Got one that comes up into the attic to shed its skin every year here. Probably a black rat snake, lots of them here.
Gotta love old farmhouses...the critters sure do! If it ain't snakes in the attic, it's snapping turtles laying eggs under the house.
I read "The Perfect Storm" when it first came out, before the movie, and it's about a THOUSAND times better than the movie. I'm a writer in my day job, and I love good writing, and Junger nails it so well in that book, juxtaposing the inflexible laws of physics, weather, buoyancy, hypothermia...
Somewhere I read (maybe in the New Yorker) a real interesting story about climbers attempting the most difficult route up El Capitan in California. Apparently there's one side of that thing that offers almost nothing for you to hold onto -- it sounds like a vertical wall of glass-smooth granite...
Yeah, about halfway through, I realized I had watched it before. Just as riveting the second time through.
I was especially impressed by the pitch they called "the house of cards" near the top, where it was all this broken up huge blocks of what looked like andesite, that rang as if it was...
Yeah, I'm not much of a climber myself, all I know is that what looks "steep" from below looks insane when you're on it!
Another madman, Dan Osman, may he RIP (I may have posted this before; if so, apologies):
Just found a really cool film about some attempts to climb Meru -- a mountain that had never been climbed -- led by Conrad Anker, one of the greats, who also discovered the body of George Mallory on Everest. (Mallory was killed on Everest in 1924, but it's not known whether he ever reached the...
Hey, all,
I have a blackjack oak that has some dead branches down low (I guess they died back due to lack of light) ... is it OK to remove dead branches from oaks during "bug season" ... or should I wait until the bugs are gone in winter? I got the impression that you only need to worry about...
I know from woodworking that walnut sawdust can be pretty wretched all by itself. I've heard that if you put it in with bedding for horses, it'll kill 'em. And I've seen where other-species trees were leaning/rubbing on BW trees, and they looked like they had cancer where the trees rubbed...
If you can find a decent used 361, that's also a heck of a saw. I love mine and would not part with it...in fact, I bought a full Chinese parts kit so I can build a spare in my spare time, LOL. (Plan to use OEM bearings, chain tensioner and brake parts, though...)
A cotton sock will get soaked but it at least prevents you from feeling like you're walking through water, with it squishing up between your toes...either way (sock or no sock under the bag), your feet are gonna be wet. But it'll take a lot longer for them to feel cold (and really, they don't...
This will sound crazy (it did to me, anyway) but one thing that works great for me when deer hunting is to put plastic bags (bread bags work great) on my feet UNDER my socks (or between two layers of socks). This keeps sweat from your feet from making your socks wet, which will cause your feet...
I was working on a blown-over white oak a few years back, and was bucking the main stem when it started getting "bouncy" and I was afraid of it suddenly standing up and throwing me like a trebuchet (was also afraid of someone getting hurt/crushed by the root plate if that happened...so I went to...
Thanks for the link, Evo. I should look at that kind of material more often.
I bet you'd have to put one Godawful amount of force on a steel screw delta link to make it fail!
Thanks, ATH. Like I said, dumb question, but I just wanted to be sure. (I think the guy using the screw-gate biner in the video I mentioned was a rock climber, not a tree guy, but I forget now...)
You mean a wrench for the link? ("Don't drop it!") Or a rope wrench?
I'm not a tree guy but I do have a Unicender and a HH2 for messing around in trees (no rope wrench though). But for this, I like to K.I.S.S., since I'm great at screwing things up...so it's a simple prusik or klemheist and...
Somewhat similar...it's a Black Diamond Alpine Bod harness and the biner connects the belt (the belt has a special friction buckle) with the bight that goes between your legs, and then I clip the biner to the prusik loop, which is attached to my top rope:
I have a stainless steel delta for my...
Thank you for your replies, RyTheTreeGuy and CjM. Interesting stuff. I have some cheapo Chinese wire gate biners for holding accessories on my harness (no life support) but I was surprised at how strong they (supposedly) are.
In my current situation (working on a roof using a diaper climbing...