What Is Your Weakness?

I tend to yell at groundies too much, though.

Sad, I doubt I could ever work for you, Stig. One four year apprenticeship and getting yelled at all the time is way more than enough. I'm still tired of that shit and have a low tolerance level. You don't often hear of people on the ground yelling at someone up in the tree. :lol:
 
Shouting is a thorny subject, I am guilty of it, but sometimes a combination of noisy machines, height etc can mean that an instruction has to to be bellowed to be understood. Sometimes that instruction can be for instance. "Would you be kind enough to continue doing what your doing only a bit faster" or "I find it surprising that after a number of years you still experience difficulty in tying a bowline" and it gets taken the wrong way!
 
My weakness is pie. My character failing is impatience. Climbing I'm just tense but better rigging avoids that whole "yikes I'm above my Tie-in" feeling.
 
Shouting is a thorny subject, I am guilty of it, but sometimes a combination of noisy machines, height etc can mean that an instruction has to to be bellowed to be understood. Sometimes that instruction can be for instance. "Would you be kind enough to continue doing what your doing only a bit faster" or "I find it surprising that after a number of years you still experience difficulty in tying a bowline" and it gets taken the wrong way!

God do the Ropetek comm unit/ Senas alleviate this. I won't go back.
 
Safety and productivity go up, frustration goes down. Ropetek.com sells them cheaper here in the States than a guy can go into a motorcycle shop and get them, etc. You might have to look into something else, or another vendor. PCTree = Ropetek, by the way. There is a comm thread. They are fuggin' awesome. They are, as hydraulics are. Once you work with them, you won't work without them, and the Return on Investment is fast.
 
Just checked out the site. Doesn't seem extortionate, I'll order a set next week. Might save some hurt feelings!
Good tip.
 
Ditto Sean and Squish... The comm helmets are a must. I need one more soon. Just so much better communication and never having to raise my voice. Throwing tops with a pull line or throwing a tree with mechanical advantage, they are the bees knees. I love how I can be up a tree cutting away, Rob is chipping and we are chatting. Had a pedestrian start toward the chipper zone and I could alert Rob while I was barber polling the tree.
Amazing how much more work gets done when you don't have to shut everything down to listen to people...
 
I checked TreeStuff's site and they don't have these double loop friction saver prusiks, I bought mine from Sherrils about 10 years ago, the above pic I posted of it is from Sherrills catalog. I suggest to Nick that they stock them if you can get them.
Yes the prusik grips the friction saver fine but you need that smaller 2nd loop with a twist to keep the small ring end in position for easier adjustment.

The pic shows the climber ascending up to it but he has also climbed that spar with the system as a lanyard on his D rings with his split tail prusik right up to the rings. I use it as a adjustable lanyard with a Buckingham 6 ft friction saver, I keep the rings wider apart on the sides of the trunk as I go up. No worries about getting sucked into the stem if your stem should split from a gust of wind while your topping.
I can sit down and get some weight off my spurs which is nice on those long climbs. Swinging around on those skinny leaning stems is a lot easier too.

Patrick,

If you want to see this double loop friction saver prusiks in action, check out Taylor Hamel's YouTube video "multiSLING 2 with ringLOOP" at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYHGg79dF3U

It's not quite the same thing that Holmen posted, but you get the idea.

-Michael
 
The gadgetry in that video was, how do I say it, busy? I don't know how Ive managed without all that.
 
My weakness? Following through with clients that want new trees planted. Seems like too much work for not enough money. Just not worth it to go to the nursery, get the tree, bring it in, plant it, maybe have to come back when they are concerned about it (because they didn't water it enough), and maybe have to redo it if the tree dies...all for like $200? I could have the crew trim one tree for 30 minutes and make more money.

Other weakness? calling people back. I do like 75% really well, but in business that's an abysmal rate. I have to pay people to handle client communication.

Next one- maybe getting too risky with things like root pruning. If the choice is tree removal or heavy root pruning, I want option 2.

Final weakness, dealing with the government. There's so much crap to deal with. IRS, EDD, immigration, forms forms forms, payroll taxes, forms, proof of insurance, dmv, parking tickets, truck registering, forms taxes fees fines city permits county permits, planting permits removal permits pruning permits, waivers, street use permits, crane permit, dumpster permit, contracts liability....it goes on and on and on....I'm constantly bogged down by all that needs to be done and I know that CA would be a better state if they overhauled the setup and made it so that people actually WANTED to stay in business. I've had gov't workers tell me that I can't get that permit because I need this permit to be allowed to get that permit. Are you serious? A permit permit? Since when does that make sense?
 
I don't know if it's fear or what but for me I have trouble with pines or trees with out a bunch of limbs. I like maples but with pine I seem to get shaky about tying into small stuff. I'm a big guy and I worry about trusting it so I'm constantly using my buck strap (even when repelling). I hope it will pass with time
 
The big Euc's were often foreboding when I started. They were magnificent and wonderful trees to climb. Strong, so clean, good vertical form and smooth strong crotches to tie into way in their tippy tops. But cutting them... oh so heavy their spars, and not so resilient of fiber to guide them. Speaking for the Blue Gums anyway. Until you understand them they can be a real trial.

Some many trees. So little time.
 
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