After two days with huge intermittent downpours overnight, raining cats and dogs, frogs and toads, and an elephant or two with thunder and lightning, my ditches have held up rather well. Even the spot I repaired in the road, that divot or dip the snowplow guy made (about 6 inches below grade) isn't a huge pothole. So I'm happy. I'll also be checking the equipment I will be using for tomorrow and move all of it closer. (ropes, wedges, chainsaws, axe & hatchet, fuel mix, chain oil, and anything else I can think of that I might need) I already checked over the harness. Yep, I do believe tomorrow will be the day I start working on those pines. Of course there will be pictures!
This first pine I decided to work on is a total PITA. I couldn't skitter up the tree if my life depended on it since the branches are so close together, so I've been attacking it from the bottom up. That doesn't work well for me with the torn rotator cuffs (both shoulders) but I am making headway. There's hardly any room to get my saw up in there let alone myself unless I was a snake or a squirrel. That means constantly having to change the safety strap that wraps around the tree to a higher level and shutting the saw down between. Add winds up to 20mph and all those little needles and tiny branches going in places they don't belong (down my shirt) I wasn't too happy. So I've been left with no choice but to leave some numbs ranging from 3 to 14 inches in length. I finally had to quit yesterday when I finally could barely lift the saw let alone start it. It's a Poulan 2000 with a 12 inch bar and chain. It came stock with a 16 inch bar and chain which I quickly changed out. The other tree (double stem) doesn't have nearly as many branches so I should be able to skitter up that one without a problem. I took that last picture early this morning since the sun wasn't up completely yet. I forgot to mention, the county plow came through yesterday which prompted a delay until they were through. It was a new guy and I hope he stays. He took his time and did a good job. Only hit two of my markers, but they were already broken anyway, so no big deal.
Smoothed out the potholes for the entire mostly dirt road. So I guess you could say graded. That thing is huge, like at least 50 feet long! It's the same one they use for snow removal.
Did a bit more today which amounted to be about the same as yesterday. If these trees were straight felled, they would have been limbed, bucked and hauled up into my yard for processing already. That includes the limbs. Oh well, no biggie, I am getting it done. Even if it is a bit on the slow side. The red dot in the picture is the height I made it to today:
Don't tell OSHA about this or it might become a requirement! Since I won't be using the rope as a secondary safety due to the way I'm cutting this tree, I decided to add another safety strap for wrapping around the tree. This way I always have one safety strap holding me at all times. These are in two different lengths so the longer one can be used for going further up while your still attached with the shorter one. It makes for a lot of hooking and unhooking, but it works rather well. It's almost getting to the point where I will have to decide whether to top and drop, or just drop it where it stands. Decisions Decisions! With the winds we've been having lately, felling that tree or the other behind it is not an option. Wind gusts of 25mph today.
Star Gazer you have a great start goin there girl... an impressive display of both tenacity and ability !!!! Slow going is just the by-product of the conditions under which you are working...you've got a lot on your plate to be concerned about during this exercise..... keep up the good work AND the pictures coming. I think it'd be a honor for any of us to work along side you. Be safe.
looks like norwegian spruce. should be halfway decent firewood. if you can split it between all the knots.
I didn't do a thing on the Friday the 18th, too sore and the wind was blowing in the wrong direction anywhere from 6 to 18mph. I thought about giving it a go anyway, but my muscles just didn't want to cooperate. (I just can't understand it, they were working fine the day before ) Actually, on Thursday the winds did cause me to lose my footing at one point. Not a big deal with the dual safety. It just resulted in a minor scrape (to add to the others). So, no pictures of the tree work, however I do have a kind of a picture. It is a diagram of the harness I'm using. An old Parachute Harness similar to the T-10 but with the addition of a couple of equipment rings. This thing is a lot more sturdy than most and it would be almost impossible for someone to fall out of it if used properly. Just connect the dots for fastening. Green to green, red to red, blue to blue for the harness itself. The orange are the D rings for the safety straps that go around the tree (not shown), the purple is for the equipment to attach like a chainsaw on a tether and any other things one might need. Considering I'm mostly working on the natural lean side of the tree (about 4 degrees) that setup is working exceedingly well. The remaining nubs on that side of the tree are a lot stronger than on the other side. While it would be nice to have a set of gaff's or climbing spikes, they really are not needed. See, I do try to work safe most of the time though some might swear otherwise. There will be a delay in the tree work due to the weather (rain and snow)
Yes it is a Norway Spruce, but is in the same family as the Pine (pinaceae) which is why I refer to it as a pine. Since I do hand split all of my wood, if it proves to be too difficult, I'll just noodle it to death. The noodles make some nice dirt for my roses with the addition of some leaves and grass from mowing my lawn. AND, I love pine for firewood! That and Poplar. (I shudder every time I pick up a split of oak, black birch, and black locust to list a few )
Hey,hey,hey Star Gazer.... get any further this weekend ???? We're all pullin' for ya !!! I've an old buddy that wants me to drop a few small cedar later this spring. Maybe 18" at the biggest. However, they are all out in the wide open spaces of his back yard....nothing like your project. (...and not as big either).
Nope, I didn't do a thing other than stuff inside the house. Wind, rain, and a smidge of snow kept me grounded Saturday. Sunday is always quiet work outside or housework. The reason for quiet work is if I were to make a lot of noise with my chainsaws, it would disturb my neighbors for miles around due to one heck of an echo. Today I plan on cleaning up the branches I have on the ground and I am tempted even with 35mph wind gusts to get back up in the tree. If not I'm figuring Tuesday or Wednesday for just felling it and being done with it. More than likely Tuesday. (It was supposed to be Wednesday or Thursday but WeatherUnderground changed the wind direction) No matter how I look at it, it would end up in the road. As it is now, I would have to turn the tree 20 degrees from it's natural lean of 4 degrees which would put it diagonally across the road. If I were to remove another 15 to 20 feet of branches, then I would only have to turn the tree about 5 degrees, though a good sized section would still be in the road. Either way it would have to be cleaned up Post Haste. I am paying attention to the wind direction as well as speed and though WeatherUnderground shows one direction it is often a different one in it's entirety. NW could be SE for example. But the wind speeds are about right. I need the winds to be under 10mph out of the SW to be ideal. Out of the South could actually push the tree into the power lines. Out of the west would push the tree into my young Arborvitae (Western Cedar) As a side note, if the winds were out of the NW, it could send the tree onto my house! Even a two pound feather can be pushed wherever with a 10mph wind. Another reason for using the Open Faced face cut. I am leaning heavily towards felling it Tuesday providing the wind cooperates. Once it's up in the yard for processing, I may start on the other one. (the double stem)
I'll trade you jobs, you do mine and I'll do yours! Nah, I have to finish the job I started. It's the rules you know. Still though, some seemingly small easy projects can be deceiving and turn into large PITA's! Singing in my Anne Voice: Tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll fell it tomorrow ............. (Tuesday)
.....continuing in MY best Anne baritone: ...."its only a day awayyyyyy.....". WAIT A MINUTE....wasn't that Mary Poppins ????!!!!!
