I know many of you might feel jipped because I didn't follow up and give a report on how my new Innoculator gaffs worked out. But the truth is that they've been locked in one of my tool truck's boxes all this time still shiny and new, waiting patiently for just the right dead tree to come along.
Well today my bat phone rang shortly after my post trying to school Bix on proper crane takedown methods. An out of town tree service from San Bernadino was in town with a fair sized crew trying to polish off a condo complex contract today so he wouldn't have the expense of housing his whole crew another night. But there was this one extremely dead red gum euc on a bank that was all over a large carport that he was worried might get one of his three climbers in serious trouble because of its lean as well as it having been dead so long.
All the other many live removals were already done and the wood was being picked by a local firewood company here that knows me well. Expressing his worry about the dead leaning euc to my firewood buddies, they said yeah, that tree's got jomoco written all over it, here's his number.
My situation here at home is complex, and when I leave someone must take over my duties here. So I didn't get out to this bloke's job till 11am.
65 footer, serious lean, seriously dead, all it's structure way over a big long carport. Perfect for my new Innoculators! The dude's crew was all over the large complex working in a frenzy to get done and go home. Dude tells he can pull a few experienced guys away to run my ropes.
But I told him to leave them be, that I'd deal with this dead weed solo for X amount of coin. He looked at me like I was crazy, but said ok, the word is you know your stuff, and left.
I tied into an equally tall but live iron bark euc next to my target, pruned a few branches off it that would interfere with my redirect on the dead red gum, burned down and put my Innoculators on, then went up my victim and pieced it out by hand. Half the limbs on the bank, half beyond the carports entrance. Ended up using multiple redirects on the multiple leaders of the dead euc. The only real problem I had today was the bloody wind blowing around the iron bark that my TIP originated from, causing me to move up and down on the laterals I was out on with my handsaw cutting with one hand and catching with the other. Very annoying out on brittle laterals.
But right from the get go my confidence soared because of how well my new Innoculators performed on very hard dead euc. No kick outs. Not even any real pressure needed to set them firmly. I could just tippy toe out there like a cat burglar. They make a very distinct sound when i step as the springs retract the inner needle.
They exceeded all my expectations, are five times better than my brand new Buck Titanium pole gaffs. A real confidence builder on hard dead wood.
In short they're fantastic on dead wood! I also noted how much smaller the holes they make in the wood are, very small.
Here's a pic of them after today's job.
Here's a pic of the tiny hole they leave. The hole on the left is a Long Horn Euc Beetle exit hole. The one on the right's from an Innoculator step.
jomoco
