I was going to post this in the general discussions forum, but it says "anything related to arboriculture" and this isn't really...
As most of you have probably gathered by now, I'm not mainly a tree-care worker. I do it as often as I can for source of evil-but-necessary money, but I also find ways to acquire it doing many other things such as carpentry/construction, electrical, industrial maintenance, computers (though not Windows!), etc.
Anyway, I've got a buddy who drills water wells and sells/maintains pumping systems. Every once in a while he calls me for some quick assistance (he's not much on indoor plumbing or technical electrical stuff; or just to help set up the drilling rig and maybe help drill the well). Today was just such a day, though for an entirely new and different reason.
He was called to replace a submersible pump. It was in an old hand-digged well. The well pit was 30' deep and about 30" diameter. Somehow (who can say why) at some time since the well was originally made, someone had put a more conventional well within it. So here was a 4" steel casing protruding a few inches above the bottom of the pit with a pump hung on black poly pipe from about 2' below ground level to about 40' into the casing (70' overall). The pump wasn't working, and it was stuck in the casing.
While disconnecting the pipe to the house, my friend had dropped one of his pipe wrenches into the pit.
We hooked some rope onto the pump pipe and I wrapped it around my 5' cant hook. With one of us on each end, we couldn't budge the pump. So I stood his spool of copper wire on end at the edge of the hole for a fulcrum, and we both got on the other end. Couldn't budge it.
I put together one of my sawhorses, hung a cable hoist on a sling and proceeded to put a 1/2" bow in the 5' 2x6, then tapped on it with my 10# hammer. The pump still wouldn't budge and wouldn't shock loose, either, over a period of a good half hour. At that point we dismantled the "pulling rig" and he told the customer it would be cheaper for him to just drill a new 5" well nearby using PVC casing and avoid all such future problems.
That's the background for the real story...
Being the cheapskate that he is, he wanted to get his pipe wrench back. I said "hang on". Pulled my gear bag off the truck, put him in my saddle, hung a block on the sawhorse (no question it'll hold a man), threaded my rope through the block, hooked one end to the belt, put a knut and micro pulley on the belt, showed him how to release the hitch, and lowered him in with the tag end of the rope. He was impressed.
After he finished dinking around in the hole, I put the rope in a tree, put the saddle on, and showed him how I normally use the gear by footlocking up the doubled rope. He and his customer were both impressed, and after they (customer) recover from the cost of the new well, will likely have me do some deadwooding for them.
I've felled trees for my friend, and he knew I now climbed, but had never seen it done. I really don't know if anybody else around here climbs professionally, either. I hear some guys will use spikes, but have never seen them do it. Mostly the trees are dismantled or topped out of a bucket truck...
A little bit of "rigging and roping".
It was a good day all in all. It's fun to earn money having fun!
Glen
As most of you have probably gathered by now, I'm not mainly a tree-care worker. I do it as often as I can for source of evil-but-necessary money, but I also find ways to acquire it doing many other things such as carpentry/construction, electrical, industrial maintenance, computers (though not Windows!), etc.
Anyway, I've got a buddy who drills water wells and sells/maintains pumping systems. Every once in a while he calls me for some quick assistance (he's not much on indoor plumbing or technical electrical stuff; or just to help set up the drilling rig and maybe help drill the well). Today was just such a day, though for an entirely new and different reason.
He was called to replace a submersible pump. It was in an old hand-digged well. The well pit was 30' deep and about 30" diameter. Somehow (who can say why) at some time since the well was originally made, someone had put a more conventional well within it. So here was a 4" steel casing protruding a few inches above the bottom of the pit with a pump hung on black poly pipe from about 2' below ground level to about 40' into the casing (70' overall). The pump wasn't working, and it was stuck in the casing.
While disconnecting the pipe to the house, my friend had dropped one of his pipe wrenches into the pit.
We hooked some rope onto the pump pipe and I wrapped it around my 5' cant hook. With one of us on each end, we couldn't budge the pump. So I stood his spool of copper wire on end at the edge of the hole for a fulcrum, and we both got on the other end. Couldn't budge it.
I put together one of my sawhorses, hung a cable hoist on a sling and proceeded to put a 1/2" bow in the 5' 2x6, then tapped on it with my 10# hammer. The pump still wouldn't budge and wouldn't shock loose, either, over a period of a good half hour. At that point we dismantled the "pulling rig" and he told the customer it would be cheaper for him to just drill a new 5" well nearby using PVC casing and avoid all such future problems.
That's the background for the real story...
Being the cheapskate that he is, he wanted to get his pipe wrench back. I said "hang on". Pulled my gear bag off the truck, put him in my saddle, hung a block on the sawhorse (no question it'll hold a man), threaded my rope through the block, hooked one end to the belt, put a knut and micro pulley on the belt, showed him how to release the hitch, and lowered him in with the tag end of the rope. He was impressed.
After he finished dinking around in the hole, I put the rope in a tree, put the saddle on, and showed him how I normally use the gear by footlocking up the doubled rope. He and his customer were both impressed, and after they (customer) recover from the cost of the new well, will likely have me do some deadwooding for them.
I've felled trees for my friend, and he knew I now climbed, but had never seen it done. I really don't know if anybody else around here climbs professionally, either. I hear some guys will use spikes, but have never seen them do it. Mostly the trees are dismantled or topped out of a bucket truck...
A little bit of "rigging and roping".
It was a good day all in all. It's fun to earn money having fun!
Glen
i also hook my gear up when cleaning the chimney of my fireplace. and i use my belt and some rope to tow a small trolley when walking with the kids (in it) in the field.
