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[Rabid K9]

First day of a fun little two day job, plenty of pruning, few removals.

Things have definitely calmed down economy wise, twelve consecutive interest rate rises don’t help, so extra happy to have jobs like this.

 

[Haplo]

Smokey day today. I don't know what's worse, breathing the smoke or wearing the respirator. I could only wear it for an hour. I hear the smoke is worse up north

 

[tree MDS]

Turns into a jungle there during the green season.

You’re right, it does get rather jungle like! The natives come out to low bid as well! Lol

 

[mikewhite85]

Smoke disappeared in wellsboro pa. Was very bad yesterday. This is my current jungle

 

[mikewhite85]

First day of a fun little two day job, plenty of pruning, few removals.

Things have definitely calmed down economy wise, twelve consecutive interest rate rises don’t help, so extra happy to have jobs like this.

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Yikes. What are interest rates at now? Bad time to start financing equipment.

What kind of eucs are those?

 

[Rabid K9]

Smoke disappeared in wellsboro pa. Was very bad yesterday. This is my current jungle
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Are you recording or performing Mike?

Man (or maybe a woman) of many talents.

 

[Rabid K9]

Yikes. What are interest rates at now? Bad time to start financing equipment.

What kind of eucs are those?

Sneaking up towards 8% now for home loan rates. Of course rates for money in the bank is half that.

Certainly not a good time to be financing big ticket items. Am fortunate to have a modest, manageable mortgage, but for someone with an average mortgage of around $500,000 (which is entry level) in Australia at present, they are looking at close to $2,000 extra in just interest repayments a month. So the flow on affect is people are simply holding off on spending to save money to give to the f#*cking banks each month.

We had a advertising slogan years back - "Banks. Theiir all bastards...."

Mix of species there, all young (<25 years).

Frame 1: Agonis flexuosa - West Australian peppermint.
Frame 2: Self in Eucalyptus fraxinus - White ash, climber 2 in Eucalyptus bicostata - Victorian blue gum.
Frame 3: Eucalypts all sorts, mix of six different species (won't for with them all).
Frame 4: Eucalyptus grandis - Rose gum.

 

[Rabid K9]

Day 2. Got a new guy on crew. American parents, born in New Guinea, interesting chap. Keen to learn, has some good saw & equipment knowledge, struggling a little with the pace & duration of treework.

 

[mikewhite85]

Day 2. Got a new guy on crew. American parents, born in New Guinea, interesting chap. Keen to learn, has some good saw & equipment knowledge, struggling a little with the pace & duration of treework.

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Church band practicing for Sunday. I'll bet the American from New Guinea is a missionary's kid and will hopefully turn out to be a good worker!

I'd say the interest rates and housing market are comparable here. I'd like to buy a lot and building for my equipment but my landlord wants 700k. I think I'll continue paying the 400 per month to park our trucks.

Hopefully the houses in Tasmania are more affordable for you.

 

[tree MDS]

Day 2. Got a new guy on crew. American parents, born in New Guinea, interesting chap. Keen to learn, has some good saw & equipment knowledge, struggling a little with the pace & duration of treework.

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That hair looks like it’s coming in pretty heavy again on the arms, Beverly, might wanna tend to that!!

Other than that, nice pics as always!!

 

[Rabid K9]

Recent chipper whoopsie somewhere up
in the big smoke.

 

[tree MDS]

How do you think that happened? I mean obviously speed was a factor, but still hard to wrap my mind around exactly how.

 

[Tetanus]

How do you think that happened? I mean obviously speed was a factor, but still hard to wrap my mind around exactly how.

Numbnut driver hit the kerb in reverse at pace is my guess. Black mark on the concrete kerb next to the tire, tire is off the rim.
On second glance that, must be the spare wheel resting on the ground.

 

[ZinTrees]

driver forgot the parking brake is my guess, rolled backwards till it hit something (curb) and flipped the chipper

 

[Rabid K9]

How do you think that happened? I mean obviously speed was a factor, but still hard to wrap my mind around exactly how.

My first thought was speed, but now I think it was also an accident in reverse.

Have seen similar things happen. Perth hills area, steep driveways, area has seen a lot of rain in last ten days, bitumen is super slippery with all the oils & build up of dry months. See the rock chocking front wheel & recovery winch line going up hill.

Probably tried to get up a steep driveway, failed, stalled lost gear & chipper dragged the truck backwards until it jackknifed & flipped itself on curb. Even with airbrakes on, once the trailer gets the truck moving it just keeps sliding. Part of the reason I prefer large trucks, this is a 7 tonne, what I would consider smaller, but most operators are only using 3-5 tonne trucks for that size chipper (15-18 inch). A 6x4 truck give you 10 wheels on the ground, as opposed to 6 & 9 or 10 tonne dry weight of truck to hold down a 4-5 tonne chipper.

Spent a lot of years working in very steep terrain with lots of cliffs with heavy equipment & was always super careful with these type of scenarios. In Tasmania, it is mandatory to chock all vehicles on worksites after a fatality involving chippers rolling away.

A good reminder this photo.

 

[tree MDS]

Nobody is perfect or immune to these things. I jackknifed my lift trailer a couple years ago backing into my own yard after a long morning of moving equipment and driving different trucks. I simply got talking with the kid I was with, my mind moving too fast and forgot the damn thing was even on there in that moment. Thankfully my buddy yelled just as it started to hit (I had been looking at the other side) and I slammed on the brakes. Only busted the breakaway battery box.

Like my mechanic says, things happen, but you try and keep it to a minimum. There’s a lot on our minds out there.

 

[Rabid K9]

Nobody is perfect or immune to these things. I jackknifed my lift trailer a couple years ago backing into my own yard after a long morning of moving equipment and driving different trucks. I simply got talking with the kid I was with, my mind moving too fast and forgot the damn thing was even on there in that moment. Thankfully my buddy yelled just as it started to hit (I had been looking at the other side) and I slammed on the brakes. Only busted the breakaway battery box.

Like my mechanic says, things happen, but you try and keep it to a minimum. There’s a lot on our minds out there.

** Of course Zin is. The Shine gives him superpowers.

I jacknifed my tipper trailer after a long day, dark, raining, talking on phone. Kinked one side of the drawbar.

Just last night, delivering a load of wood. Backing into carport, dark, raining (common theme here), mirrors with water on them. Was a lot of cars at the house, lost sight of one corner of the trailer, new a car must be close. Stopped & got out for a look. Back corner of trailer was 0.5mm away from pushing in the door of a bloody hatchback. Was both horrified & relieved I’d stopped. Actually mostly horrified, as it was so close I thought had to have hit the car.

 

[tree MDS]

Smoke disappeared in wellsboro pa. Was very bad yesterday. This is my current jungle
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Hey, Max, why don’t you step up your game a little now that you got all those cdl’s and invest in something like this bad boy with some real capacity!!?? You could be like a lumber Barron!!! Hahaha.

 

[mikewhite85]

Hey, Max, why don’t you step up your game a little now that you got all those cdl’s and invest in something like this bad boy with some real capacity!!?? You could be like a lumber Barron!!! Hahaha.
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Hey there's a deal!

I listed the busted one for 14k. I'm overwhelmed with Facebook messages. No one has come to check it out yet though.

I'm still toying with the tracked chipper idea once max max is gone.

I don't know about you guys but my lead volume has really slowed down in the last 2 weeks. I imagine people are more thinking about school ending and vacations. We are booked well into July so I am grateful for that. Nice 2 day job at an elementary school starting tomorrow. I imagine call volume will pick up in a couple weeks

 

[capetrees]

Hey there's a deal!

I listed the busted one for 14k. I'm overwhelmed with Facebook messages. No one has come to check it out yet though.

I'm still toying with the tracked chipper idea once max max is gone.

I don't know about you guys but my lead volume has really slowed down in the last 2 weeks. I imagine people are more thinking about school ending and vacations. We are booked well into July so I am grateful for that. Nice 2 day job at an elementary school starting tomorrow. I imagine call volume will pick up in a couple weeks

How is lead volume compared to pre covid? We have a bit of a slow down but not a bad thing. We realized a lot of people were home during covid, saw things around the home that needed to be done and we worked like mad dogs for those two years and we also had a very mild winter last winter so a lot of work was done then too. no weather related slow downs. It's currently steady but not overwhelming.