no problem apologizing and deleting the videos even.

That is just terrible. Poor lad. Out of respect I'm not even going to speculate how he took one in the neck. Maybe a donation thread is in order. Some good input on the one handling stuff. Seems like terrible timing now in light of what's just happened, whatever happened. I did get called out on some specifics both privately and on youtube, so I made a second vid. Sorry, I know I go on a bit at times, but these vids aren't rehearsed. I do try to explain my justification for one handed use, and why Marks article got under my skin so much https://youtu.be/2blUZo7PWHM

Good work Tim....especially with the top. Haven't seen a larch in a long time. Just you and one helper ? How are things there this time of year ? Enquiries slowed to a drip here now.

Thanks all. The DBH was nothing, like 2 and a half feet tops. The saw is a 200T. I have 3 now and am well happy about it. Yes that's Pauls chest harness. Best, and safest hitch tending system Ive used of yet. I stripped probably a third of the branches from the flipline, and was tempted to just carry on instead of messing with the camera....but we had plenty of time and I was confident the weather was going to stay calm. So, while I didn't need the SRT line, it is nice to have once you've taken a couple mins to set up. And, youre no longer carrying the weight of a wet rope thereafter its tied off....which would have been almost all of 150 length by the time I topped the tree out. The top was 18 ft or thereabouts.

A tall skinny one from this morning, out in Sooke. Measured it at 160. No wind at least. Use HD setting

Thanks for explaining. I have a very similar size chestnut tree to that on video from years back. I always encourage a crane op to start the load in motion the second my saw passes through it. We have that talk before I get up there. Nothing to gain having a huge piece of tree hanging over your head, and it gets the op into production mode from the off. Who actually owned the tree, and why did it come down ? Sorry if youvery answered this already

Some careful slinging and cutting, well done. As for the crane operator. Has he done treework before ? painfully slow.

Absolutely. There's lots of deciduous trees in and around the city....but as you move out it becomes predominantly conifers. The truth is I make better money for smaller trees for the the time and effort involved. I wish there were more work like that put my way.

We were both on the skills shortage list, we're of the right age and had sufficient funds. I think many Brits get in sooner because they they take the sponsorship route via an employer.....so they work while waiting for their application to be processed, or sponsorship is basically their ticket into the country. Well, I didn't want a job, I wanted to be independent. So we had to wait it out in England. I don't know exactly why it's so much faster for other nationality.....maybe there's a quota per year or something. Chinese, for example, seem to breeze in really easily. 1/3 of Vancouvers population is now Asian. The Government has welcomed foriegn (Chinese) money for the longest time now.....but now you can't by a house there as a result. Too expensive. Vancouver Island is a little different because it's separated by ocean, obviously. Not so convenient for big business. It's probably the size of England but with with a population of just 750,000. If you can get a living here, a niche, then it's pretty great. And, from our perspective, theyre not going to run out of trees anytime soon. I know certainly some of the forestry lads on here would have a field day within an urban setting even. Lots of opportunity to fall huge trees without ever leaving the ground....so long as you trust your aim. I know and appreciate some people's sentiment about the familiarity of where their roots are. One of the high points in my most UK recent visit wad admiring the beauty of the rolling green hills. Here it's a different kind of land scape on the whole...wilder I suppose. You see bald eagles, vultures and osprey frequently throughout your working week. 2 weeks ago there was a cougar sighting just at the end if our street by the lake. A little unnerving, but kinda cool. So while I have many engraved images of the things and places I liked about the UK, they have now been replaced by others over here, equally magnificent. Your standpoint changes with time. Here's a view from the top of a Doug fir more recently....pretty typical of the area. It's a really nice environment to live and work.

It actually took us 4 years to get processed, because we were British. We were basically treading water in England for 4 years waiting for approval. However, if you are from, say, Ghana and many othe countries alike....it takes 8 weeks. The same process. So, being British turned out to be a real handicap. I guess the Canadian government don't believe in Oscars quote either.

So sorry to hear about your mam, Dave. Terrible bad luck and outcome. Nice sentiment from Oscar....but probably doesn't carry much weight outside of the UK. There are lots of positives about the old country, I agree....but when you've been out of it for several years, you see it in a different light. Great Britain doesn't seem so Great anymore. More specifically comparing what it was, to what it is now, and perhaps where it's heading. Even in my short lifetime, I think I was more optimistic a couple of decades back....from an occupational standpoint as juse one example. It is a big and often complicated deal moving countries, no matter how near or far. There's loads to consider and deal with. To take it all in can seem quite overwhelming when you start the process. But, it's amazing how you can cope with things by just putting one foot in front of the other. You get there, eventually. And if we can do it, then anyone here can too, if its what you want. That's why I started the thread, to say that.