Actual tree work for a change


This monster (100'+) tulip that blew over in the last windstorm was a tricky tree. The tree was leaning into 4 other trees, leaving a lot of spring loaded broken and loose pieces at 60'+ just waiting to try to kill me. I wanted to drop it from the ground with a series of vertical snap cuts. Along the way I hit metal twice and the proceeded to get the bar pinched twice. Then the tree got hung up in a big crotch of another moster tree, so I had to go up after it.
 
That was a fun one..Seems like I have spent a majority of my time this winter clearing hung up trees, or climbing trees with root balls that are on the move..
 
Daniel said:

This monster (100'+) tulip that blew over in the last windstorm was a tricky tree. The tree was leaning into 4 other trees, leaving a lot of spring loaded broken and loose pieces at 60'+ just waiting to try to kill me. I wanted to drop it from the ground with a series of vertical snap cuts. Along the way I hit metal twice and the proceeded to get the bar pinched twice. Then the tree got hung up in a big crotch of another moster tree, so I had to go up after it.
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Where you lanyard into the tree, why not utilize a rigging line to ease the tension off of the uprooted tree after the cut? Saves the risk to the truck and being stuck up in the tree, not to mention the pain of being ripped out of the bucket.

Glad that one worked out for you, but it seemed like it could have been less dynamic at the cost of only 1 to 2 mins of time.
 
Jehinten said:
Where you lanyard into the tree, why not utilize a rigging line to ease the tension off of the uprooted tree after the cut? Saves the risk to the truck and being stuck up in the tree, not to mention the pain of being ripped out of the bucket.

Glad that one worked out for you, but it seemed like it could have been less dynamic at the cost of only 1 to 2 mins of time.
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That raises an interesting point about being time efficient in tree work. It seems like an entire work day or session is made up of many decision points around "This will take 2-5 minutes additional time (more or less), but if I'm reading the situation correctly I can continue and add zero minutes to the work". It certainly matters because when all those 2-5 minute additional "gestures" are added up it could mean an hour or more longer on a job.

It's a built in screw-up waiting to happen. Self-imposed time pressure is what it is. Perceived or in-your-face external time pressure is a boundaries issue and is a different problem.
-AJ
 
moss said:
That raises an interesting point about being time efficient in tree work. It seems like an entire work day or session is made up of many decision points around "This will take 2-5 minutes additional time (more or less), but if I'm reading the situation correctly I can continue and add zero minutes to the work". It certainly matters because when all those 2-5 minute additional "gestures" are added up it could mean an hour or more longer on a job.

It's a built in screw-up waiting to happen. Self-imposed time pressure is what it is. Perceived or in-your-face external time pressure is a boundaries issue and is a different problem.
-AJ
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Look at the other outcome though. He tied in because he thought he might wreck his truck. How much time would that add to the job if it had happened?
 
If the bucket does get knocked out from under, what is the plan with that position and lanyard? What kind of harness were you wearing up there? I understand that you gauged it to be low enough risk to proceed, but obviously, you felt it prudent to tie in to the nearby tree.....
 
rico said:
That was a fun one..Seems like I have spent a majority of my time this winter clearing hung up trees, or climbing trees with root balls that are on the move..
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the key here was getting the tree to drop before getting anywhere near the pressure points. I should have done a slow motion replay of all the loose pieces coming down when that first cut dropped. There was a lot of big stuff raining all over the place... many don't realize that it doesn't take much of piece falling 50'+ to kill, with or without hard hat. I dropped a small piece of tulip (light stuff) no bigger than a basball bat, from 75' once, and it left a 3" depression in the steel cab guard of the bucket truck... You'd have a hard time doing that with an 8 lb. sledge hammer.

moss said:
It seems like an entire work day or session is made up of many decision points around "This will take 2-5 minutes additional time (more or less), but if I'm reading the situation correctly I can continue and add zero minutes to the work". It certainly matters because when all those 2-5 minute additional "gestures" are added up it could mean an hour or more longer on a job.

It's a built in screw-up waiting to happen. Self-imposed time pressure is what it is. Perceived or in-your-face external time pressure is a boundaries issue and is a different problem.
-AJ
Click to expand...
I was taking my time on this one... just slow and steady... no hurry.. I put a day on it, just to get it down, no clean up. I do subscribe to the philiosophy that we should strive to hone every repetitive action we take during the course of our work day. Everything from tying your shoes, to loading the machines on the trailers, where to put the chipper, making your cuts, how big to rig and how to tie your knots etc... basically everything (though I never did switch to knotless rigging). But there's a big difference between fine tuning your skills to operate efficieintly and hurrying, cutting corners, and sacraficing safety to rush through a job.

When I first started working with John Grier, I used to wonder why he was so fast.. It didn't seem like he was doing anything too particuarly extraordinary, but he would put the trees on the ground so much faster than I had ever seen. That was his philosophy. No wasted moves.. He had his system and this techniques honed to max efficiency. And he made it look easy. I never saw him rush or stress about anything he did in the tree. He was just operating at a different level. The only climber I've seen that comes close to that level is Chisholm. They both had very similar styles of climbing and rigging arrived at independently before YouTube.


Before I made the drop cut, the tree I was concerned with had been holding the damaged tree for over a week while the entire top of the leaner was just hanging out there without support. After the tree dropped the pressure point was actually lower on the trunk. And the tree looked solid, with no more bend in it than when I got there. It would have been a freak thing if that cut caused the standing oak to fail. My first thought was chances of it going were like 1 in 1,000, but after thinking about it, I was guessing closer to 1 in 10,000.

1 in 1,000 are odds I don't like when it comes to my life. Do that a couple times a week and the odds start looking real bad in about 10 years... I been at it for 40... I don't mind risking property for 1 in 1,000, as especially when it's my property.
 
Daniel said:
the key here was getting the tree to drop before getting anywhere near the pressure points. I should have done a slow motion replay of all the loose pieces coming down when that first cut dropped. There was a lot of big stuff raining all over the place... many don't realize that it doesn't take much of piece falling 50'+ to kill, with or without hard hat. I dropped a small piece of tulip (light stuff) no bigger than a basball bat, from 75' once, and it left a 3" depression in the steel cab guard of the bucket truck... You'd have a hard time doing that with an 8 lb. sledge hammer.


I was taking my time on this one... just slow and steady... no hurry.. I put a day on it, just to get it down, no clean up. I do subscribe to the philiosophy that we should strive to hone every repetitive action we take during the course of our work day. Everything from tying your shoes, to loading the machines on the trailers, where to put the chipper, making your cuts, how big to rig and how to tie your knots etc... basically everything (though I never did switch to knotless rigging). But there's a big difference between fine tuning your skills to operate efficieintly and hurrying, cutting corners, and sacraficing safety to rush through a job.

When I first started working with John Grier, I used to wonder why he was so fast.. It didn't seem like he was doing anything too particuarly extraordinary, but he would put the trees on the ground so much faster than I had ever seen. That was his philosophy. No wasted moves.. He had his system and this techniques honed to max efficiency. And he made it look easy. I never saw him rush or stress about anything he did in the tree. He was just operating at a different level. The only climber I've seen that comes close to that level is Chisholm. They both had very similar styles of climbing and rigging arrived at independently before YouTube.


Before I made the drop cut, the tree I was concerned with had been holding the damaged tree for over a week while the entire top of the leaner was just hanging out there without support. After the tree dropped the pressure point was actually lower on the trunk. And the tree looked solid, with no more bend in it than when I got there. It would have been a freak thing if that cut caused the standing oak to fail. My first thought was chances of it going were like 1 in 1,000, but after thinking about it, I was guessing closer to 1 in 10,000.

1 in 1,000 are odds I don't like when it comes to my life. Do that a couple times a week and the odds start looking real bad in about 10 years... I been at it for 40... I don't mind risking property for 1 in 1,000, as especially when it's my property.
Click to expand...
Taking your time, right on.
-AJ
 
Ok, that was a pretty impressive job. Not sure how I feel about riding the load, but its still probably safer than just felling a tree in the woods on a normal job.

I've seen a number of videos from Pepes towing in the past, they do some pretty amazing heavy recoveries of crashed big rigs and things like that.
 
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