An odd question.

What town is this where the wind blows all the time? I am not a fan of the wind, no matter what I'm doing. The only thing that it's good for is keeping the mosquitos away, but thats what bug sprays for.
 
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Love the wind, I simple imagine myself aloft in a tall ship.

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I just watched White Squall last week - decent movie about tall ship sailing IMO.

Anyway, the tall ship analogy is perfect. However, can you imagine the lateral+vertical movement on the top of a mast on a tall ship??? I dare to say that the tree would be much, much less. On 5-foot seas, I'd be that you'd get 50' of movement!
 
Working in the tippy top of a tall slow tapered stem in the wind can get to me. Sway, baby sway. I've had to do it many times. Unlike a fast tapered stem that hardly bows. No matter I prefer to keep my back to the wind in either.

The most fantastic experience I had with the wind in a tree was in the Ralph Sterns Dyer Tree, 336 ft tall. Flat top. I never felt it move an inch but all the others around it were swaying 20 to 30 feet in all directions. The visual was breath taking.
 
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What town is this where the wind blows all the time? I am not a fan of the wind, no matter what I'm doing. The only thing that it's good for is keeping the mosquitos away, but thats what bug sprays for.

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We dont really get mosquitos here, the city is Wellington in NZ. Its the capital. I like the wind to a point, I dont like the heat and it really helps. Can suck while riding the motorbike, you have the be very weary. We plan our work around wind direction and strength quite often.

Oh look, 100kmph gusts this afternoon, looks like not big trees today

Had a few bad moments though, I had only been doing trees for 6 months. We were felling pines in a gully that my ex boss said was sheltered, we tested wind direction as being north, not relising that we were in an eddy, so the true direction in the tree tops was nearly south and gusting between 120 and 150kmph.
Got ugly real quick, but nothing really bad happened, but easily could have.
 
Its interesting to see Tom's comment and reflecting on how I deal with it. I actually deal with it quite in the opposite manner-- things get worse if I site on a horizon.

Have a lot of watering to do today so I am reading 'Wild Trees'. One of the arborists in the book talks about going within to solve the problem. If its the short wiring between my inner ear and my brain, then somehow that area needs to be interrupted, or quieted.

Proof we are different sprouts from the same tree.
 
I like it. It makes me "feel the tree" more. Scary, too, but that's a life-affirming fear. I'm just learning to sail. Talk about life-affirming fear! It can't be easy all the time, there's got to be moments to make you hitch up yer britches and check the gut before you keep going.
 
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a life-affirming fear. ...hitch up yer britches and check the gut before you keep going.

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...and, watching a tree move in the wind can teach you a lot about pruning and support, where and how...

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Well, had a windy day today!!! Gusts up to 60mph. Went up about 50ft or so in our Pin Oak, about 15ft shy of the top, and man, was this thing swaying!!! The only time it bothered me though was when it would gust over 45mph. Other than that though, it was ok.
 
Trust your gear and your inspection, then enjoy it. Your body will tell you when it's time to get down.. There are some standards written about working in adverse conditions like ice and thundestorms, but that should be a long way from your pin oak.
 
Pancake is right. Your gear will tell you when to get down. A while back I got jerked off of a limb I was on the tip of because the wind swayed my TIP and I got pulled off, not fun. I love climbing in a fairly hard wind. Keeps you cool in the summer, and makes the hair stand up on your neck a bit.
 
As we get older and gain more confidence through experiences, we naturally start taking greater risks. Knowing how to limit these risks to staying on the right side of the edge is critical. I often wonder if this is why the accident stats are the way they are. Look at the average age range of serious injuries.
 
Aw... just roll with the wind and have a blast doing it. As long as it's not affecting your ability to put the pieces where you want.
 
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