contract climbers, shake your heads

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ever had to go out to a job to pull a 40 foot oak stick out of someones house? well if you live in the south jersey area you may have to. a guy i know notched a monster and cut through his mouth sending the tree backwards through the house, i doubt my boss will get the call for that one but if someone on treebuzz gets the call let me know how the job goes

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I work for a company in the south jersey area, we didn't get a call for this job that i know of, but i am curious as to which town it was in? if you know that is.
 
im not sure what town or what company he was working for and for his sake im keepin his name out of it, what company do you work for country? do you work the haddon areas or further south towards the shore?
 
One of the guys I work for has a HUGE tulip to take down on the edge of a cliff. On one side is a cliff, on the other is a house, shed, parking area, etc. We told the owner that we can either spend lots of money, get the wood taken out, and the brush chipped... or we can bomb it into the woods for a lot less and he can just let nature cover it up over the next few years. He said to just bomb it into the woods. Well the guy I work for now wants to go and take the wood from this tree to the mill... little problem though if we bomb the whole thing down the side of a cliff. As long as I am getting paid I don't care... but what a dope.
 
I have worked as a sub contractor for a awhile and sometimes run into to some real gems. I actually could right a book on it, sometimes I get off to let the insanity ensue... oh boy!

One thing that intrigues me about this work is the infinite number of varieties jackasses and lunatics come in. At this stage of the game I find it entertaining and often learn a great deal from each senerio. I pretty much welcome the "funny stuff" I just make sure to anticipate what comes next as we all that is our job.


Anyway, listen to some off this,


I am on a job as a sub with a crew of six or so, some of which are out on work realease others either stupid or hungover. About 2 hrs into job some guy comes running up to me yelling about his wife seeing my penis from the window of their house. Hmmm? I started to look around and saw the tree wher I remembered some dufuss pissing on it and then I looked up to see a crazed whited haird lady waving and pointing at me from inside a huge bay window with NO curtains. Then I looked around to see the dufus hiding in the man cab. Then some half baked forman tells everybody to leave the job because the clutch on the chipper was fried because it was running in gear, jammed on the 2 hr ride to the job. That is when I said to myself" I thought I smelled something" because I folowed them down. But while all this was going on I had my truck hooked up to a notched 60 footer that was redircted across the yard. I was making my back cut whan the guy ran up on me with some nut on the winch switch pulling the thing over on him.

I think I had a score with that one company on how many off their muscled up juice boys that I hammered (their fault) with bomb shots or rope burn.


One time I ran up a tree and tie one off a screamed at the top off my lungs in my most manly tree man voice instructions which was heard by these pot heads and when I cut this gomper it sailed 80 feet to the slate pool deck below to the sound of 3/4 tenex singing through the crotch by my foot. Now I didn't drop LSD that day and I am sure they heard me down there because I was hollering the whole time and telling them what to do before they even got done smoking their pre-work doobie for 10 minutes. I have to say the majestic beauty of seeing that full length limb of poplar dive like that and with the rope singing and all really impressed upon me the need to always be on the look out for somebody ready to screw up the program. It is amazing the limb missed the iron patio set and only left a wood scrape on some really expensive slate. About 2 seconds after the limb hit I was on the ground face to face with some sober groundies.

I could go on for ever but
 
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[...] But what really got me bent-up was when someone needed to use one of my saws "for just one cut!" Then you look over and they've got the nose in the dirt!

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That chafes me pretty bad too, especially when I get crap later for taking the time to sharpen the chain. I get antzy about my saws and my ropes... I don't like sharing them.

One of the outfits I work for has this groundie who puts the saw in the dirt EVERY single tree he limbs and bucks... EVERY TIME! I've tried to show him how to keep the saw out of the dirt and how nice a sharp saw cuts... Then I'll be up a pine tree watching him rock the saw up and down, back and forth like he was using a bread knife or something... and then I'd have to file the stinkin' chain before I could fall the next one... 12 sharpenings in a day one time, practically filed down a whole chain. Same dude cut my nearly new bull rope... right in the middle... after I'd told him, I know three times, that first thing after a fall is to untie and stow the rope.
Nice guy, wife made great pork chops for lunch... but I've been ready to break his fingers by the end of the day a few times.
 
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im not sure what town or what company he was working for and for his sake im keepin his name out of it, what company do you work for country? do you work the haddon areas or further south towards the shore?

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I understand keeping his name out of it. We work down towards the shore, we cover from beuna to brigatine and have gone as far south as dennisville. If that helps you at all. I'm new so town names don't mean much to me. Sorry i haven't responded lately i don't have internet access so i have to use the library's computers and don't make it on everyday
 
A couple years ago I did large removal for a local company. Took 1.5 days, so I fininshed out the second day with them by doing some prunning/cabling around the house. While I prunned one Sweet Bay Magnolia, their other climber gaffed the $hit out of another and basically topped it. Then I prunned and cabled a Sugar Maple. Had dig behind the seats in all their trucks to find two thimbles. Never found a lag spinner. I don't understand how some of these people sleep at night.
 
Gord! Nice felling! If I saw that correct, it did a full rotation and hit the other trees below. Is that right? If so, then dang!
bigeyes.gif
 
Today was another good one. Helped a guy at his aunt's house. Get there, and a bunch of cars are out on the road except for 2 brand new ones which were sitting in the driveway. Well the guy I was working for went to cut down this one maple tree which was maybe 25' from the new cars. No rope in the tree... and well you guessed it, the tree fell on one of the new cars. The car is not even a month old, and he managed to wreck the driver's side door, front quarter panel, and tore the mirror right off. He goes to his aunt and says he's sorry he messed up the car... they are using it to take their kid up to college today... gonna suck driving it though with no driver's side mirror and not being able to open the driver's side door. Anywho, he says to them he's gonna have to pay for the damage out of his pocket, because if he goes through his insurance company they'll double his rate from $3,000 per year to $6,000 per year. I'll find out eventually what happens... but IMO... he should just file the claim and keep his mouth shut, not try to get his aunt to file a collision claim, or a homeowner's insurance claim.
 
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Great stories in this thread...someone said they'd like to see a tree bombed out over a cliff...we did about thirty the other day, clearing a site for a helicopter landing pad. This is the biggest, I'm behind the camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZVTuCTM9bI

(Fella falling is a west-coast feller not an arb.)

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Understatement of the year! "ha, you don't wanna be down there" no sh*t!

hitree - sounds like your friend should do some basic felling training!
 
Once I was doing a side job for a really nice guy,I called around to his house and loaded all the gear into his pickup.We drove for about two hours up into the woods to take down these Poplars at his Cabin.When we arrived his wife made us a wonder full lunch,he showed me his photo album from his big game guiding career and when it was time to work we walked behind his cabin to see the Trees."Trees" two huge Barkless bleached white, long dead Cottonwoods that were leaning towards the Cabin.
"Told you there wasn't many branches on em"
"Made it easy for you by poisoning then in 99 didn't I"

There wasn't much conversation on the ride back to town.
 
Got a dead oak removal yesterday from a local transplanting company... "Ahh, piece-o-cake, just need to knock a few limbs off the top because the yard is too small to fall it straight." He was right. The line of cars parked where the trunk has to fall made it a lot smaller.
I ask the person living there to kindly move the cars and he says they belong to UNC employees who use the spot like a Park-n-Ride... in other words, they'll get moved after these guys all get off work.
This was supposed to be a top and flop and I priced it that way, now I'm looking a third trip after pitching the top, lining off the parking area and falling the spar. So much for the Piece-o-cake bit.
 
I just started a business as a full time subcontractor climber. I sub five days a week and I love it. I have worked for large and small companies in the past, but this is better. The thing I like most is if someone you are working with is frustrating you, you know that in a day or two, you won't be working with that person. What a stress reliever.
I use/provide all my own gear and saws, so I always know how they are going to run and cut. That is so much better then grabbing a saw from a past employer's truck that someone else has dulled or one that has a malfunctioning chain brake. I know what has happened to all of my ropes and blocks, pole saw blades and everything. I am a gear nut, so having everything cutting and working right is so important.
As far as dealing with business owners of other companies, I can't complain. There have been a few bad apples and a couple of people that wanted at least one person who knew what they were doing to help them "learn" how to do tree work. Needless to say I don't want to teach the do's and don'ts from 80' up dead tulips on how to let logs run. But so far everyone has been fairly good (knock on wood). I'm very strait forward with how I bill, how I expect to be paid and what I will and will not climb. How may of you out there sub legally, or are the majority of you just doing it on the side? Just wanted to pick your brains about the legal aspects in CT of subcontracting work.
OK, all climb safe, have fun, enjoy the view and autumn (cooler weather) will be here soon. Can't wait to go to Cali in September to climb the giants.
Dan
Weise Choice Tree Services LLC.
 
I could've written that myself, except for the part about working for large and small companies. I started in tree work professionally as a contract climber, I work full time. I learn a lot from my primary client so I work cheap for him.

Everything else is either work for companies that don't have a full time climber or jobs that I pick up on my own by word of mouth. Some jobs are great some are OK... not too many sucky ones so far. Lowered pieces from a dead 120' tuliptree all weekend... pretty nerve racking when the whole tree starts shuddering while a big chunk goes down on the porty.

I'm backlogged to about two weeks right now but waiting for the slow down that's sure to come. I wish business was thick like this during the fall and winter instead of this 100 degree/100% humidity summer... it's killing me.

I wish I'd have started doing this when I was younger, but at least I'm in decent shape now for an old guy.
 
I sub for a landscape company who somehow have the line clearing contract here.
Usually they hire a high lift and top and bomb everything but when they get some tricky ones I get a call to climb.
I just finished the last tree of six on a ROW, they had cut a wedge in the bottom, at least half the diameter, then left the tree because the electricity guy saw it would have taken out the wires. It would have taken maybe an hour to climb and bomb, but with that wedge NO WAY!! It had to wait till the wind was right and we put another set of felling cuts and hammered it over, I subbed it to a pal, just to be sure, two heads are sometimes better than one!
 
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Great stories in this thread...someone said they'd like to see a tree bombed out over a cliff...we did about thirty the other day, clearing a site for a helicopter landing pad. This is the biggest, I'm behind the camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZVTuCTM9bI

(Fella falling is a west-coast feller not an arb.)

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Hey my friend, nice vid!
cool.gif
 
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