Taupotreeman

Couple more showing the fracture line at the base of the tree and the split once it opened up on the floor.

Follow on from yesterday's pics. Took out the side nearest the house with the cherry pciker as we deemed it too dodgy to do from the tree. Peeled out the roadside from within the tree in reasonably large chunks as the wind had started to get back up and the movement in the fracture was starting to cause a little bit of movement in the bottom department. All done and dusted by the end of the day though. Only one small casualty and that was 4 fence pailings.

I have a 96 Disco 3.9 V8. Costs a bomb to run, rear sunroof leaked so was sealed up, rear windows don't work, cruise control doesn't work, heads have been done after it blew a top hose and I didn't notice, paintwork is crap..........and I'd buy another tomorrow. Off road it's better than all of the jappers I've had. Heavy and grunty, 4WD is excellent and it's super comfy. Plus a lot of it is old school tech so it's reasonably simple to fix when it does go wrong or you leave it cos you don't need it. Really you need to drive one and decide for yourself but most of the LR lovers can put up with foibles just because of everything else they offer. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Liking the look of all that firewood Adam

Bit of both Adam. 15m MEWP booked for the morning to clear the stuff over the fence, garden and shrubs. Peel out the road side stuff in bigger lumps from within the tree and then assess the situation from there. The two halves are currently held together by two webbing tie down strops, one at about 20 feet and one slightly higher. Gonna be an interesting day tomorrow.

If you have to ask the question "if a branch hits the lines will it kill me?" then get the power off or at least some advice from a qualified guy who's looked at the job. Murphy's law always applies when you least expect it.

No sooner do we get the rubbish cleaned up from Sunday's call out then this one comes through. Busy day tomorrow me thinks.

Ha, I had to think about that one for a little while David but I'd say that the former more than anything. People have a percieved idea of how a tree should look and can't quite grasp the idea of a tree being left mainly for an ecosystem in its own right rather than for aesthetic value, if that makes sense. I'd imagine we could also have a problem with people thinking because it's possible to do this to one tree with no particular ill effects (pollarded) then we should be able to do it to all the street trees. Then it becomes a major argument of property owner's rights regarding light, shading views etc and then we broach the old argument of topping. Basically, we do it to one tree and then everyone thinks that they can have it done to their tree outside their house. I have seen many trees left for bio diversity etc and having a back ground in coservation, would love to be able to do this in more of our parks and reserves i.e. the top snaps out of a tree, we just leave the tree (as long as it's safe) to its own devices. I can imagine the amount of hidey holes we could create for tree wetas but unfortunately we are still in the process of educating the council (and myself for that matter) in situations similar to this. Having said all of the above, and being in a position to have quite a large say on how our parks, reserves and street trees are maintained etc, I'm always keen for the input of others in similar situations. We are trying to be a learning council when it comes to the trees so anything you can add is always appreciated.

Didn't take much notice to be honest David but the bulk around Turangi are scarlet or red Oaks so I'd hedge my bets on one or t'other. Unlikely it will stay pollarded as the cracks were reasonably substantial and ran one to two feet down into the main stem; I'll hopefully get some photos on Tuesday. There's also one been removed next door so chances are it'll come out and be replaced with an Acer species. Council are trying to replace with a smaller growing species (due to constant issues with uplift of footpaths, roads and home owner complaints)while maintaining the town's colour.

My one day off for the week and I get called out to this. One substantial leader broken out of this Oak and landed on the corner of the house. Get there to find not only this but that a large limb over the road has a massive split in the union and also the union between the two main leaders has another huge crack running about 2 feet down it. To add insult to injury it's blowing a gale and once I'm up the tree above the cracks I can see them opening and closing beneath me. Took out the limb over the road along with half the tree that was moving most. Back on Tuesday to take out the rest of the tree once the wind has subsided a little.

Caorann, I'd be keen to see those pictures as I can't quite get it in my head. I have both the SJ and RW so keen as mustard to try them together. I'd really appreciate a couple of piccies of your set up when and if you can. For that matter, anyone else who uses the two in tandem.

Interested to see how the system works with SJ and RW. I've heard it works better with LJ and RW but keen to hear how you get on Ian.

Surely there'd be some kind of warranty for this sort of thing?

Gonna have to sell that SJ and buy an LJ Adam. Problem is I like the SJ heaps which is why I want to know how the LJ works with the system. Wondering if it could be the best of both worlds.

Survey done and I'm also intrigued. Council likes shiny new toys so let's hope it's worth it. Good on ya for having a crack too. Hope it works

Couldn't agree more. Spent several years in management and 4 years self employed by myself climbing on Blakes hitch. Joined the Council and got slam dunked into the modern world. Massive learning curve but having council pay for top notch gear and now being in a position to buy some of my own gear I'm slowly having a crack at everything (in very small steps admittedly). Bought myself a spiderjack and love that to bits. Just so effortless as far as tending slack etc but it's a lot of money (until you weigh up the cost of replacing hitch cord). Tried my mate's Pantin and that got me all excited again when I realised that all those years I'd spent hauling myself up by the small muscles (biceps) could have easily been replaced by using the big (glutes and quads) muscles (designed for the job) to actually do the job so I went and got one of those. Using the two together is just so different and so much easier than the old way of accessing a tree. Then there's the whole rope wrench argument which looks like it's going to make life easier again. I doubt I'll go back to the hitch climber but it depends how mcuh you can afford. Most of the modern spanky shiny gear actually does make the job way easier on the body.

Ian, apologies if this has already been asked over on the other thread (getting a bit lost in it all to be honest) but it looked like you had a lockjack set up with the RW. How do you find working that system as opposed to just a normal hitch? I'm loving the improvised "hammer" for knocking the wedges in too.

I hate ladders

Carbons coupled with a lightweight harness like the TM just makes such a difference when your climbing a tree. My own gear is Skylotec and steel buckinghams. I go back to council work during the week and put on the lightweight gear and you notice it big time. You're right Mark, it's a real PIA going back to the heavier less comfortable gear.

Found under a rotten chunk of Pine buried in several years worth of Pine needles. I make no bones about it, I don't know anything about fungi so they're probably as common as but the experts out there can let me know.

Worry less about the work and more about the lifestyle Rob. Doesn't matter how crap the work gets the lifestyle here will always make up for it. And the work's pretty good anyway. Weather is usually at the worst half decent, people are way more laid back unless you live in Auckland and even then it's still not bad. It's very much an outdoors life, beaches, hunting etc. Ahh see, now you've got me started.

Voila, speak and he shall appear

Big outfit, lots of gear. Expect to be just a number and be worked into the ground. I don't want to sound like I'm slagging them off, I'm not. They have some great guys there but they already have a lot of their bases covered as far as good climbers. Out in the wopwops, not so much. They do a lot power line clearance and have several municipal contracts a landclearing division, railways contracts and heaps of other stuff. You should have no problem getting a job if you know your stuff (same applies with Asplundh) and you'll never be short of options but don't guarantee on getting the best position and top dollar. Last time I looked they had over 150 staff in NZ alone and they do some huge jobs (check out their website) but like I say, they can afford to turn staff over at a fair rate of knots. As far as skills; if you get on the right crew you should learn quite a bit. In fact, you'll be expected to learn and quickly. Some of the guys there are top notch climbers so there is the possibility to get some good experience but again, it boils down to which area/crew etc you get on. They are always advertising on trademe, as are Asplundh. I've worked for both outfits and personally I'd tip Asplundh over Treescape but not by a lot.

Trademe and seek would be the two main ones I'd be looking at Rob. Otherwise it's out with the phone book. Not sure who'd want to work in Ch'ch with all that ground movement at the moment though. Sure atree will be along soon enough to fight his corner