Taupotreeman

That's trainee groundies for you Buzz. Walking around staring at their feet all the time

I spoke on another thread about the topping of trees for views. Unfortunately many of the residents around this area have no interest in being educated. Some yes but the high percentage most definately not, especially when they would have a view without the tree. Most of my (trying to) educate experiences end almost in a huge argument which does neither party any good but this is the type of person I am faced with. The view is everything. I'm of the same opion as you. Eventually my view will be obscured by trees, it is partly now. Even though the trees are on council land I have no thought of removing or topping them. In areas such as these we are on a completely different wavelength to maybe the people you have to deal with. Fortunately, we are now adhering to the council policy (that has been in place for years but ignored completely) and trees are not removed, topped or pruned in any way for views........unless of course I get the usual call from the CEO or Mayor. The worst part is most of the time they actually have a view, just not a 180 degree one. Sometimes there's just one tree right in the middle but that tree just has to go. Got a call from a gentleman the other day regarding his own private trees. Someone further back whose line of sight to the lake was starting to be impeded had come down over the holidays and taken to a Kauri and a Rimu plus a few others with a hand saw. Well beyond saving such was the damage. Hopefully this willl give arbtalkers an idea of the type of people we have in certain places here.

Yep plenty of interaction from a few of the residents. A sign of the times here I'm afraid. The home owners were glad to see it go. Leaf litter, shading and blocking their view of a dormant volcano cone. It seems a great deal of people are keen to have their views uninterupted nor do they wish to have to rake up leaves etc. Not that I'm admitting to fighting a losing battle, far from it.

Two rakes Adam but the guys trained in raking were obviously not trained to degree standards, only national cert. On job rake training will continue. To be fair, it was blowing pretty well by the end of the day so we were starting to chase a bit and this IS Turangi after all where a bit of sawdust is just good fertiliser for the grass. Council does have a HiaB but we biffed the wood over the fence for the neighbour. Wood never goes to waste in Turangi and the locals are always keen for as much as they can get. It usually costs them coffee and stickies though

That's kinda scary. Looks like something The Adams Family would rent for a holiday

Smart advice. I don't know how many times I've tried to tell people that but they insist ABC is perfectly safe without ever considering that A. It might not be ABC just weather proofing and B. You have no idea what ABC has been put through, i.e. rubbing limbs, etc.

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