Work Photos

Mike Islander · Jan 25, 2023

27RMT0N said:
Thanks for the offer, I got a pair with the saddle so I'm good. Originally I wasn't planning on buying them, because no other saddle I've worn has had such a thing and I've never felt the need, after all, comfort comes mostly from proper fit as opposed to 'cushions', but when I saw they were only a $25 add-on I figured why not? After more time wearing it (only day two so far) I'll give some thoughts on it, the pads, etc.

Finished the job today, now the big excavator gets to come clean up my mess, and then will tip the sticks over now they are short enough to fit.

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As you might guess from my signature, I'm a very inexperienced, untrained, rec climber. If you don't mind me asking, what is the purpose of the very deep notch shown in your photo?

27RMT0N · Jan 25, 2023

Undermining the center of gravity is a good way to tip wood off of a vertical stem without needing a pull line or wedges. It looks kind of extreme compared to a 'normal' face cut, but in wood like this, when you do it right they just effortlessly fall away from you to the ground.

Mick Dempsey · Jan 25, 2023

I’m a big fan of the mini felling lever for getting big lumps off a stem.
The COG thing is cool and all, but holding a big saw in a diagonal cut is hard on the arms.
Standard gob or even a step cut, place the lever in after the saw to stop it pinching, then move it off easy as pie.

27RMT0N · Jan 25, 2023

Yah, I've seen a number of Euro-folks using those felling levers and been curious to try one. For some reason I've never seen one in America, either in person or even in a video... I do use wedges and a small hammer in the tree on occasion. Ideally I'd have my ground guy on the rope puller, and tipping out longer logs, but he called out yesterday so I made it work.

SeanRuel · Jan 25, 2023

Winchman · Feb 6, 2023

I capped off a busy week yesterday with a fun climb in this tree...

removing these dead limbs.

I started the week with wo climbs were in my own yard to improve some existing TIPs with new cambium saver/rope guides.
Then I made two climbs to go after some hanging dead limbs and other stuff I've been wanting to get for several months on a neighbor's property that resulted in this pile.

And two more climbs on another neighbor's property yielded this stuff.

I'm gonna chalk that up as a good week. My wife loves it when I come in tired and happy, get a good night's sleep, and wake up ready to hit it again the next morning.

data farm 26 · Feb 7, 2023

The action was pretty fast paced today so didn't get any great photos, just this one I snapped real quick. Working in the Denver suburbs with my friend Scott, who I met because of treebuzz.com iirc. Some lot clearing with some big iron.

27RMT0N · Feb 8, 2023

So today I finally put my 'still basically new' chipper to serious use. The job was basically removing small weedy doug firs from what will become a house site by felling them, bundling them, winching them uphill and chipping them into the truck. All day I think we only cut ~8 trees over 10" and we made over 36 yards of chips just me and my ground guy. It was quite the steep slope, and I job I'd have never taken on without this winch/chipper.

Gotta say, this is exactly the features and power I bought the chipper for. The winch is a complete game-changer, pulling 40' trees uphill and feeding them into the chipper whole is incredible, being able to stuff multiple 20' trees in at once without it even slowing down, and putting in 10-12" firs without even trimming a single branch off saves more time than I ever expected it to. I still have my complaints about the chipper, but I've finally used it at the level it is capable of preforming and am very happy.

data farm 26 · Feb 8, 2023

Nifty little chipper, is it a brush bandit?

Mick Dempsey · Feb 8, 2023

That is a beautiful thing.

27RMT0N · Feb 8, 2023

L3VI said:
Nifty little chipper, is it a brush bandit?

Yep, 12XP with the 145hp gas engine.

EasternArborist · Feb 9, 2023

Love me some wide open white pine removals

Winchman · Feb 9, 2023

A neighbor asked me to remove a sweet gum and a cherry that were growing into his chain-link fence. There are lots of shrubs on his side of the fence, so I got permission to work from the adjoining property. I set my TIP in a nearby taller tree, removed the top of the first tree which was leaning over the neighbor's property, and rigged a line through a crotch to the remaining stem.

Then I cut it at the top of the fence, let it hang, and cut off four-foot sections as I let it down.

With the first tree out of the way, I went up and rigged the second tree as high as I could, and cut pieces off as I lowered it. I had to go up and re-rig it after several cuts since I hadn't removed the top. After all the climbing, rigging and cutting, I had a pile of stuff on his neighbor's property and just a few small limbs on his side.

No Porta-wrap? No problem with this a few feet away.

SeanRuel · Feb 10, 2023

EasternArborist said:
Love me some wide open white pine removalsView attachment 86361

What do you do for raking? White pine is such a frustratingly messy cleanup!

EasternArborist · Feb 10, 2023

SeanRuel said:
What do you do for raking? White pine is such a frustratingly messy cleanup!

They sure are but not as bad as a dead tree, my strategy with cleanup is to had pick and chip as much as possible leaving only the micro shit for the old double wide pitch fork. I used to hate cleanups but now don't mind, its the easiest/ safest part of the job when it comes down to it.

data farm 26 · Feb 10, 2023

Sunny day here, 50 degrees, perfect weather.

Nice little 5 hour day pruning some crab apples in the AM and this little Silver maple in the afternoon.

My brother did most of the tree, I just did this one leader over the lamp, easy up and down really.

There's my van-

And our little brush truck

data farm 26 · Feb 11, 2023

The silver maple is a much maligned species but I personally like them. It's one of the most successful non native broadleafs we have in this area. They deal with the tough climate pretty well. I suspect that people coming from areas rich in nice hardwoods don't esteem them very highly but they might lack the perspective that a local arb could have. A lot of people moving here all the time and cutting down trees. People say they're trash trees and want to remove them but they may not realize that, unlike some other regions, it's really hard to grow trees here. You gotta take what you can get. The little maple in the photo probably took at least 40 years to get that big.

data farm 26 · Feb 14, 2023

Cut down 4 smallish trees working for my friend Scott again today, denver suburbs again. 3 spruce and one little maple. The first three were pretty easy, no targets just bomb it out pretty much. They hauled everything out with a mini.

This tree right next to the house and ac unit was kind of a pain in the but but got it down no problem

climbed into the top to take this wee tiny.. top.

I took this picture of the other climber, the camera auto focused on the little branch in front of me and made him really blurry, I thought it looked kinda cool.