How'd it go today?

Worked on a burned out area near us today. Just cutting out brush and finding certain species trying to come back. Nice to see some baby black oak here and there. Hope we eventually find some sugar pine infants. Plenty of red bud. Finally got a camp percolator again and made a little cook fire with a piece of black oak. Nice to have hot cowboy coffee on the work site again :)
swedish-fire-torch-make-a-stove-from-a-single-log-10.jpg


Dug up one small (6" inch high) infant black oak and planted it next to the HO's cabin.. I hope it makes it :)
Prune a black oak tomorrow on another job. It will be nice and refreshing not to be in a burned out section of hills for a change :)
 
Wet? I slammed me a big spruce in a jiffy today and was riding high on the great timing we were making....... Until the temps dropped into the low 30's and it started downpouring.
 
I really think it's a mistake to burn bridges when someone has been fair and helpful to you. At least extend courtesy where it should be put forth. Whether it is parents, siblings, or former employers, having people that you can call on when the situation arises where you need assistance of one sort or another, the skills to perpetuate that are really important in my book. I don't mean only getting bailed out in a jam, also just something that might come up for a specific job that you have. I like to include that in self reliance when you have such people in your quiver. In some cultures it is more essential than in others, without knowing the right people, certain doors won't get opened. I helped a guy out awhile back falling a tree at a job he had, he is a foundation man. Every once in awhile I might call him up to see how he is doing, or vice versa. Last week I needed to get some snow moved, and when thinking who could do it for me or rent a backhoe, he popped into my mind. I called him and the next day he zipped over and did it for me, it took thirty minutes. No pay required, just the both of us knowing that we can count on each other if something comes up and schedules allow. I really value that, and it isn't that we are real close or anything, all it takes is a little courtesy and friendliness. Pay might be involved, or it might not. It makes for interesting relations. I have loaned stuff to people, or the use of my machinery, and the only time I ever hear from them is when they want something again. For me that gets pretty old fast and I might tell them so...in other words, to f*&% off.
 
Pruned a decent sized black oak today, leaning into the light. Wraptor up to about 85 foot and got to work. took me about 4 hours. Katy brushed out and took some small pondos out from under the tree while I set up and then she cleaned up my mess. Had all three kids with us and they had some fun as well between schooling..
I need to go by there Sunday and get some pictures so when my computer is back up, I can post a before and after. Also need my game plan with the HO for what he wants next. We do about a tree a month for the guy :)
 
You gotta be raking in good coin. You work with big trees every damn day it seems. Never once heard mention of pruning ornamentals.
 
Made my first triple hanger in about 15 years.
Hung up a medium size ash and decided that felling the next one across it would solve that.
When it didn't, I figured that using the next one ( Big one, marked as "don't fell") as a hammer, would do the job.
Didn't work either:whine:

Ended up bucking the middle log about head high and having it blowing up into toothpicks while the other two trees crashed down on both sides of me.
No danger, really, but still scary as hell.
 
A triple no less ,hmm .I Hung one about a week ago trying to hit a hole gunning by eye .It looks like I'll have to break out the gunning sticks again as my aim doesn't seem to be as good as it once was .
 
Problem here is that the ash trees are all dying from a fungus.
It causes them to rot in the sapwood, from the bottom up.
So lots of times, once I've set a facecut, I realize that my hinge is rotten in one corner.
Makes it real easy to lose a tree sideways.

We are logging ash like there is no tomorrow ( which for ash trees, there ain't!!!) Just trying to get them on the ground while they still are sound enough that the Chinese will buy them.

My little crew cut about 2000 last winter and we'll do at least that this year.
 
It's dead ash here also by the tens of thousands .The EAB stuff is solid in the roots though .The tops might get snapped from a big wind but the rest is solid as a rock and about as hard as one too .That stuff cracks like a baseball hitting a bat if you thump it with an axe .None of that thud sound .
 
Took some mistletoe and and dead wood out of a good sized black oak with a good sized spread. Nice to have the Wraptor.. 4X up and down. No real good central TIP and the mistletoe was only a couple patches in each quadrant of the canopy. Glad I did not have to prune the whole thing. But I probably will someday. Katy and the kids were with me. 3 hours in and out. HO takes care of what won't fit in the trailer. We left him fire wood.. I have a client that is burming his pasture and wants the branches. I'll drop the trailer off on him tomorrow for him and his wife to unload while I go kill some more beetle trees. :)
 
Last minute part of the day, ran out right before dark 30 and landed these blue oaks (inside the red), hired to rid them of mistletoe and prune... :)
Real nice spread on a couple of them ......
 

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We were charged with the final demise of an old maple tree, with a great big burly, rotten butt, half already gone, 15' stump. We'd advocated fencing around it, and closing an unnecessary exit road, and moving the bbq and picnic tables. Bucket job. Cleaned out some dead trunks on maples with about 10 trunks intertwined from each stump. Elk or other animals in the area maybe browsed 'em when small. Some bucket, some ground felling.

Yesterday, we bucket/ felling combo on a triple trunk doug-fir over a cabin, inclusions to the ground, as well.
 
Those multiple hangups will drive a man crazy, Stig. Been a good while since I had the joy of dealing with one, but that does not much reduce the less than fond memory. Survival is considered the ultimate success, you know ;).
 
Multiple hangups are a bummer. Many times I had to use a cable skidder to grab the butt of one or more of the culprits and drag them free.
 
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