rbtree

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Some great footage and still images of a growing flickr family: Check back, I hope to capture more up until they fledge, which should be a few days yet

Here's some male and female hooded mergansers Those two are from this bird album, about 150 images Same set, as a slide show show?rb=1 Hmmm, trying to post images from flickr, just as I've done in the past, as they won't load........

Just catching up after not visiting the forum for quite some time. Some great new bird shots and stories. Here's a 3.5 min video shot yesterday at a local great blue heron rookery. Just 3 clips and a lot of still images. [ame] [/ame]

These two pines took up most of my Friday. I'd not be surprised if, between my Okatsune hand pruners, Corona loppers, Silky Zubat hand saw and pole saw, and Marvin pole pruner, I made over 1000 cuts---per tree...what a job! But they now look great! Pine Tree Fine Pruning I've pruned these twice before, but not thoroughly, as the tenants like them full to provide privacy. But the trees were really a mess, incredibly dense, lad... YOUTUBE.COM [MEDIA=youtube]hXEMACqp6Jg[/MEDIA]

How's the practice coming? Elbow tendinitis setting in?

I also saw you're headed across the pond for a visit..and to TCIA later. Cheers anyhow!!

By the way, when are you coming down? Any plans to have it just be you, and climb with us, and maybe August? Remember, $ talks..... If you do that, I'd have to go to film...and we could surely get Bix to come.

Id have said 85ft, but what do I know. True, these pop's weren't that tall, but, as you know, it doesn't take much for a poplar to reach quite the height. I once did one not 30 years old, and it was pushing 125, iirc. I'm quite sure these were at least 100'. Will soon be removing an open grown coast redwood that is danged near as wide as it is tall. The brush will be a bit of a challenge. We'll need to open a hole in the upper canopy in order to lift and swing some of the low limbs with the GRCS. The wood will be easy, as ACDeucy Crane can easily get it, at a 35-40 foot radius, and will load it directly onto urbanhardwoods.com truck. It's 34 years old, and is about 44" dbh. The butt cut will be close to 60"!

Good eye, Reg. See the TH thread. I commented on the fack up: That final top which Pat flipped was a ballsy move. Fence and deck each within 5-10 feet of the butt. However, check starting at about 4:50, where I note that the section is tied a couple feet above the block and that it would be OK. Well, it surely wasn't,as the piece broke and fell, landing in the neighbor's garden, but doing no damage, luckily. Clearly, it should have been marled, meaning the line should have been tied off over about 8-10 feet of the lead, to get it into bigger wood. And marls would have held the broken lead together. Yep, was aware of the side loading issues. More controlled, however, as compared to a free run speed line.......had I been concerned more, I'd have set a back guy--but that would have gotten in the way of the swing rigging of the leads of the back tree.

There's no video of me doing the initial rigging, which went super fast. After getting a few low easy limbs free dropped, i set a high block and tip tied all the lower leads of the front tree, and a couple on the back tree. Coupled with the chipper winch yarding them right to the chipper, it went super fast and smooth. I'd set a redirect block on a small cedar right next to the chipper, in order to get the winch line oriented perfectly, right between the houses. Tip tying lombardy leads is the best way to move fast, when there's no room for free drops. The main climber is Patrick of Westside Tree Care. He worked for me for a few years before starting his own biz. As he has no chipper or dump truck, we do a fair bit of trading these days. A sweet arrangement! He's younger and stronger than me, but still needs to be around the old guy. I've got lots of tricks and tips that he can still learn! There's a clip of Trevor, who has little climb experience, but is a great crew hand, having a bit of trouble cutting through a small chunk. Wish he was full time..married, non smoker, firefighter experience, and now works part time at a hospital as an EMT.

These two Lombardy poplars were ~100-110 feet tall, and ~3 feet in diameter, so not overly huge,. But they were in a small back yard and over three other yards, so rigging was required. We were able to tip tie and lower the larger lower limbs and leads,, which is much easier than butt lowering lower limbs. The upper limbs and leads were butt hitched. However, it was being able to send the chipper winch line up and attach to the limbs that made it possible for us to do the job in one day. It would have been very tedious if we weren't able to yard the limbs out with the winch. Please excuse the one sideways clip and all the chipper noise..and the length. Watch in HD

Hah! My fully woods ported 346 NE had its crank break....( a first in 39 years as a sawyer...) mweba (Arb Site and sawhogz.com) is fixing it for $150 (he had a spare crank lying around). He's also wood porting a brand new 550 that my dealer bud sold me and sent directly to mweba. Can't wait to get them both back. I don't expect the 550 to be any faster than the 346, as the gains that the 346 had are exceptional (54% faster than stock) but it will be my first strato saw! I'm pleased with the 338 NE's as well. With just a muffler mod, they are faster than a 200T, so it will be a while before I get a 540...that said, as I have a woods ported 357 that is wicked fast, I'm still lusting after a ported 560 or 562...and would get the Jonsy equivalent 2260, sa it's prettier in red and black!

Hate on my Wraptor, will ya? I might have to come down to fire country and slap ya silly....

Jon,I'd sell ya my Wraptor, but it'd cost ya $3400, as that's what I have in it.....it was stolen along with a mess more gear back in Sep. Showed up on craigslist a month ago. bought it back for $1100. The seller had gotten it at a pawn shop...I went there, they checked it and the serial number, said it would have been reported to the police...well, I'd reported it to to the cops.. so who screwed up? Freakin cops seems worthless.....,

Hopefully, I won't be needing a contraption like that. But my friend Jim did all that. Start at 2:38 for his story--- won first wheelchair Boston Marathon, developed a sled for disabled skiers. New ski documentary offers mobility, hope and inspiration | KING5.com Seattle

Just one chair at Crystal is open, besides Mt Hood, which is open all summer. skicrystal.com Don't use snowshoes for backcountry skiing, but touring skis and climbing skins.....

I was on that job, John. And, of course, Pat has been learning speed lining skills and more, from working with me for over three years now. I don't think I hit over 50 mph yesterday. Early morning the snow was firm, but rough off piste, and what little bit had been groomed was clearly done by a groomer on drugs.... then, when it softened up, it did become some pretty good corn.....

? I thought I explained why speed lining wasn't a viable option on this job, John.

The site wasn't right for speed lining, John. Gave it some thought, but we had the cedar and other foliage in the way, plus the loads would be been rather heavy for the anchor (right where the climber was, pretty much), and created risky side loading. Would have needed a control line. Zipping right towards Pat's truck, using it for a Z-rig anchor, could have worked, but that would have placed the brush 100 feet from the chipper, which was fixed where it was. Not sure what you meant by "Turrible" Yes, a couple times, the mid tied leads hung up. Sometimes, it's just not possible to get a proper high tie point to keep the load butt heavy. Butt tying them would have been better. There were some awkward angles for Pat to deal with.... he did well enough, that's for sure.

I woke up at 3 am.... after hitting the sack way early for a change, and finally go to editing the cottonwood footage. Enjoy! Watch on Youtube in HD and full screen of course!

Pat, who has worked for and with me for quite some time, has his own biz now, Westside Tree Care. He needs me, my crew and chipper for some of his jobs. The job entailed removing a cottonwood with a maple growing nearly together and two more maples. These were normal sized trees, 24-30" dbh and 60-110 feet tall. The tree pictured in these images was ~42" dbh and 140 feet tall, with a secondary trunk of ~20" which grew up and out, thus totally weighted to the side. Challenging removal, with a cedar understory, plus a fence, sprinkler line and shed for obstacles. Oh, and the septic drain field on the side away from the fence. We did the job Tuesday and Wednesday in good weather. My computer was acting up....couldnt get the images downloaded for ages. Doubt I slept more than two hours Wed nite. Then, Thursday was ugly wet. Yesterday nice. Rain here was snow in the mountains, even at Crystals base. I'm still tired, but am leaving to ski Crystal for today and maybe tomorrow in a few minutes. Should be some heavy powder to ski (chowder) before the sun comes out, which is supposed to be happening later, with tomorrow looking nice and warmer! We lowered a wickedly huge top..and the video is rather impressive! Pat's going back to finish the last 50-60 feet of big wood this morning. I gave him several ideas on how to get the rounds off. Since I don't have one of Reg's "Block Drivers", I didn't include the best option. Edit, I wrote the above on the TH, a couple days after we did the job on May 8... Today is the 24th and I'm going skiing again at some time this weekend. Left my skis at Crystal to be tuned. Gotta go get them, make a few turns, as I'm going to Mt Hood on June 22, my way of celebrating my 65th birthday!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Better late than never, eh?! 8.5 years after we did this job, I finally edit and publish a video. It was a large, appx 44' dbh dead /douglas-fir, in extremely close quarters. Only a three foot wide space to work in. We utilized three lowering devices, the GRCS, Hobbs, and PortaWrap, and used the GRCS to lift some of the low limbs that had nowhere to go but up first. The extremely skilled BCMA Matt Follet assisted us for a few hours on the first day. Video quality isn't up to today's standards, but I think it is worth watching. Definitely one of the most difficult spots we've had to work. No crane access whatsoever, or zip line possibilities.

Better late than never, eh?! 8.5 years after we did this job, I finally edit and publish a video. It was a large, appx 44' dbh dead /douglas-fir, in extremely close quarters. Only a three foot wide space to work in. We utilized three lowering devices, the GRCS, Hobbs, and PortaWrap, and used the GRCS to lift some of the low limbs that had nowhere to go but up first. The extremely skilled BCMA Matt Follet assisted us for a few hours on the first day. <iframe width="960" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wXPe8WXKr3M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>