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[Tetanus]

What a timely post, I just ruptured my bicep tendon a few weeks back, surgery on Monday.

I feel for you mate, that sucks. I snapped mine last year, bloody awful trying to get by with one arm, very dependant on other people all of a sudden (I was shocked at how bad a driver my wife is, I had to stare out the side window when getting ferried around, too frightening looking straight ahead). The good news is it's only temporary, just a bad memory now. One of the few times i was glad to be running a business, that gave me a bit of structure to my day as I still needed to get out of bed early to send the boys off to work, then get all the admin done (never had I been so organised!). Anyway, good luck for the recovery, hope the healing goes well.

 

[user 188535]

Anyone else's body starting to fall apart?

I'm not sure, but this thing gets my back aching every time I use it for longer than 20 minutes straight.

 

[pdqdl]

That is your "young & tender" acting up. After a while, you'll get plenty of "tough as nails" and you won't notice 20 minutes with a sawzall.

Somewhere after 50 years, you will begin discovering that you are building up a nice deposit of "old & tired", and then you can tell us all about it.

Oh! No you can't. Most of us will all be gone.

 

[epicklein22]

I feel for you mate, that sucks. I snapped mine last year, bloody awful trying to get by with one arm, very dependant on other people all of a sudden (I was shocked at how bad a driver my wife is, I had to stare out the side window when getting ferried around, too frightening looking straight ahead). The good news is it's only temporary, just a bad memory now. One of the few times i was glad to be running a business, that gave me a bit of structure to my day as I still needed to get out of bed early to send the boys off to work, then get all the admin done (never had I been so organised!). Anyway, good luck for the recovery, hope the healing goes well.

Thanks for your words of encouragement and for your own personal experience having a ruptured bicep.

Surgery went well and it’s been pain free. The antibiotics have been giving me quite a bit of side effects, but that’s getting better as well. Taking it easy with work, but have been able to grind some stumps and run some equipment the last few days.

 

[gorman]

Finished out last week with two larger jobs done way under the time frame allotted. Got cash for one and billed out the second. Our son finally got his autism (high functioning l) diagnosis from hasbro so we can now rest easy that he will have the resources he needs from school and so forth. Got him splitting maple wood at my house and he was so into it we had to force water breaks.

 

[Howsitgoineh]

Waiting patiently for spring, just been picking away at vintage saw projects mostly. Picked up a few small jobs for family and friends in the off season. Took out this big maple for my grandma this past week.

3rd and 4th photo are my mac 200 and pioneer 3270 rebuilt, tuned, and ready for work

 

[mcbr0101]

Half hitch onto a timber hitch for me. Anytime the log is short or the weight is significant.
See, that 1/2 hitch is what takes the beating. No other knot is as strong.

I seldom use a running bowline. Pretty much only when I am actually using it to run up the line and hitch something remotely. Otherwise, I'm timber hitch all the way. Faster to tie, and the groundies can untie it reliably.

I just recently discovered this. I've been slowly converting to the timber hitch for big negative rigs. It was pretty funny today, the first log was on the ground and they used the skid to pick up the log, and just pulled the rope off the end and there wasn't a knot left to untie. My main ground guy just looked up at me puzzled. Don't even need a half hitch. The half hitch is actually just to reduce the load on the running bowline to make it easier to untie. It doesn't increase strength, although it is very useful to half hitch below a knuckle and preferred hitch above it.

We were working on a huge silver maple and my portawrap sling only wrapped back maybe a 1/3 of the way around the tree for a timber hitch. It held all day, and capped it off with a 1000 pound ***** of a log. I told my rope guy to just put it in the dirt. I just had a rope on it so it wouldn't roll and do something unexpected, but he decided to catch it for some reason and that timber hitch held. I've been slowly converting to the timber in other scenarios ever since.

 

[Howsitgoineh]

I just recently discovered this. I've been slowly converting to the timber hitch for big negative rigs. It was pretty funny today, the first log was on the ground and they used the skid to pick up the log, and just pulled the rope off the end and there wasn't a knot left to untie. My main ground guy just looked up at me puzzled. Don't even need a half hitch. The half hitch is actually just to reduce the load on the running bowline to make it easier to untie. It doesn't increase strength, although it is very useful to half hitch below a knuckle and preferred hitch above it.

We were working on a huge silver maple and my portawrap sling only wrapped back maybe a 1/3 of the way around the tree for a timber hitch. It held all day, and capped it off with a 1000 pound ***** of a log. I told my rope guy to just put it in the dirt. I just had a rope on it so it wouldn't roll and do something unexpected, but he decided to catch it for some reason and that timber hitch held. I've been slowly converting to the timber in other scenarios ever since.

Funny I never thought of using a timber hitch for rigging. I use it to attach hardware to the trunk or the spar. It's a good hitch it holds our portawrap and rigging slings and pulleys all day for us and doesn't budge.

Thanks for the tip! I'll give this a go

 

[pdqdl]

The half hitch is actually just to reduce the load on the running bowline to make it easier to untie. It doesn't increase strength, although it is very useful to half hitch below a knuckle and preferred hitch above it.

That is a mistaken notion. The half hitch is nominally stronger than timber hitch, since it is only doing a 90° bend. The Timber hitch starts off at a 180°. As we all know, the tighter the bend, the sooner the rope breaks. It also spreads out the shock load on the rope to two different areas, since the 1/2 hitch only takes part of the load. It passes quite a bit of load down to the timber hitch and the friction going around the log, so it's considerably stronger if you have a possibility of breaking the rope.

But more than that, a half-hitch secures the rope better against any log rolling or the loop sliding off the end if it doesn't set securely before the weight binds the log to the loop of rope. If you are working with a short but heavy log, you should abandon the timber hitch and use a Stilson hitch. I'd guess any time the diameter is greater than the twice the length of the log, I'd not trust the timber hitch to hang on in a fall.



The knot shown in the video is a bit different than I tie. The Buckingham port-a-wrap manual shows this knot:



Mine isn't quite the same as this either, but quite similar. Having studied the diagram above, I think this is a pinch more trouble but better than my version.

 

[mcbr0101]

That is a mistaken notion. The half hitch is nominally stronger than timber hitch, since it is only doing a 90° bend. The Timber hitch starts off at a 180°. As we all know, the tighter the bend, the sooner the rope breaks. It also spreads out the shock load on the rope to two different areas, since the 1/2 hitch only takes part of the load. It passes quite a bit of load down to the timber hitch and the friction going around the log, so it's considerably stronger if you have a possibility of breaking the rope.

But more than that, a half-hitch secures the rope better against any log rolling or the loop sliding off the end if it doesn't set securely before the weight binds the log to the loop of rope. If you are working with a short but heavy log, you should abandon the timber hitch and use a Stilson hitch. I'd guess any time the diameter is greater than the twice the length of the log, I'd not trust the timber hitch to hang on in a fall.



The knot shown in the video is a bit different than I tie. The Buckingham port-a-wrap manual shows this knot:

View attachment 1162974

Mine isn't quite the same as this either, but quite similar. Having studied the diagram above, I think this is a pinch more trouble but better than my version.

That's the same as a cow hitch. I don't know if it matters or not, but I was always taught to tie the half hitches in the other direction. They call it a "cow hitch with a better half". I think 'educated climber' did a video on YouTube.
Yeah, I don't like to rig pancakes. Hopefully a crane can reach if it comes to that.

 

[Howsitgoineh]

That's the same as a cow hitch. I don't know if it matters or not, but I was always taught to tie the half hitches in the other direction. They call it a "cow hitch with a better half". I think 'educated climber' did a video on YouTube.
Yeah, I don't like to rig pancakes. Hopefully a crane can reach if it comes to that.

I was shown to tie off the cow hitch with an overhand knot.
I personally use 2 half hitches around the "throat" of the hardware, in opposite directions, effectively creating a Clove hitch.
Then tuck the excess underneath the wraps.
This holds up pretty good in my experience

 

[NeSurfcaster]

1st job before the earthquake was a blown down white pine. We didn't feel the quake but customer said house was shaking. I found the original tag from when the tree was planted under the root ball which was rotten. It was in perfect shape I could read everything on the tag including the date that was written in marker. Couldn't believe it was down there, they must of threw it in the hole before planting it. Tag said 100 bucks and was sold in 1995. Tree was roughly 18/20"s on the stump and was told 4 or 5 inches thick when planted. Planted too high just like the other 5 that will likely have the same outcome.

 

[pdqdl]

Damned landscapers plant trees all the time "too high". I bid against these chumps, and they save a ton of money doing it that way.

• They don't have to haul off any dirt, because they don't hardly dig any up.
• They use the dirt from the hole to cover the sides of the tree that was planted too shallow.
• They don't need as much mulch in order to look as over-mulched as the rest of the mulch volcanos on the property.
• They sell it to the customer as the right way to plant the tree. "We don't want the tree to drown when it gets over-watered."

I had a couple of trees that I planted among a row of identical trees that were planted by some other contractor. Five or so years later, theirs all died off and mine remained alive. Not surprising since they were all planted in a field of heavy clay with no supplemental watering.

 

[NeSurfcaster]

That totally makes sense, I mostly see it w/ maples around here.

 

[Haplo]

Spring time

 

[NeSurfcaster]

Crappy one today, I hate these hard leaning oaks. Good tie in behind the leaner which was awesome. It split into 2 leads which let me walk on one and tie in to other. Would of been easier if it was 15' higher to swing bigger pieces over the fences.
It was a horse farm w/ some cool dogs which made the morning better, race horses. Horses wanted to bite ya but I snuck in a few scratches.

 

[ZinTrees]

Horses wanted to bite ya but I snuck in a few scratches.

I remember taking a selfie with a customers horse, chillest horse I've ever met, till my sena bumped his nose ever so slightly lol (had my helmet on still)

 

[ZinTrees]

traded my mini skid for a single axle flatbed dump this week, 1993 international 4700, under CDL, hydro disk brakes, DTA360, 5 speed spicer, 137K miles, AC/heat, new rubber, new brakes, no leaks or rust, runs like a top, interior is totally mint too!

it doesn't even leak a drop of rain water into the cab!

somehow I traded a 19 year old mini skid for this, yeah its older, but yeah its more gooder (And the guy delivered it from 220 miles away)
gotta build a rear bumper and get mudflaps on it before it'll be road legal (The guy I got it from drove backroads all the way here in the middle of the night on a farm tag lol)

 

[NeSurfcaster]

That's a sweet rig, lots of uses for that truck. You don't need to be a computer engineer to fix it as well. I can see a chip box or some sides on there for logs. Good trade I'd say.

 

[Howsitgoineh]

Beautiful - I am envious. I'd like my next work truck to be a flatbed dump like this. Nice find!