Man, I could NOT find a shot to fall this pig today.
She was about 145'. Trouble is: the boys from the other crew had cut about 37' off of our 300' bull-rope, but they didn't say anything cause they didn't want to get in trouble... just vinyl taped the end, and stuffed er right back into the rope bag and called er good. I hung the block about 15' from the top... Thank GOD that the first limb that I took off it was a small one. The boys ran er clean out. Man, that screwed-up our day... the estimator had to drive all the way out to Newcastle with a different rope. JACKWAGONS!
Willie: That was cool!!!
Had to deal with dead ivy all over the butt of this pig...
Holy cow you West coast climbers must clank when you walk. In all my years I never did get comfortable rigging down big wood off itself. Of course I have a lot more experience with oaks and having multiple stems/limbs to rig from. But a single spar rigged off itself just sends shivers down my spine.
I probably would have cut 18" firewood chunks and bombed every single one.
Cleaned up the pine we cut down Friday... it was a bit of a fatty, basically filled the truck and trailer, ~110 yards of material. There were 5 smaller trees, but they didn't contribute much to the debris (one grab could have loaded all 5!)
Trouble is: the boys from the other crew had cut about 37' off of our 300' bull-rope, but they didn't say anything cause they didn't want to get in trouble... just vinyl taped the end, and stuffed er right back into the rope bag and called er good.
Holy cow you West coast climbers must clank when you walk. In all my years I never did get comfortable rigging down big wood off itself. Of course I have a lot more experience with oaks and having multiple stems/limbs to rig from. But a single spar rigged off itself just sends shivers down my spine.
I probably would have cut 18" firewood chunks and bombed every single one.
Holy cow you West coast climbers must clank when you walk. In all my years I never did get comfortable rigging down big wood off itself. Of course I have a lot more experience with oaks and having multiple stems/limbs to rig from. But a single spar rigged off itself just sends shivers down my spine.
I probably would have cut 18" firewood chunks and bombed every single one.
Yeah, Butch and Brian... Chunck-outs are our modus operandi, but this guy had conned our estimator into a "zero-impact" removal for the same stinkin price. Somehow, by the grace of God, the job ended up "coming-out," despite the rig-out and yesterday's rope mishap.
On the second quote: I didn't even have to go there... the estimator chewed our entire shop out one side and down the other at this morning's safety meeting... they MIGHT end up buying me my own bull-rope.
Ray: I spent about 1.25 hrs. self-lowering limbs... shot us in the foot fer sure.
Carl: Nice big pine there. Looked like a Stephen tree. I like beatle stain... I don't like the rot that it tends to produce.
Deva: I love it when the car's right there, butcha just man-up and get er anyways... stinkin rocked it.
Chris: Yeah right, brother. You know as well as I do that the smallest trees will end up making the biggest fool out of you unless yer good.
Cory: Dude, just cut me off if I get long-winded, however rude it may seem. I have run stock and modded 200t's, I have run stock and modded (1st gen.) 201's. I've run stock and modded second gens, and I've run stock and modded 201tcm's and 540t's, and I'll just say this... (Minde you: it takes three tiny little mods to get er to run as she should--I could walk you through them in about five minutes, via a PM or a phone call.) They might take a guy a total of half an hour to do if he's clumbsy and slow... but I'll just say this: If ANYONE thinks that his top-handle can beat mine in ANY size wood... well then... I think that that guy is wrong. I've raced mine against a 2nd gen 201 and a modded 200t, and the 355 has smoked em both. Let's also try to remember that it costs 249 dollars at Home Depot. I think that the reason that nobody runs em is because, probably ALL of their previous saws have sucked with a half-life. I've been running mine HEAVY for about four months with no issues. It has incredible air-flow. The guy in B.C. who pioneered the mods has been running his for about a year and a half with no issues. To answer your question... I could NEVER be more surprised and absolutely ELATED with it.
Here's today's meager shot of Joe and I getting the wood out.... Old-school, baby...
For some reasons beyond me, the photo order and 'caption' is not working right. I've just added some details to the original text. Sorry its sorta crazy.
Fancy house with a treehouse in the back, hard to see through the fence. Fully suspended, $65K. Pool house, kitchen pavillion, 3 car garage/ shop/ apartment seperate from the 2 car attached garage, fountain in the circle drive.
40-50 ornamentals (many topped. Yay!...fixing other's poor work) to prune to get ready for a graduation party...just the once closest to the house, for now (wife came back in town and is happy!! husband should be, been out of town.)
This is the fanciest place I've ever worked, aside from subbing a day with Roger B on a sequoia removal at the Shoreline, WA home designed by some famous architect(s) (Olmsted Bros?). I met the husband and wife for 5 minutes apiece, and am working with their general contractor who keeps their places running.
The General Contractor is an interesting guy, came there 6 years ago to install the fountain, at a time when he was ready to retire, hasn't left. He's 71. Well-heeled.
Built a super custom Harley that he told me about...some custom shop that would let him build in their shop. The shop builds custom bikes for Seattle Seahawks, among others. 6'5" doesn't fit a regular bike, $100-150k. Big dude, rode it behind the shop once, a tiny bit...shop guys said from there it will just go into display/ storage, never to be ridden by the guy again. Have what you want, not want what you have mentality.
STUMPING
first pic is the AFTER of the 40" fir through the house, that had the two rakes on the stump. Found a Sub-contractor with a 40hp and 60hp vermeer stumper, working too cheap, and likes being tipped, as well as advice, he's 70, retiring from the State of Washington, getting into stump grinding. Respirators and sun hats...the underused PPE. A sprinkler really helps keep dry soil dust to a minimum.
A grass wildfire killed a bunch of trees along the back of numerous properties. This row of stumps was easy work, customer clean-up. Dahlia was home 'sick' from school, so she went with me. We played in the grass, colored pictures, etc. I shuffled plywood shielding a bit, moved the sprinkler a bit, etc.
Stump Sub doesn't think its worth $1000 for a radio remote control. I think he'll change his mind. He just fit down the side of the building/ carports and fence.
HYDROFOIL
The fancy house's shop gets used. The guy likes to race. A lot of guys buy hydrofoil kits...this homeowner built this from scratch, for his son. Little customer built Evinrude (Seattle area shop) goes on the back, with a 3/4-1 gallon fuel tank. Employee Greg in the picture. The Homeowner is a perfectionist type...there is a tiny run in the finish. After race season, it will be time to fix it. He uses a micrometer when turning the legs on a table.
CHERRIES
Cul de sac down the HOA's gated entry road, looking up the road to the house.
Neglected weeping cherries. The usual, headed back where it got too close to things, crazy deadwood, a couple vertical suckers.
This is the Maaco 1/2 and 1/2 comparison. The left side is two trees thick, the right tree, untouched.
Deodor Cedar needle dieback. Basic, manual RCX (kept Greg busy, nobody else is touching the pruning work here besides me) SGR pruning (me). All of the trees have been planted/ mulched poorly. Home is under 10 years old. EVER?YTHING is planted in a book-matched/ symetrical style, essentially. I think this property will push me to buy a good Air-spade/ Air-knife to fix other people's work. (cha-ching, low risk, ground level work). Not sure what's going on here, possible biotic issue??? Will look into it more. Meanwhile, some improved vascular flow can't hurt.
First time in 10 years of business where I have to0 many trucks.
I know, man... I know... Thing is... manually tuned carbs are a must, and aren't even available from Stihl anymores.
Cory: Simply take the exhaust deflector off of the muffler (4 tiny screws in 5 minutes), take the little, plastic, air-filter support deal out of the air-box (3 mins. No lie) and then just pull the carb and get the little plastic limiters off the high and low jets... fatten er up a bit on the high jet for the break-in period... lean er out as you go and that thing will be singin some songs you wouldn't have thought possible from 36cc's. We have three of them in our shop now run by three different guys (and one of them is bone-stock!!) and all of us absolutely LOVE them. Mind you... with the mods, they are stinkin LOUD!!! They sound so very similar to a Mac 10-10. I'm telling you: you've never pushed big wood out like that with a top handle ever before.
Sean: Did I miss something? What was that awsome wooden-spaceship??
Paul: I'd imagine you've pretty-well cornerd the removal market in Charlottesville, Eh?
Nice change today from the dirty riggins a yesterday... 120' Firpig, log-flopper with a three foot stump.
Had the great Jason Adair runnin our D8 Cat today. WHAT A PRIVELAGE! I LOVE YOU JAY!!
So, ahhhh.... This next image is a bit gut-wrenching, and a bit hard to explain. My apologies to any brothers who might have small children in the house who might happen to get a glimpse of this. I hardly know what to say... I was rushing to show-off fer the boys (and the home-owner) to get the stem over real fast..... uhhh.... Sorry gents... I've clearly let the whole trade down...
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The boys ran er clean out. 
