Diary of a Rookie Tree Climber

[Chucky]

The other day, while dusting off some old books I’d packed away in a closet, I came across my old daily diary of my first season as an arborist, in 1991. I had just graduated from a two-year program in Urban Tree Management at a College in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State, and it was now time to put my book knowledge and newly learned climbing experience to work in the real world as a production arborist for a large tree company in New Hampshire for the summer, between semesters. I’d kept a daily diary in which I’d documented the work we did each day, along with my thoughts as to what I felt about the day’s work we’d just performed.

I thought it’d be fun to post daily verbatim accounts of my diary both to illuminate budding arborists as to what they might expect should they pursue this lofty profession, and also perhaps to give the experienced arborists here a chuckle. So here goes….

 

[Chucky]

May 18

Brian, from Tupper Lake, and I arrived in Laconia, NH, in mid May to scope out cheap, leaseless apartments. Our criteria was low, and we quickly found one that was just fumigated for roaches, and near the downtown action, so in we moved. Brian got hired at the Wolfboro office, and me the Meredith office, so we settled on Laconia, which is sort of in-between the two. Laconia has a very high unemployment rate at this time, so the townsfolk, I’ve noticed already, are a bit resentful of a couple of brash New Yorkers moving in and taking their jobs (though, believe me, few of them would have wanted what we were about to get ourselves into).

The Meredith office has got to be the tiniest office the company has in the country. There is the foreman, Leo – a true zodiacal “Leo” with all the trimmings (he’s actually a nice guy, though); there’s Giles, a tough, sinewy French-Canadian grandfather from north of Montreal (whose ancestors were Voyagers!), who could work all day without so much as breaking a sweat, and there was me – that’s it! Oh, and of course, there’s the salesman.

Today, my first day, we did a pruning job. I can’t call it textbook arboricultural pruning technique. Better, we hacked off the tops of a row of White Pine trees so tourists, sitting on their motel room stoops, could get a better view of the lake. It’s called vista pruning! The motel owner seemed quite content with the finished product, and I guess that’s what counts.

Most of the work was done by Leo in a bucket on a dangerous curve in the road between primary and secondary power lines. Leo seemed quite intrepid in this hazardous work, and he later told me they seldom work so close to power lines.

My duties were some pruning with a pole saw, but mostly picking up brush, raking, and chipping. We put in 10 hard hours to get the job done.

P.S. Interestingly, the safety guy stopped by the site and remarked on how well we had safety coned the job on the dangerous curve compared with a tree company up the road he’d spotted with no safety cones. Not a word by him, though, about Leo in the bucket weaving and ducking below the primary lines.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Cool. Le'see whar this goes.

 

[Chucky]

May 19

Today was a marked improvement over yesterday. Giles and I were assigned a pruning job. Nice, big, huge Northern Red Oaks (Leo was off by himself spraying Dimilin for Gypsy Moth). First we pruned a couple European Mountainashes, then Giles turned me loose in the boom to prune the giant Oaks. Cool! I was a bit unnerved at first, but by the end of the day I was sure that I was the Rick Mears of boom bucket maneuvering.

Aside from the bucket work, we used pole pruners and chain saws and pruned trees like they are supposed to be pruned. We finished ahead of schedule. Good day, 'twas.

 

[chipper]

Would that be Paul Smith's college by any chance??
-signed, an adirondack fanatic-

 

[Chucky]

Thanks, Butch, and how'd ya guess, CHIPPER?!

May 20

More pruning good-sized Oaks today. Starter motor broke off one of the trucks and we tore the bumper off a truck trying to tow it. We also lost a hammer and broke a pole saw. We also pruned some Canadian Hemlocks, cut back a big, over-mature Lilac, and pruned a large Apple tree that the owner I swear was wedded to. He almost cried when I took off a big branch. I think he grew up with that old Apple. And we took down a Maple one foot from a house – no fancy rigging – just chunked it down.

P.S. The salesman thought the hemlocks were firs!

 

[chipper]

Oh, let's just say that I know a thing or two about that area and I was very close to attending that school myself!

 

[bgadway]

i live only 20 miles from there

 

[chipper]

beautiful country up there.

 

[Chucky]

May 21, 1991

Took down a large Beech today – one hour with the bucket truck. I pruned a Maple tree away from utility lines in the bucket. Giles wanted me to just lop off the branches away from the lines. If I had my way I would have cut the branches back to origin, or to a lateral that can sustain the branch. On another job, the bucket sprang a hydraulic leak! Luckily Giles had his rope in the bucket with him. We were deadwooding a huge Maple (5-foot dbh).

An 11 ½ hour hard, physical day! I’m almost looking forward to spraying. I consider myself in very good physical condition, but I had no idea how physically demanding tree work really is – and much of it is from inside a bucket!

 

[Chucky]

May 22, 1991

My boss (the salesman) apologized to me this morning for exposing me to primary lines yesterday with such little experience in the bucket. I didn’t complain at all to him about working close to energized lines, so I’m not sure why he was apologizing. Maybe Giles said something to him about it. Giles is funny in that he feigns a detached and unconcerned manner, but I can see out of the corner of my eye that he is watching me all the time to make sure I’m not teetering on killing myself with something. I came within a foot of the primary lines with the boom, and although the distal part of the boom is fiberglass, thus insulated (the weather was dry), my understanding is the electricity can potentially “blow out” the workings of the proximal part of the boom. I’d taken the Electrical Hazards Awareness Program (EHAP), but I was not a Qualified Line Clearance Tree Trimmer, so I guess that was a concern.

Today, Gil (he doesn’t like “Giles”) and I dead-wooded a large, spreading Red Oak over a motel. The boom didn’t reach the tree, so all pruning was done with the rope climbing technique. Gil did all the climbing. Gil weighs about 135 lbs, and boy did I get a climbing lesson today! I learned a lot about mobility in a spreading crown using both ends of the life line and a 15 foot length of rope as a supplementary lanyard – and sure seems quite handy! We did a lot of lowering of large dead limbs with lowering lines. Though most of Gil’s techniques were not new to me (Randall [Swanson] and Harry [Pearsall] had covered them to some extent at Paul Smith's College), having real hazards around, and actually doing the real thing, makes one really learn and absorb certain techniques and tricks of the trade.

47 Hrs this week. Week #1.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Thanks Chucky, I'm really enjoying this.

 

[ozy365]

Excellent thread. I would like a little fast forward as to how business is going in Syracuse today. I live about 45 mins south and work in the Salt City all day at my "day job". Keep coming with the entries, but a quick trip to the present would be of interest to me. :blob6:

 

[Chucky]

Thanks, Maashorn!

Bgadway, had a couple in my class go with Asplundh. And one who went with Tamarack, out of Canton, who contracted a lot of line clearance (not sure what they're up to now). My hat's off to you folks. Heard stories at the tavern of triple pole saw extension pruning row clearance up in the South Woods, Joe Indian way, beyond Parishville. I couldn't imagine doing that kind of work. Those boys have got shoulders wide as a stick of pulpwood. Awesome people.

 

[Chucky]

May 25, 1991

Day off – Memorial Day.


Man, I try to think I'm tough. Then I think of our fallen heroes.

 

[Chucky]

May 26, 1991

Spraying season for Gypsy Moth has begun – actually started about a week ago. Growing Degree Days are behind schedule. Larvae average about 1 cm long.

We spent the whole day today fixing the spray truck and repairing numerous hose leaks in the spraying apparatus. Only got to spray one customer. The safety guy and whoa! the president of the company were at the Meredith office today! I never got a chance to meet him, and I think Gil intentionally arranged for me not to get near the big cheese, as I have a tendency to run my mouth about things the king cheese doesn’t want to hear.

I told Gil that is nonsense, but he doesn’t believe me. Of course, Gil is right, as usual, and it’s just a blessing that Leo isn’t around when the king tree chopper is present.

Or the whole office'd be on the chopping block...

 

[guff]

hey chucky....you a paul smith's man?.....those were my stomping grounds growing up.....grew up in massena........bet you had breakfast at the red barn inn a time or two.................guff

 

[Chucky]

Well guff, not there, but I can tell you I've had plenty of breakfasts at Ma's Diner. I think you must remember that. On route 420 just south of Massena Springs. I remember Ma well. What a sweatheart. I used to live in Massena, BTW.

 

[guff]

yep....remember ma well...out in the kitchen with her walker pouring my dad's coffee with her thumb over the middle so she wouldn't over fill it.....then there was morning after breakfast from tom donnelly's...the whole crowd was there..orval, okie....the man with the gimp arm who played fiddle like it was a part of him....i recognize many people from your website and have been to all of those bars..dated a gal who tended bar at the cedar for quite a while...i know big willy well and his nancy cut my hair for years...you probably knew my cousin pat from winthrop with his rock and roll hair and his camel brown vet...just one of the donnelly clan................guff

 

[Chucky]

May 27, 1991

Sprayed Dimilin ® (Diflubenzuron), a relatively non-toxic (LD-50 about 4600) chitin synthesis inhibitor, aka a growth regulator to nine properties today. We used about 1000 gallons of material. The spray truck has air brakes, requiring the driver to have a Class B driver’s license, which Gil doesn’t have yet, so I drive the spray truck, owing to my possession of a Class A license. I mostly drag hose, while Gil sprays, but sometimes I spray too. I also do all the mixing of the materials, as the bigger boss (the salesman) wants me to because I seem to have a better aptitude for chemical formulations (and maybe also because I have my certification in Ornamentals and Turf).

The southern New Hampshire landscape is strikingly different from the Central New York landscape, though they’re only about 250 miles apart and roughly at the same latitude. I’m sure this is due to New Hampshire’s sandy, acidic soils borne from the underlying granite bedrock, as opposed to the silty-clayey, alkaline soils wrought from a calcareous limestone bedrock in Central New York. While the dominant forest type in Central New York is Oak-Ash-Hickory, New Hampshire is dominated by Red Oak, Rhododendron and Azalea, and White Pine – especially White Pine. But it’s the Red (and White) Oaks that will be the objects of our attention the next few weeks as they are currently under massive assault by a Gypsy Moth outbreak.

Now is the right time to spray Dimilin, as Gypsy Moths are in the early instar stages of development where they are most vulnerable to the chitin synthesis action of a growth regulating pesticide like Dimilim. In less than a month the moth will be in the 5th and 6th instar stages just before pupation, and the growth-regulating action of Dimilin will be much diminished. Now is also the best time to spray BT, and BT is also not recommended for use on Gypsy Moth control beyond the 3rd instar stage of development.