Guying the Tail Tree and a Bent Bar

[slowp]

Here's a couple of pictures of guying the tail tree. The blowdown is a Douglas-fir that the guys were joking about yarding up and milling it up for carport lumber.

Now, here's a story from last week. I arrived to hear a word being yelled over and over and over... The tirade went on for some time. I walked up the hill. The hooktender, faller, rigging crew was in his faller personna and after he got tired of the one word, was mumbling about sacrificing a 1200 dollar saw to save a 12 dollar tree. I followed him and he showed me where he'd hung up a tree, then while freeing it, the tree spun and came down, with his saw still in it.

He retrieved another saw and cut it out. It didn't look smashed or anything. The bar was bent.

His dad packed it out and declared it OK except for the bar. That night they hammered the bar out, and the saw is back in the lineup.

 

[056kid]

thats still a good bar, just needs alittle tlc..

 

[tramp bushler]

yup , some days you get the bear , and some days the bear gets you ..

 

[2dogs]

I know those guys know more about rigging than I will ever know, still I would not send them in the brush without a hard hat.

Is the blowdown rotten or outside the boundary? Why can't they take it? Bug log?

 

[Greystoke]

Here's a couple of pictures of guying the tail tree. The blowdown is a Douglas-fir that the guys were joking about yarding up and milling it up for carport lumber.

Now, here's a story from last week. I arrived to hear a word being yelled over and over and over... The tirade went on for some time. I walked up the hill. The hooktender, faller, rigging crew was in his faller personna and after he got tired of the one word, was mumbling about sacrificing a 1200 dollar saw to save a 12 dollar tree. I followed him and he showed me where he'd hung up a tree, then while freeing it, the tree spun and came down, with his saw still in it.

He retrieved another saw and cut it out. It didn't look smashed or anything. The bar was bent.

His dad packed it out and declared it OK except for the bar. That night they hammered the bar out, and the saw is back in the lineup.

Looks like he lucked out if his saw did not get smashed, as that bend was so close to the power-head!

 

[Humptulips]

I know those guys know more about rigging than I will ever know, still I would not send them in the brush without a hard hat.

The lack of a hard hat in that situation is not very much of a problem. They might have took them off on the spot. It is very painful to me however to see someone doing things the hard way. They got a lot to learn about guying a tail tree.

 

[slowp]

It is a pretty bare bones small time outfit. The guy without the hardhat is the owner. His two sons are helping out, one is usually working building houses.

Usually it is only two of them working.

 

[2dogs]

So is the chain come-along used to tighten the guy instead of a twister or is it just pulling something temporarily? I hope (in my limited experience) that it is not there the whole time even if the tail tree is wrapped.

 

[slowp]

They are using the come along as a come along to get the line kinda tight. Then they use some kind of fastener that I didn't get a look at. It takes a bolt to hold it together, I heard them talking about "hand me the bolt."
The come along comes off after the fastener is on.

 

[Humptulips]

Cable clamps is what they are using. They tighten the guyline with the come-a-long, around the tree with a couple wraps and cable clamps. You have to have wrench, strap, come-a-long and a riggin' chain.
Unless it is a really long guyline all you really need is gloves and strong arms. Even a long guyline like 200'+ I have put up with just the come-a-long and a chain. The clamps are just dead weight.

It is so much easier if the guyline stump is just that, a stump but then you would have to talk the FS person into letting you fall it.

 

[Mike Van]

:

It is a pretty bare bones small time outfit. The guy without the hardhat is the owner. His two sons are helping out, one is usually working building houses.

Usually it is only two of them working.

Tell that guy we'd take up a collection here to buy him a hardhat!

 

[slowp]

:

Tell that guy we'd take up a collection here to buy him a hardhat!

He's got one or two. He is known as a "h e l l of a faller" around these parts. He shouldn't be down off the landing. His second artificial hip is worn out and doesn't work right. But he's one of those guys who could show folks how to fall big trees, and has given me a few tips. He got hired to take down a large schoolmarm cracked old growth in a campground. When asked by the campground guy who is very detail oriented, how he was going to cut it down, he said, "I'm gonna cut er down. If she splits, I'm gonna run like h e l l." That was his detailed answer.

There really wasn't much to worry about above our heads, except for a couple of hung up trees and a hard hat wouldn't do much good if they came down on you.

One day I came out and he was helping his son get a stubborn tree on the ground, holding his coffee cup in one hand, and pounding the wedge with the other.

 

[slowp]

Here are a few twisters which are reinforcing the tail tree anchor. There just were no big trees or stumps to be had in this plantation. This is a big company, good sized crew, last Fall in a thinning. The picture is taken outside of the cutting unit. Quite often, the tail tree or stump will be outside the unit boundary. Then, if they cut it, it has to be left on the ground so no ground disturbance is done and all the slugs, snails, worms, etc. will be happy.

 

[huskyhank]

snipped........

When asked by the campground guy who is very detail oriented, how he was going to cut it down, he said, "I'm gonna cut er down. If she splits, I'm gonna run like h e l l." That was his detailed answer.

Love it!

 

[wvlogger]

were can i get one of those cahin pullers like in the first picture?