I'm not so sure about that.....There was a time when I wasn't real crazy about being in the trees like that. But once you learn the way to do it and do it SAFELY, it is quite enjoyable. It keeps your senses "on the edge", helps you learn how to make decisions under pressure and also, almost every climb is invigorating!
I dropped these two oaks at the site already, one a couple weeks back and one last week. They were dead as dead can be, punky sapwood. I took the bigger of the two (big red oak), gave it all to my FIL. The smaller one I bucked up and left for the homeowner....... they were a little hairy to climb, the spurs kept slipping out! Was around 40' up the smaller one and 50' up the bigger one. Rigged them with cable and straight-dropped 'em. Couple pics of the bigger tree.... Pic of the smaller tree before cutting and an aerial view after I bucked it. You can see the chip "stripes" in the grass. I loaned the homeowner my splitter for the day so he could get it split and stacked....Even gave him two pallets and a full tutorial on proper wood seasoning. I'll give him one of our business cards tomorrow when I finish the job
Job well done Scotty! Glad it all turned out o.k. my friend. That sounded pretty hairy when you told me yesterday. That's why it's best to leave that work to the "Pro's". If Johnny Homeowner got ahold of that tree? Injury would have been almost inevitable.
Heck of a job man , I didn't realize those were chips strips from bucking. I didn't know what that was, looks neat from up there. That's cool you got paid but, you also helped the guy out.
When i worked for a tree service i used to do alot of the bucket work. Even working from a bucket i would ALWAYS take all the time i needed to assess the situation. I used to just laugh at the ground crew when they got impatient with me. I would yell down "any of of you care to come up and do this?" Everyone got real quiet after that. Things look and act alot different 60ft up a tree Great job as always scotty!
Was a hot, sticky, rainy, miserable morning dropping and bucking that log and the tops. Hauled one dump trailer load home, took a break for my family's Labor Day picnic, heading up shortly for the second load......my estimate of close to 2 full cord from that tree was correct. Didn't get many pics, it was pouring a good bit of the morning. The homeowners fear of the tree coming down in a storm on his house was well-founded....Two rounds we cut from about the 40' mark were absolutely FULL of ants. And basically hollow. That tree was a ticking time bomb. He was grateful we got the tree down and cleaned up, and we're glad for him!! His house was literally 35' away from this 85' monster.
I don't know how you know a tree is "safe" to climb. That tree had internal rot, not visible, but did show symptoms enough to warrant its removal. I can see why buckets are often used.
Bucket trucks are big $$$. Hard for the side businessman to justify that kind of expense. I have 2 tree service clients. A good bucket truck can easily exceed $30k used.
Believe it or not I have access to one that we can rent for 100 bucks a day.....but some of the jobs I do (like this one) aren't accessible with it. So you have to rely on climbing. This tree was stable, but as you can see that one section was kinda like a time bomb.....waiting for a fuse (like a good storm maybe) to send it down...... At any rate the rest of the tree is good, lots of nice splits from this thing tomorrow evening and Wednesday evening. I'll post pics.
I've been keeping all the oak I can get my hands on. While I'm still a big locust fan, oak is so reliable and versatile when you give it plenty of time to season.......leaves great coals, puts out tremendous heat, lasts for hours on end and burns down to nearly nothing at all......pound for pound one of the best woods out there. I've done a PILE of pines, soft maples and other stuff this year......don't get oak very often but when I do it seems to come in waves. Got two more big ones to do in the coming month!!
Seeing as you are 6 years ahead, you have plenty of time. Better hope you never have to move. The firewood stays I guess.
