blacksmith and I took care of three more trees at a big job we're working, one of which was an 80' ash that was intertwined amongst some sugar maples and against a neighboring fence/shed. If you look through the trees, way up high, you'll see a bearded monkey...... A view from the backyard, I'm at about the 60' mark, getting ready to drop one of the two 20' tops. It's hard to see, but I've got one of my FHC sweatshirts on!! I took a few pics from my perspective. I rarely take the phone up in the tree, but decided to take it up today to get some shots. You can see the first of two 20+' tops laying at the ground beneath me. I was around 60' up when this pic was taken. A look at some of the tangled mess of sugar maple branches we had to deal with. Tops are on the ground, working my way back down the trunk. Due to the limited drop zone and all those maple branches, we pieced the trunk down in several sections.... Next on the agenda was two more trees (a very dead elm and this big ash) on the backside of the owners propety, both trees had leans towards his sheds, so we decided to rig them and use the bottle jack method to drop the against their lean, down off of a bank behind the owners house. It worked perfectly. Here's a pic of blacksmith climbing the ash to rig it. We used another tree down in the woods as a pull point and redirected the bull rope to a tree back in the yard...we did a capstan wrap on an anchor point to give us insurances as we jacked those two trees over into the woods. It worked perfectly, I wish I'd taken more pics. A pic of the elm stump after the drop We're going back in the morning to get two nice saw logs, stay tuned for more.....
Thanks for all of the pic's! I've mentioned it before, But I just think it's amazing what you guys do. Stay safe!!
Those ash tops are beginning to scare me. The last one I dropped shattered like crystal. But I guess they're strong enough to hold you. Stay safe and have fun. I have a saying taped to our fridge that says: "Find something you like to do and get somone to pay you to do it." It looks as though you have succeeded!!
Thanks but it's not always as easy as it seems. Every job is different and we seem to develop new methods of doing things and hone the old ones. Although these methods that we use probably aren't new to some people who do it every day for a living, but we always manage to get by and do it safely! That's the key taking the time to think about it having a plan and executing it with precision!
You guys seem to take down quite a few trees, do you keep all the wood that the homeowner doesn't? Bottle jack method...gotta read up on that one, put it in my bag of tricks
That jack method can work really nice and glad you got to use it successfully. You two guys are doing great work. Never stop learning just like you never stop being sure what you are doing is safe and will work out as expected. How long before you consider a bucket?
Here's one for you guys blacksmith or Scotty overkill have you ever used the stick trick to guesstimate the tree height for felling? Read a little about it somewhere the other day and haven't had chance to test it
We rent one from time to time, when it's needed......I have a good friend who owns a 60 foot. Hi-Ranger
Not always, we've given a lot away, and sometimes sell a load or two.....if I kept it all, I'd literally be buried in wood....
If a jobs worth doing it's worth doing right... with a Hi-Ranger! A lineman friend of mine always says that haha don't know if it was an old commercial or what. We've got a couple at work sure make life easier
If you are talking about using a stick the length of your arm and then using that length to estimate the height of a tree, it is sound trigonometry so it is as accurate as you are with the way you hold that stick. If you hold the stick at the perfect angle it will be dead on. Your final position will be right where the top of the tree will fall if your aim is any good.
