Falling pics 11/25/09

[Greystoke]

Nice vids Cody.

Sorry about the fish, wasn't trying to pry, just must have missed that message. Was just curious cause that was a new batch/recipe. Been killing trees with 4 hours of driving a day, much of it on foresaken roads, grinding chains, maintance, ect. then taking Lindsey out on the town when Mama is feeling good, and then we go killing salmon on the weekends. Sheesh, I'll sleep and get fat this winter. Too much to do while there is not 5 feet of snow on the ground.

Got new tin pants today. Awesome :rockn:

That's okay man. You can make it up to me by sending me some more! LOL! Your smoked salmon is Awesome! I don't miss the days of long drives and lots of saw work, but it was easier to bear if you were in juice wood...if not?...all the worse! Take care pard

 

[Hddnis]

These cottonwood were way rotten...just a rind holding them....The one in that vid was the worst. I Had to leave a lot of holding wood on the near side, cuz if i would have cut it up much more I think it would have snapped and gone across the power line and hit a church. Jacks are nice sometimes doing residential tree work, although as you can see, these trees don't present much of a challenge for them compared to a big redwood.

Great vids. I wonder if those jacks lay awake at night feeling they were made for something bigger and more glorious?



Mr. HE

 

[DangerTree]

@ Jesse...snow is never any fun for a timber faller...bout the only thing I ever liked about it was I worked harder so as to stay warm!

@ Slowp...That tree took about 3 hours to fall, and about the same to buck. And by all means, link the vid! I hope to get a report back like this:

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@ Steve...The first video was my tree so I was mostly runnin saw, with a little jackin, but on the second tree, just whatever to help. Not sure what redheads are??? We were cutting this timber for Pacific Lumber Company in 2002, and both of these trees were Residual old growth and they had been passed up by the lucky old boys who made the first cut, because they had the tops blown out. My tree was only 130 feet tall...but it had 33 bushel! (thousand bd. ft.)
Now that I do residential tree work I cut a lot of cottonwoods. I did this job last friday:

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These cottonwood were way rotten...just a rind holding them....The one in that vid was the worst. I Had to leave a lot of holding wood on the near side, cuz if i would have cut it up much more I think it would have snapped and gone across the power line and hit a church. Jacks are nice sometimes doing residential tree work, although as you can see, these trees don't present much of a challenge for them compared to a big redwood.

Did I say redheads I must have had a Fruedian slip I meant redwoods funny that eh! That cottonwood you were jackin' could you not have placed a bull rope in it and yanked er' down? Much faster than pumpin'. I have a job I will likely be doing here in the spring that has 8-10 of those all along the power lines and road edge. It will be a camp ground so I'm told. I figure most of them I should be able to fix a line and yank em' with my 5 ton into the clearing. Some of them I may have to prep because of passing issues with trees in the lay. They are big and very wide branches and too tall to reach with my HiRanger. Where do you hail from and are you a private or employed.

 

[Metals406]

Did I say redheads I must have had a Fruedian slip I meant redwoods funny that eh! That cottonwood you were jackin' could you not have placed a bull rope in it and yanked er' down? Much faster than pumpin'. I have a job I will likely be doing here in the spring that has 8-10 of those all along the power lines and road edge. It will be a camp ground so I'm told. I figure most of them I should be able to fix a line and yank em' with my 5 ton into the clearing. Some of them I may have to prep because of passing issues with trees in the lay. They are big and very wide branches and too tall to reach with my HiRanger. Where do you hail from and are you a private or employed.

Cody is in NW Montana, and has his own tree business. I'm gonna throw out a guess here, and say that he didn't rope these over because the leaders were full of rot. . . And a guy would then run the risk of bad stuff happening with a faced-up tree and a rope coming off (due to the tie-in point snapping off) as you were trying to get it over.

There was a fence and building within the trees drop zones -- so jackin'em was probably the best medicine.

 

[DangerTree]

You can tell all that from the video? Looks wide open to me even a bull rope tied to the fat part below his stance in the crotch should be more than fine to pull that twig over don't you think? That tree is no match for a 5 ton truck! The problem I could see is the ability to get a heel block in or position a truck for direct pull.
Not trying to be a dink here just looks like a big hole there for a smallish tree. The question is was that just a- let's use a jack on the cottonwood for fun video or what? I almost never jack trees that small. Not a penis thing, I just find jacking painfully slow and not all that safe on small trees because I have lifted and broken trees off the stump before no property damage I got lucky but I rig all questionable trees now. Maybe I should look again. Cheers

 

[Greystoke]

You can tell all that from the video? Looks wide open to me even a bull rope tied to the fat part below his stance in the crotch should be more than fine to pull that twig over don't you think? That tree is no match for a 5 ton truck! The problem I could see is the ability to get a heel block in or position a truck for direct pull.
Not trying to be a dink here just looks like a big hole there for a smallish tree. The question is was that just a- let's use a jack on the cottonwood for fun video or what? I almost never jack trees that small. Not a penis thing, I just find jacking painfully slow and not all that safe on small trees because I have lifted and broken trees off the stump before no property damage I got lucky but I rig all questionable trees now. Maybe I should look again. Cheers

Most times I do rig and pull, but for one it was faster for me to saw a jack seat than it was to drag out a bull line and rig it in the tree, and usually when I pull a tree over, I rig to another tree, or a big piece of equipment, and since all I had to rig to that day was my little Toyota, it was a no-brainer. One reason it took so long Is because I topped these trees so they were just stobs, and I left a lot of holding wood because they had way rotten cores. Pretty easy for me to slap a jack seat and go that route. You do jack trees sometimes? Do you use Silvey Tree Jacks? If so, which ones?

 

[Greystoke]

Great vids. I wonder if those jacks lay awake at night feeling they were made for something bigger and more glorious?



Mr. HE

I know I sure do!

 

[DangerTree]

Cody is in NW Montana, and has his own tree business. I'm gonna throw out a guess here, and say that he didn't rope these over because the leaders were full of rot. . . And a guy would then run the risk of bad stuff happening with a faced-up tree and a rope coming off (due to the tie-in point snapping off) as you were trying to get it over.

There was a fence and building within the trees drop zones -- so jackin'em was probably the best medicine.

I was right he was jacking the butt not the whole tree, so the piece he jacked off could have been rigged and pulled in way less time with more security. That being said jacking is easy work and no denying he got the job done. But it wasn't necessary unless he could not rig for the reasons previously stated.

 

[DangerTree]

I do jack some trees. I use a Tree saver Silvey Tree jack I find most of my jobs have large iron around or my HiRanger and the jack is not used often. In truth most times I use the jack in residential work I find I still back up with Bull rope. Call me a woosie or whatever, even though my name is Danger ( Stephen ) I prefer the safest route possible for the buck. The jack got lot's of use shake logging old growth cedar back when salvage was king and shake was legal in the states. Biggest market was Cali but I was told that insurance co. would not cover homes with shakes even with fire retardant on em' anyways that kinda killed the shake logging. So the jack only sees the light of day when all else fails. Oh when we were shaking we had special non slip plates we welded blobs of metal on one face and a cup on the other and we used bottle jacks not Silveys. Bottle jacks sometimes two or three at a time. They would slowly leak out and we would slip shims in as we pumped! NO kidding.

 

[Greystoke]

I was right he was jacking the butt not the whole tree, so the piece he jacked off could have been rigged and pulled in way less time with more security.

You mean "jacked over". Read my post...I guarantee I had those trees down in less time than it would have taken to drag out a bull line and rig and pull them, and it was very secure, which I made it so by taking the tops out first.

That being said jacking is easy work and no denying he got the job done. But it wasn't necessary unless he could not rig for the reasons previously stated.

Jacking trees is not easy work...it gets easier when one acquires the skill-set needed to do it proficiently. Also, it depends on the setting...most of the tree jacking that I have done was on a logging side working on rugged helicopter ground and there is nothing easy about spring boarding big trees on steep ground so you can get a jack seat in them all the while packing around a 70 lb. set of jacks...so yes, this setting was much easier for me.

 

[DangerTree]

I won't take anything from you Cody you obviously know your sh.t I was simply trying to make an observation not test the skill you definitely have. I am sure we would make an unstoppable team what you did was right for sure. And yes it is a toss up sometimes which is less work the heavy jack vs. the heavy rope. And steep and deep is mostly cruel work to be sure. It is good that you post video as it shows what can be done .
good work and thanks.
By the way where in Montana are you from?

 

[Metals406]

I was right he was jacking the butt not the whole tree, so the piece he jacked off could have been rigged and pulled in way less time with more security. That being said jacking is easy work and no denying he got the job done. But it wasn't necessary unless he could not rig for the reasons previously stated.

Like I said, That 'could have been' a reason. . . And no, I didn't tell all that from a video. Cody is a friend, and we talked about that job, as we talk about a lot of his jobs.

And the point that I was trying to make, was that the leaders were sketchy -- so he went in and cut them out -- leaving a spar. . . And why he didn't tie off to a rotten limb or leader. The boles themselves were full of rot as well.

I agree with Cody in that jacking was plenty fast. . . The ground was covered with debris, there may have been other obstacles for his truck as well. . . And it's just a little truck, not a 5-ton anything.

I'm a big fan of tagging a tree with a line for safety and speed, but I'm also a fan of jackin' a tree in certain situations.

How long did it take Cody to cut in a seat, set the jacks and go to cutting? I guarantee by the time he set a line, snatched the rope (or single lined to the truck), and got everything set, the trees would have already been down.

All a guy has to do is watch the time counter in the videos to see how long it took. . . Minutes, not hours or days.

And on a bid job, a guy gets to move as fast as he wants anyway. . . If he got $300 a tree, and wanted to take 4 hrs. each, that's his prerogative. Piece work lets a guy set his own hourly pay rate.

 

[Greystoke]

I won't take anything from you Cody you obviously know your sh.t I was simply trying to make an observation not test the skill you definitely have. I am sure we would make an unstoppable team what you did was right for sure. And yes it is a toss up sometimes which is less work the heavy jack vs. the heavy rope. And steep and deep is mostly cruel work to be sure. It is good that you post video as it shows what can be done .
good work and thanks.
By the way where in Montana are you from?

No big deal pard I currently live in Missoula, with plans to move back down to the Bitterroot Valley, bout 50 miles South, which is where I grew up.

 

[DangerTree]

I have always wanted to take a trip down there I here it's very nice. It must resemble southern Alberta a bit yes. And it seems you have a good defender a good friend.

 

[SWE#Kipp]

Dangertree what is shake logging ??

 

[Metals406]

I have always wanted to take a trip down there I here it's very nice. It must resemble southern Alberta a bit yes. And it seems you have a good defender a good friend.

It's all good bro. . . I wasn't trying to defend Cody or myself, just saying where I was coming from.

1,000,000,000 ways to skin a cat.

 

[DangerTree]

Dangertree what is shake logging ??

Shakes are like shingles made for roofs. The shakes are different from shingles as they are free of defects like knots and warp etc. Shakes are split from Bolts or blocks cut 24" long with all rot and knots axed from them on the hill side. The cedar trees selected are normally as large as can be found in dense steep north facing devils club infested mosquito breeding grounds that the planet has to offer. The bark and rotten guts are hacked out and piled against the hillside as to make a level platform. A sling long enough for 1/3 of a cord is laid down and the Bolts are piled (carefully) there upon it. When roughly 120 slings are on the hillside we call in the heli and chase slings as fast as you can trying not forget where they all are. When the heli lifts the pile you must take a stick or axe handle and beat the sling tight as the pile will likely have to be dragged up through dense canopy. When the sling is not tight you get rained on by 20 kilo Bolts and hugging the closest tree you can find is all you got! Very dangerous work. The Bolts are they flown to a landing ,piled on a large truck and shipped to a factory where they are hand or machine split into shingles. Long winded but there you have it.

 

[SWE#Kipp]

Shakes are like shingles made for roofs. The shakes are different from shingles as they are free of defects like knots and warp etc. Shakes are split from Bolts or blocks cut 24" long with all rot and knots axed from them on the hill side. The cedar trees selected are normally as large as can be found in dense steep north facing devils club infested mosquito breeding grounds that the planet has to offer. The bark and rotten guts are hacked out and piled against the hillside as to make a level platform. A sling long enough for 1/3 of a cord is laid down and the Bolts are piled (carefully) there upon it. When roughly 120 slings are on the hillside we call in the heli and chase slings as fast as you can trying not forget where they all are. When the heli lifts the pile you must take a stick or axe handle and beat the sling tight as the pile will likely have to be dragged up through dense canopy. When the sling is not tight you get rained on by 20 kilo Bolts and hugging the closest tree you can find is all you got! Very dangerous work. The Bolts are they flown to a landing ,piled on a large truck and shipped to a factory where they are hand or machine split into shingles. Long winded but there you have it.

Thank you very much for the good explanation

 

[DangerTree]

Thank you very much for the good explanation

No problem Swedes make the best saws so thanks for that.

 

[forestryworks]

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