The Official Work Pictures Thread

Tarantula hawks sounded badass, so I googled them, whilst a little disappointed they weren't some kind of bird/spider combo, cool beasts nevertheless.
 
Great pictures of the palms! How easy was it to pull your SRT line out?
I always wonder given the tight spaces between the fronds, not to mention the thorns.
I think washies are my second least favourite palm to clean after canary island dates...
 
Back in the day I tried many times to set lines in palms and only succeeded about 20% of the time. Eventually gave up and went back to a combination of ladders and spikes like everybody else.

About the only time you will get stung is if you disturb a nest, typically paper wasps nesting on the bottom of the fronds. No worries about the various bees collecting pollen from the flowers. They will retreat as they are not protecting their home.
 
Great job CurseVoyce. Trees looked great when you were done! A buddy of mine in Israel fell 40 ft out of a Palm with his line over some fronds. He busted up his shoulder, but other than that he was pretty lucky. I climbed a Palm many years ago, when I thought I might want to be an "arborist". I never climbed another, and soon after decided to stay in the woods where I belong! Fear the Palm!!
 
Fi, I forgot a pull stick. I Will Not forget one today. I use a 20oz weight to punch through. Mostly successful when you pull the rope through the direction the throw ball went through.
Rajan, you sort of look for a hole in the center top. Shoot through the hole. The tricky part is cutting around your rope. Just keep an eye, cut just out past the rope. When ready to make your finish cuts in places, slack the rope while on the flip line, move rope and cut.
Totally get it Brian. Would have hated trying to gaff through all the older husks. With the stinging critters, yeah just let the calm flow :)
No paper wasps yet. Or rats, or.........
 
Rico: Unbelievable stuff, brother. So cool to see.

Stephen: That looked like a hard day.

Stinkin Silver Maples, man... I wish they were all Firs...

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You know you guys have been HERE before... admit it.

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Rico, we rarely get a palm to do up here in the Sierras. Lower elevation custy. He is tired of guys hacking and not getting it how he wants. Priced accordingly ;)
Yea, I was kinda shocked to see you in a palm. Glad you made some money, cause it looked like miserable work! I did my time killing Blue-stains up in the Sierra's. The Pines are getting ugly and dangerous up there. Be safe!
 
Tight Jed! Where the rest of the pictures man?!

Boring pics, brother... not a removal... just takin off (about 6 if I remember right) huge limbs off a pig for "safety," and waterfront view. I hate that type of a job sometimes... beat the living crap out of poor ol Joe. (They gave me ONE ground-guy :D) Man, I hate big companies sometimes. Lot of the times, really. They're good to me though, sometimes. Actually they gave Poor Joe a pretty good little raise, so he's all good fer the slight, little, momentary-little-moment.
 
Katy got some more good shots from Friday. Actually only 13 palms total, so I only had 6 to do. I was able to traverse a couple, so we wrapped up before it got too hot.
Fodder
 

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Some from out back...
Happy pooches to play with....
 

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Very cool Stephen! We've been doing quite a few palms lately but getting a throw bag through those fronds and then trying to pull a climbing line back through can be a very frustrating workout. You got any tricks to share?
Those look like the Washingtonias we have here but I can't zoom in enough to see spikes on the fronds.
 
Great pictures and finished product! Very impressive.

Yes do tell about access, thanks.
 
Access can be frustrating. Especially with targets. I shot over the corners of the house a couple times. You really want the line to run through easy so it does not drop down into the fronds hard stopping the weight.
I shot them with a big shot using 2.2mm zing it with a 20oz weight.
I chose what I saw were wider openings for the shot to go through the middle. I got the line stuck or had to reshoot more than a few times. Bring 2 throw cube set ups or more. I also had three climb lines handy. 11mm climb line (bandit) worked best.
I used a stick to wrap the throw line around, like a bollard, to pull the climb line through. Pull the line from the throw bag end of your throw line. Make the rope follow the trajectory and path you shot through. Pulling back to where you shot from, is problematic. If the hooked thorns snag the tip of the rope, pull it back a little, then forward again.
Will usually break the hook off. If you actually shoot through the middle of a frond or two, pull the throw line back out, after removing the weight. Shoot again. Rope will lodge down into the frond if you pull through them and stop.
The petioles, leaf stems that are close to center and rise more on a 45* angle or more is what you are after.i estimated a hour per tree and came in under.
Now granted, these were not real tall ones. One might have been 50'. Couple few 40ish. The rest smaller. Easier to spot my target.
 
An hour per palm doesn't cut it around here. Back in the day when I was trying to be Mr. Arborist I tried for 6 months to set lines in palms. Only succeeded on 2 jobs I think. One of the more frustrating things I've ever tried to do. Now I simply turn down any palms requiring a climber. Standard method is a ladder and then spikes if necessary to reach the top.

Last job I did with tall Washies I averaged about 50-60 per day. All over 40' and I was never able to get more than 3 in one setup. With shorter ones and/or bigger groupings, I can do 80-100 per day.
 
An hour per palm doesn't cut it around here. Back in the day when I was trying to be Mr. Arborist I tried for 6 months to set lines in palms. Only succeeded on 2 jobs I think. One of the more frustrating things I've ever tried to do. Now I simply turn down any palms requiring a climber. Standard method is a ladder and then spikes if necessary to reach the top.

Last job I did with tall Washies I averaged about 50-60 per day. All over 40' and I was never able to get more than 3 in one setup. With shorter ones and/or bigger groupings, I can do 80-100 per day.
Skwerl you are a true Palm climbing animal. I cringe at the thought of 50-60 a day. Much respect! I'll take a 200 ft back-leaning Fir over a Palm anyday!
 
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