oldirty
Addicted to ArboristSite
sunday night we ran an overnight gig on the highway. stone dead white pine on the side of the offramp which was closed off just for us.
glow sticks all over. couple on the ball, some on the boom tip, and 2 hanging off my saddle. headlamp too.
hauled 150 yd of chip and a log truck full of butts.
now let me tell you this. working with brittle dead pine is hard enough. in the dark its down right hairy. getting put into the tree sucks because the line gets caught up in the upper branches and then they snap from the weight flinging you into more dead wood and the stem itself and now its raining dead wood. i valiantly fought off a few but did manage to take a branch to the face. just a scrape. lol.
the first few are one pickers but even they suck because i am down in the hole in the darkness surrounded by thick under brush trying to make a butt cut and not get smothered by falling debris as the tree moves after the cut. talk about just dropping the saw and running down the path i just made.
then came the monster in the shadows. she was just waiting for us. nightmare tree. every bit of a 100ft and twisted as mother####er. we are talking corkscrew here. stove pipe thick the whole way. first pick came off at 3800 pounds of top. i made that cut and as she came off my last words were "oh God" as the top sat into the boom, my saw came out the cut and i rappelled out that tree in free fall and hit the ground running for my life as a couple limbs shook out. i dont even want to tell you how far away she was either. took that thing down in 5 picks. this tree did indeed steal some sleep from me when i went to bed that morning.
the rest of the work that night came much "easier" after we put that dog to rest but still doing treework in the dark is that much more crazy, thats for sure. felt like a friday night football game. intense action in a cool fall evening. banged out the work with our A game and called it a night....right before the sun started to do its thing.
overall experience you ask? sick. ####ing sick. cant wait to do it again.
glow sticks all over. couple on the ball, some on the boom tip, and 2 hanging off my saddle. headlamp too.
hauled 150 yd of chip and a log truck full of butts.
now let me tell you this. working with brittle dead pine is hard enough. in the dark its down right hairy. getting put into the tree sucks because the line gets caught up in the upper branches and then they snap from the weight flinging you into more dead wood and the stem itself and now its raining dead wood. i valiantly fought off a few but did manage to take a branch to the face. just a scrape. lol.
the first few are one pickers but even they suck because i am down in the hole in the darkness surrounded by thick under brush trying to make a butt cut and not get smothered by falling debris as the tree moves after the cut. talk about just dropping the saw and running down the path i just made.
then came the monster in the shadows. she was just waiting for us. nightmare tree. every bit of a 100ft and twisted as mother####er. we are talking corkscrew here. stove pipe thick the whole way. first pick came off at 3800 pounds of top. i made that cut and as she came off my last words were "oh God" as the top sat into the boom, my saw came out the cut and i rappelled out that tree in free fall and hit the ground running for my life as a couple limbs shook out. i dont even want to tell you how far away she was either. took that thing down in 5 picks. this tree did indeed steal some sleep from me when i went to bed that morning.
the rest of the work that night came much "easier" after we put that dog to rest but still doing treework in the dark is that much more crazy, thats for sure. felt like a friday night football game. intense action in a cool fall evening. banged out the work with our A game and called it a night....right before the sun started to do its thing.
overall experience you ask? sick. ####ing sick. cant wait to do it again.
