tree-fancier123

could have saved a few quid there

and you can't be bothered to write a three page essay to explain

interesting - even with a haas and a foot ascender you still have to hold the rope, so no harm in adding a few extra grams of ally to the tangle

out of the ones who actually had the balls to do this - what percent actually ended up making decent regular money without gaps? My gut feeling is that fraction isn't any less than the cohort that went into arb employment and stayed on the books or went as roaming labour only. The young budding entrepeneur can hire in experienced help if he sees fit and if he is intelligent enough he will eventually stop making mistakes on pricing, feeling happy his labours are not paying the wages of someone else's office staff.

I'm adopted

you know how Vespasian got banned the other day - it got me thinking - any professional troll should have at least 20 other accounts active so they can keep posting in the event. He hasn't got one of mine though, I swear

totally - I don't care what they charge or how they work, but they are just known for clubbing together and encouraging each other to steal. Someone out doing work with machines they've nicked, or bought knowing they're nicked - those people are pathetic excuses for human beings. The human nervous system isn't capable of producing enough pain to adequately punish them

I dont want to become another cash cow for life saving Aspen. My MSA160T is good for fume free conny hedge topping. Only wish it was built to take a beating

almost certain it will - medications what you need Aspen - never wanted the cost, spent countless days on a hedgecutter, no bother, if there's a slight breeze it's gone anyway. Tree and grass pollen can make asthma worse, the asthma nurse told me to take add an antihistamine when the pollen is high, she also recommended a flu jab, sometimes I bother to go get one. I'm five years older than you and have always had asthma; inhalers have improved - an inhaled steroid for control (mine is Flixotide - good gear) and a bronchodilater (Ventolin) if you get wheezy during exercise or wake up with a tight chest. In the last few years they gave me a long acting bronchodiater as well called Serevent - this one in addition to the inhaled steroid has helped me through some long hard days. Apparently a recent development in the treatment of asthma type airway constriction is ablation of some of the smooth muscle lining the airways - I've not been offered this, maybe it's reserved for real oxygen tent cases, but I like the logic of it - ablation means to remove or destroy - so at least some of the smooth muscle lining the airways is permanently got rid of by clever machines. I've always accepted the explanation that asthma is caused by things triggering smooth muscle spasms.

I've always been suspicious of the term professional, something a bit punk about me means I will never be able to join the upper echelons of society

don't throw the baby out with the bathwater - all that legislation and box ticking is a whole lot better than what went before - vile businessmen with business values treating their workers as expendable.

hey JC - I have a question for you, as you seem up to speed with the more serious safety considerations - if it can be proved beyond reasonable doubt that a 5 ton ratchet strap will stop any barber chair ( the trunk may split, but will be contained), then would it be then best practise to place an endless strap above the cut rather than climb? The only negative I can see applying this in the case of this accident is the situation Skyhuck described of the butt end coming back, as the climber wasn't high enough. Can you think of any other reason why climbing higher would be safer than the ratchet strap and a lower cut? (sticking to this particular tree for the moment)

If its too small for a ratchet strap, would a Jubilee clip suffice?

I accept that from his position you are correct about the danger of just flopping it he is not high enough to guarantee it wont come back if the tips hit before it parts with the stump, my comment was in reply to hair on yours more general statement that youre always in trouble without a gob. Not so, and taking the sides out to a third, without a gob, then back cutting is a perfect good method a for flopping leaners from the ground and b for limbs if high enough up to guarantee the tips wont land before it tears off. If he really wanted that whole lot in one I cant see why a dogtooth wouldnt be safe?

Ive always thought forums will be at least half amateurs, as many pros are fed up with helping newbies and dont want to think about work when they get home

No - if you read the exerpt i posted above JB is talking about felling huge leaners without touching the front of the tree at all, takes sides out to better than a third of diameter, wedge if it favours one side and back cut fast till its gone. I accept Petes explanations as to why this cut isnt always suitable, but a face cut notch not always used by experienced people some will not read all the posts, at least not carefully, at hoyc how could you have missed that info clearly included above?

Interesting input from someone who's obviously tried these things out - thanks for the heads up as it were

do you think it would have worked though?

GnarlyOak says he uses only 10 to 15% diameter sapwood cuts in the sides - others take a third of the diameter, wedging if necessary extract from another thread on felling leaners and leaning stems "Ah yes. That brings back one heck of a story. The Coos Bay cut was first described to me by Mike Davis, RIP, yes the M. Davis in High climbers. The way Mike described it to me then is the way I've used the cut since. With minor varients to suit the situation, of course. When Mike was first describing the Coos's Bay cut to me, back in 1986 at the Golden West Hotel Saloon, I was astounded by the shear "against the grain methodology" I thought to myself, "He can't be serious." Dave Deconti was present during Mikes description and we both exchanged eye contact a number of times in disbelief of what Mike was telling us. I had to ask Mike a couple of times just to get it straight without any misunderstanding. Needless to say I was still skeptical even after 20 Budwisers. When I went to work for Pete Benedeti in 89 I watched Raymond Bates use the cut exactly as Mike described it. The tree was a redwood, heavy leaner over the county road. The county road crew closed the road off and in three cuts, less than one minute, that tree floped across the pavement and was doing the dying quivers. Even at that I never attempted to use the Coos Bay. I was still too skeptical. A few years later, round about 92 or so, I was working in Dos Rios for Homer Helms. Dos Rios is rattle snake, bald face hornet infested hell hole I'll never forget. Well the Bullbuck on that harvest plan awarded me a strip on a big slide that covered a few acres of the mountain. The Bullbuck said he liked me. Most the trees on that strip toppled when the the hill side slipped out, I guessed about 10 years before my arrival, the downed trees were all pretty well rotten. Now the trees left standing, if you want to call it that, were all heavy leaners, no, no hangers, like holding out your arm, Douglas Fir averaging about a thousand foot apiece. Scratch your head in wonder thinking about the forces on the roots holding them. It was impossible to fall to a lead. Every tree leaned a different way, over one another and over bad ground. I walk through those trees two times without even tugging on the pull rope. Finally when I came back to where I started, I thought about what Mike told me, and I remembered how Raymond Bates flopped that redwood in just three cuts. I was thinking, "Man, I'm gonna have one of these trees barber chair and lose my saw and possibly my life." I looked across the hillside, up and down and thought, "I'm not walking through this again. I'm gonna just start cutting the way Mike told me. F it." So I tugged on that pull rope and brought life into a sawing machine that was hell bent for destruction. Knees knocking and sweat pouring I cut one side of the trunk, better than a third, socked a wedge in, and cut the other side the same, then hit the back!!! The sound of wood pulling from the stump ecohed across the caynon and the tree launched itself into the worse lay you could imagine. Fortunatly it was Doug Fir, and tough, and it took the hit. SOB to buck. Would of been easier if it broke clean. No such luck. So, OK! That was the first one. So far so good. I have couple dozen more. About 4 o'clock that afternoon I had the last of the outlaws apprehenced and bucked them all, honest to God. I felt like a pro. Oh, yeah. It was late in the day for a timber faller to walk out of the woods. Most the others were out of there by 1 oclock and home by the time I quit. I wanted to finish that strip. I didn't want to go back to it in the morning. My next strip was steep ground but the trees stood fare and straight, and was going to be a heck of a lot easier. I suppose had I learned the Coos Bay from someone else, like yourselves, I would have done it that way. I recall when the discussion about the Coos bay came up here at the house the description was different than what I have used and wrote about. I found it interesting the varients of methods to solve a common problem. And I knew one day someone here would call me on it. Thanks, Burnam. Since using the Coos' Bay on that God awful strip in Dos Rios I started using it in the trees to launch big, heavy, hanging, limbs and spars. It works great. It'll pull wood, generally out of the stub,or stump, but it solves the issues of getting a saw stuck in a cut by undercutting a heavily compress portion of a stem or trunk. Non-directional. Only good for flopping. Varients? Yes! Even though a tree with heavy head lean,,, it can also favor one side. Cut that side first, better than a third, set a wedge. Cut the other side. Then bore into the holding wood, and threat it like you would with a conventional face and bore cut to trip. Heavy head leaners are a Son of a Bitch. Anybody that's been in the business for long can attest to it. Even treated with the best of your knowledge and skill they can still get you. Always treat them with the utmost respect and have a clear and safe way out of there. Up in the tree? Always excute the cut from above. Thank you Mike Davis for the knowledge. RIP, 2003'" https://www.masterblasterhome.com/showthread.php?9410-Beranek-s-Coos-Bay-felling-cut-vs-Burnham-s

m4, went for 16mm - on the Dragonfly I would say 14mm ideal as the 16mm do poke through a bit and have torn the olive padding behind - no big deal https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PHILLIPS-MACHINE-SCREWS-COUNTERSUNK-FLAT-HEAD-BOLTS-M3-M4-M5-M6-M8-STAINLESS/252355920381?hash=item3ac195c1fd:m:ma-d36c5_WxqdYmyHI014dQ:rk:3:pf:1&frcectupt=true

yeah death pledge sums it up - pretty sure I'll have a chain round my neck for the forseeable - nose to the grindstone. Our ancestors didn't worry about the trappings of wealth, as long as they were dry and could find enough food

now you mention it yes - his cut is only approx 15ft off the ground, even had a tracked chipper to help pull it over

Interesting - so these plant trackers communicate via a cell phone type protocol? If so then yes the phone jammers are easily available for not much money, so can see its not that hard to steal something with a tracker

nice - I would add in a mobile phone signal jammer, so they can't call for help

Whats your take on it , should have climbed higher, or tried a xxxxx special felling cut? From the comfort of my armchair and having watched Beranek DVD the Coos bay may have got him home in better shape