# Last Big Tree



## rarefish383 (Nov 26, 2009)

I think this is the last big tree I'll climb. My knees are getting so bad it hurts to jab my hooks in and I can feel and hear my left knee separating when I pull the hook out. I wish I had some pics of 20 and 30 years ago, but I don't. I really wish I had some pics of my Dad in the 50's and 60's, especially when he used a 5/8 manilla rope for a skinning line, Joe.


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## tomtrees58 (Nov 26, 2009)

nice pics wears your hard hattom trees


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## fishercat (Nov 26, 2009)

*not everyone wears them.*



tomtrees58 said:


> nice pics wears your hard hattom trees



you might as well get over it.


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## rarefish383 (Nov 26, 2009)

Tom, hows that old song go, "Your right, I'm wrong, and she's gone". It's a good thing my climin days are over because I'm a bad influence. I preach safety to new guys, but it's one of those do as I say, not as I do things. When I started climbing we would free climb with our skinnin line hanging from one set of D rings and the safety line hanging from the other. We hardly ever used a flip line or safety till after we were tied in at the top. I've never used a saddle with leg straps, and I have had it slide off my butt and leave me hanging upside down by my knees. I'm deaf as a door nail from years of feeding that old Asplundh 16 drum chipper and running those old Homelites with gutted mufflers. I used to use a snap on my climbing line till I threw it through a crotch and it smacked me in the face. Then I started tieing my climbing line to my D rings with 2 half hitches and using a taughtline hitch to ascend and desend. Have no idea how a figure 8 works. I do switch ends of my climbing line every time I use it to cut down on wear on one end. I do have a hard hat , but it's a big round one that came from an old "Oil Well Rigger".

Now after all that you can say Joe don't know beans about safety. But, that's how it was 30 plus years ago. And we did stress safety. I think we worked safer than a lot of crews I see now a days because we new our limits. I'm 4th generation in the business and the whole time my Dad was in business we had 1 comp claim, and that guy directly disobeyed me. He was a fairly good climber. We had just taken a big limb off a Silver Maple over a house. We roped out the top, and he blocked down most of the lead. He stopped for a smoke while I cleaned up some trash under the tree. Next thing I new he had come down, pulled his rope out and coiled it up. Then he looked up and said darn I forgot to flush off that stub. I told him I'd get a ladder and he said no I can reach it. He reached up on his tip toes and the tip of the bar barely went through the block. When it came off the block sat right on top of the saw and pushed it down, running wide open, across his calf. Bad cut, my fault, I could have stopped him. I could have thrown him off the job, but I let him do something stupid. I learned a big lesson. I also caused our only comp claim ever. 

I'd like to work with you though. You pay attention and see what's going on around you. That's a very big part of being safe and very hard to teach, Joe.


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## logging22 (Nov 26, 2009)

Rarefish, is that a maple? Big a tree man, gotta be careful with one that big.


Les


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## rarefish383 (Nov 26, 2009)

Yes, it was a big old maple, lots of rot, a couple of big black snakes, and the big leed to the left was opening up about 10 inches in the wind. That's why I used the crain, I was leary about putting my 200 lbs on that side. A couple years ago one big leed broke off to the right, so it wasn't in good shape structurally. When my friend called a big storm was coming up from the Carolina's, we're in MD. The day I took it down was the first day of the year the temp hit 100 and I forgot my water jug. Thought I was gonna die. Since the house is down the road from my inlaws, my wife came down to take pix. She got me some water, but I cramped up bad later. I was tied into the tree behind the take down. I had already climbed that one, then I climbed the first leed. I had water squirting out of me. I looked up at the next section thinking man I don't feel like climbing that rascal. I looked over my shoulder and that big steel ball was hanging there. I snapped in and let him stick me in the top. I usually don't like to ride a crain up, but it was nice that day, Joe.


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## logging22 (Nov 26, 2009)

No doubt. Great climb and awsome pics. Keep up the good work.


Les


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## mattfr12 (Nov 28, 2009)

how old are you if you dont mind me asking. and did you have some prior injury causing your knee to act like this. or is it just from wear and tear?


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## rarefish383 (Nov 29, 2009)

53, just wear and tear. Never felt any one thing. Had it looked at a few years back and doctor said repetive use. Pushed too hard when I was young. When I was young and doing ground work I'd run with with small logs or blocks of wood on my shoulder. Had to lift the most and be the fastest. Thought my body was made of steel. Tried to live up to the way my Dad worked. At 79 he still had bi-ceps the size of grape fruits. He died of prostrate cancer at 81. 

When my Dad retired I let the business go and went to work at UPS, for the benifits and 8 weeks vacation. I kept my license and insurence, because I enjoyed climbing so much. I worked most every weekend and most of my vacations any way. I took that same mentality to UPS, had to do the most and be the fastest. All the running and jumping on steel and concrete is what really did the damage. I loved to climb to relax,and I guess that's not the best way to let your body rest and recover.

My Dad climbed into his 70's. My cousin is in the tree business too and one of his top climbers is 62, I think. I know he's over 60. Another one is 55 and prefers to throw a johny ball through a crotch and pull himself up 40 or 50 feet rather than get a ladder out. 

If longevity is your concern, you can do it, just take care of your body. You can walk with a sense of urgency, you don't need to run. Don't work every weekend, rest up. 

I essentially worked two jobs and made good money. With my UPS pension and savings from side work I'll have a real nice retirement, but I'm kinda beat up from it. I just went on a 10 day wilderness hiking/camping trip with my son. We hiked well over 80 miles at over 10,000 feet. I was the oldest adult on the trip and I was still the first adult to the top of 3 of the 4 mountains we climbed. It's just that the fun of climging is no longer worth the pain. If I still needed to climb to make a living I could do it, I'd just be slower. If I had taken better care of my body it probably wouldn't even be an issue. Take care and keep climbing, Joe.


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## KodiakKen (Dec 20, 2009)

*I am not a professional*

I am a telephone repairman. The first thing we do is go to pole climbing school..makes or breaks the pack..according to company standards..if you can gaff a pole 20' drive a j-hook and make it to the ground your good. well..in that school...before we ever strapped a gaff..the instructor took us to the parking lot..there is the curb..stand next to it..told us to step up and down on the curb until he told us not to. we all looked at each other like he was an old senile SOB..but we wanted the job..so we did it..he timed it..I think it was 30 seconds..ok turn..do the same thing(other foot)..we did it..ok if you can do that..you can climb a pole. my question is..as a phone guy not a tree guy...why can't you take smaller steps and preserve your body. I have watched countless guys climb and it seems to me that everyone takes 2 foot steps..btw..my pole climbing instructor was in his 70's and according to the guys at the school he climbed every morning regardless just to stay in practice..now how can you deny advice from a guy like that? I know knots and limbs and what not..but you can move around a tree just like a pole unless you are working on a crappy angle. I have been in a few trees..there is always an option..a lot more than on a slick telephone pole..just curious


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## Meadow Beaver (Dec 23, 2009)

rarefish383 said:


> 53, just wear and tear. Never felt any one thing. Had it looked at a few years back and doctor said repetive use. Pushed too hard when I was young. When I was young and doing ground work I'd run with with small logs or blocks of wood on my shoulder. Had to lift the most and be the fastest. Thought my body was made of steel. Tried to live up to the way my Dad worked. At 79 he still had bi-ceps the size of grape fruits. He died of prostrate cancer at 81.
> 
> When my Dad retired I let the business go and went to work at UPS, for the benifits and 8 weeks vacation. I kept my license and insurence, because I enjoyed climbing so much. I worked most every weekend and most of my vacations any way. I took that same mentality to UPS, had to do the most and be the fastest. All the running and jumping on steel and concrete is what really did the damage. I loved to climb to relax,and I guess that's not the best way to let your body rest and recover.
> 
> ...



That's like what my Grandpa Jim tells me when he tells me I shouldn't over lift. He's 73 now (still tough enough to kick anyones butt), he says " When I was young I thought I was 10ft tall and bulletproof". I think might be lol, he's had open heart surgery and still mows his 4 acre lawn with a push mower.


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## arboralliance (Dec 24, 2009)

rarefish383 said:


> 53, just wear and tear. Never felt any one thing. Had it looked at a few years back and doctor said repetive use. Pushed too hard when I was young. When I was young and doing ground work I'd run with with small logs or blocks of wood on my shoulder. Had to lift the most and be the fastest. Thought my body was made of steel. Tried to live up to the way my Dad worked. At 79 he still had bi-ceps the size of grape fruits. He died of prostrate cancer at 81.
> 
> When my Dad retired I let the business go and went to work at UPS, for the benifits and 8 weeks vacation. I kept my license and insurence, because I enjoyed climbing so much. I worked most every weekend and most of my vacations any way. I took that same mentality to UPS, had to do the most and be the fastest. All the running and jumping on steel and concrete is what really did the damage. I loved to climb to relax,and I guess that's not the best way to let your body rest and recover.
> 
> ...



Sweet words, sweeter logic... I hear a story popular with allot good young workers here...


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## rarefish383 (Jan 8, 2010)

Ken, sorry I haven't been following this thread for a while, so here's my take on climbing and size of steps. To start I always look to my Dad for the right way to do things tree related. He was so powerfull in the upper body and hands as he grabbed the back side of the tree he actually pulled a good portion of is body weight up with each step. I never had a lot of upper body strength. I didn't start climbing till my late teens and early twenties. I had monster thights. I guess from doing squats all day with that old Homelite 1050. That was my #1 ground saw. So, my body wasn't equally strong. When Dad "ran" up a tree his body worked as one, pulling and stepping as one. When I "ran" up a tree it was all with my legs and my hands and upper body were just there for balance. I don't think it was the size of the steps versus the fact that I had, wanted, to "run" up the tree. If I had an eighty or ninety foot stob topped out and I was coming down to throw the trunk, I didn't walk down. I "ran", 6 or 8 foot steps at a time. Sometime on a tall stob like that your feet would only hit the tree a few times. Incredable shock on the knees. We would come down so fast the knott in your climbing line would steam if you threw water on it. It was alot of fun, but not smart. If you walk up the tree or pole I don't think size of steps matter that much. Dad also worked on 70 ft spliced poles out west after the war and he ran up and down the poles the same way. He also worked high tension wires in Portage Lakes after the war before coming home to MD, Joe.


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