# West Virginia Sycamore



## littlejoetqt (Jul 12, 2011)

My boss decided to take a video of me cutting a nice sycamore at work yesterday, so I bluetoothed it to my laptop and stuck it on youtube. Comments, criticism etc. welcome. BTW, we had a problem with finding old barbed wire in trees, so my saw's cutting less than optimally.


YouTube - ‪Cutting a stud Sycamore Tree‬&rlm;


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## murphy4trees (Jul 12, 2011)

Nice bit o cuttin there... Pretty much sop in logging country.. wonder how many suburban arbs have a clue?


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## ch woodchuck (Jul 12, 2011)

Good job!Plenty of room...That's a good looking stick.Got a plan for it?..And that's beautiful to boot...


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## littlejoetqt (Jul 12, 2011)

Unfortunately, I don't have any plans for that tree. We do a lot of work of various sorts. We've got climbers, timber fellers and brush cutters of various skill levels. I like to think of myself as a brushcutter. I've never climbed, and I've cut trees for a little while now, but most of the good ones are dead. Most of what our outfit does involves building right-of-ways, land clearing, etc. We do some power line maintenance for coal companies, too. I'm not particularly proud of it, but that's life. That sycamore will spend the rest of it's life rotting into the ground where it sits. They will hang a high-line that will power a ventilation fan for an underground coal mine at the other end.

I don't usually mind it, but when I run across nice trees like this, it bothers me. I've cut some of the prettiest, straightest poplars, maples, black cherries and oaks I've ever seen working out here...only to watch the landowner pay somebody else to burn them on-site. I cut a couple tank's worth of Poplar that would have made absolutely beautiful logs in about 5 more years, but they won't now. Some of our jobs make use of the trees we cut, but most do not. They only want coal.

Don't misunderstand me, though. Some of our customers log the land before we get in there. That's usually a very bad sight for us. The loggers know the land is going to be cleared and mined, so they usually take no care in what they leave behind. 2 or 3 years for briars and brush to grow, and then we come in. Those jobs make you wish you were somewhere else.

I'm a little ashamed to admit the wasteful means in which I make a living, but I'm not going to lie. I'd love to transition to logging, and I'd even more like to learn to climb, but nobody around here is going to pay me $700 a week post-tax to do it. I don't blame them, either. I'd be starting over at the bottom of a pay scale I worked pretty hard to get up, and I can't afford it today.

No flames, please.


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## ch woodchuck (Jul 13, 2011)

Ya Gotta pay the rent..been there...What I meant to say was that looks like beautiful country.


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## RenaisSAWnceMan (Jul 22, 2011)

A fair portion of the greater infrastructure still runs on coal and, thus, as long as it's a needed quantity, you should feel that you are simply performing a necessary service to ensure that energy is produced, etc. More than a few folk would say a big THANK YOU today, as they run the A/C, etc......



I like the way you left that little multi-point fiber spire right at the center..... You DID leave that on purpose, correct....??.....


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## littlejoetqt (Jul 24, 2011)

I left it so my boss would have a place to sit afterward .


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## RenaisSAWnceMan (Jul 24, 2011)

littlejoetqt said:


> I left it so my boss would have a place to sit afterward .


 
Then....it probably shoulda been longer....:msp_sneaky:


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## Texas Traveler (Aug 2, 2011)

I have two huge Sycamores in my front yard here in Dallas, I worry about a lot on account of our shallow soil.
But they have withstood some pretty strong winds so far.


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## BlackOakTreeServ (Aug 3, 2011)

Looks like your only running a 18" or 20" bar on that stihl....nice job by the way!!


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