Drella

Can't they just watch t.v like normal kids do...

One thing you should be ready for is when cutting large upright branches. If you're making your cut back to the tree, leaving a stub for when using a simple butt-hitch, you may run into a very dangerous situation. Make sure that you can easily pull yourself away from the cut, as you're making it. I've had a few large branches split into what's known as a "Barber-Chair." If this happens and you're close to the split, it could easily kill you or trap you between the tree and limb, making amputation the only recourse of action to removing you from the tree. Here’s a crude pic of what sometimes happens…

I'll definately be interested in learning how to properly lean out the motor.. I always had my employer do it for me- and I never really watched closely enough to feel comfortable doing it solo.

So you need a pulley combined with the lockjack?

Without a doubt.. I've seen way beyond thousands of situations in my time and not one would merit a topless tree...

And we have great dental plans here too!..

Weird huh?.. It only makes sense that if the saw kicks back at you, better to have it hit your waist rather than your chest,, where your major organs just happen to be resting. And when your up at chest height working a cut, the throat is only 6 inches away..

Topping? Never met the dude.

You guys haven't lived till you've spent 10 hours in a three strand hemp bowline on a bight using a two man crosscut bucking saw, 300 foot in the air, felling a Taxodium Distichum..

Back in 1994 we did loads of work for a local golf course that would hold PGA tornaments yearly. We would go in, find any hazzardous limbs or trees and remove them. Sometimes spending weeks at a time getting everything prepped for show time.. There was a massive White Oak at just over 200 years. The base of the tree was well over 10' in diameter. All we had to do was get it on the ground, cut it up a bit and they would skid it to a giant burn pile. So I went up and started dropping complete limbs that were bigger than most trees. It was the first time I had to use an Echo 750 with the 4' bar up in a tree. Just trying to muscle that sled dog was a real nightmare. I've just dropped a limb about 4' diameter and was about to finish off the stub; "I had originally made the first felling cut about 6' out from the tree to manage the cut a little easier." I'm now rotating the saw tip first as far as I could sink it-- before following around with the rear, leaving just the fibers in the center to hold the stub in place before I finalize the cut. At this point,, I'm tied in above and safetied in just under the stub, standing with spurs and reaching to the right because due to the awkward lean of the tree.. So as I'm now lowering the saw straight down to finish the center cut, I decided I wanted to take a look from above the cut to see how much further I had to go. Just as I put more weight on my right side from leaning that way to see my progress, I must have just pinched the saw enough to make it kick back. The bar jumped out of the cut just missing the bridge of my nose and across my eyes -even before I managed to say -Oh ****! It was all over and the saw was back within the cut- idling. That was the first time in my entire career that I had a saw kick back at me. From that moment on, I learned two very valuable lessons. 1) Never, ever get comfortable with a chainsaw. 2) Always make my cuts at waist level, never cut above the region of the abdomen. That concludes my third close call....

Too right. The more we introduce these mechanical wonders into the mix, the more chances of failure we're faced with... Don't mess with the classics.

So that's what those little meatball things are...

What a freakin weirdo. My chainsaw wants to kill Nosak!

Besides cabling,, deadwood, corrective prune and lightly thinning should do it. You can remove it later.. Can anyone say- "job security?"

Yeah,, I'm funny like that...

I love that kind of stuff! If you can't get to the money shot quick enough, I tend to lose interest pretty fast... I was wondering what all that white stuff is on the ground? We ain't got that here in Florida....

Where were those photo's taken? Italy??? I would never do it, but, if pollarding is done correctly and discreetly, I think it can look pretty cool...

My guess is it's a dikfur.

I just found a youtube video where I added text about using ladders and it went like this. I love using freaking ladders! I've got a 12' orchard ladder and when two rungs from the top, I'm standing at 10'. Now with my almost 8' reach and a 12' pole pruner, I'm at nearly 30'!!! And when it's 90degrees out, I'd rather work the outer drip-line of a tree on a ladder, than spend time working my way out there, struggling to reach the tips from my tie in... Then I can come down and hit the ice cold Gatorade whenever I want being on the ladder. Then after I'm finished, I'll start working my way up through the center and I'm done! Of course this works much better when the Oak isn't much more than 60'....

Sorry about sounding like a turd my brutha,,, text is somewhat ambiguous at times, you know... And I didn't mean to call anyone a turkey, what I meant was -Turkey-Oak...

More photo's of Espalier. "random pic's not taken by me."

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxvetM7uqms]Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!![/ame]

Alright-- alright you two turkeys.. Listen, I'm not painting a picture of a perfect world where all of us have our heads on straight and our fullest attention 100% of the time while we're managing a safe worksite. I'm telling it as it is, no BS. I'm also not saying that my crew was anything less than careful. We never had one injury other than the common ones that occur when working the body to death doing this most back-breaking work. Sometimes things just take a turn for the worst. And it will happen to us all at one point or another. I'm a cyclist and during season, I put 300 miles a week on my bike. It's said that they're two kinds of cyclists; "Those who have wrecked - and those who will wreck." It's out of our ability to be 100% perfect. How can it be otherwise? Afterall,, we're human right? Prone to make mistakes and full of faults.. Now,, let's have fun on this thread, post your mistakes as they've happened and quite posting like we're Gods of all we do --and everything is perfect under our watch..

I like to commend you on one very overlooked aspect of chainsaw safety.. I see that you are making your final cuts with the chainsaw properly at your waist. Too many times I see folks cutting above the waist near the chest and even neck and head height region... Well done!