Polishing the Pile

[treevet]

I'm a big fan of tarps. If I can get away with it, I tarp the whole area. In the summer, ya gotta be more careful, you can fry a lawn.

Also a proponent of raking into small circles, then dragging a small tarp around to get them. I use a light hand, ever so careful about getting gravel into the mix.

Almost always, I have a tarp laid out in front of the chipper as the lawn will otherwise take a beating here. Wooden chopsticks are a cheap and effective means of pinning down the corners. If on a driveway or street, no tarp beneath the infeed.

I have a small log arch I seem to be using more and more. Ideally I move out a limb as big as is humanly possible. I can move something out that would otherwise take 4 men, or you'd have to process it remotely where it lays and do the multi-trip conventional method.

I'm a major fan of the backpack blower, the biggest one you can get. If the material is lighter, I might blow into three zones where raking I would have done 6 or 8. I've gotten good at bending down to pick up a non-blowable stick without breaking stride on the blowing.

I'm working solo these days, so efficiency in the cleanup is always a make or break on the day. Without a good strategy, approach and execution on the cleanup. As Treevet says, Leave them with a shoddy, incomplete cleanup, that's what they are left with, and this is the impression you permanently give them. The pruning is secondary when they're having to decide whether to cleanup after you, or see if their lawn service will clean up after you.

bammm! right on the money

 

[Bermie]

I carry all the branches out, then a trashcan or tarp for the larger twigs, then start raking pile to pick up, with one peson the flat trashcan is easiest, two people, the tarp. Its hard to get a tight edge on a tarp with one person.

As for blowers, don't have one...borrow one from time to time if its really needed. I have a mechanical blower...aka...a broom. I check the state of the property when I do the bid, if its a neat as a pin, edged and not a leaf in sight, time to borrow the blower, if not, a few leaves and tiny twigs wil not matter.

The biggest problem I see with blowers is when the gardeners are blowing their leaves and stuff, right under a tree, and they are blowing all the loose soil as well, it erodes away from around what grass there is below the tree...I get calls from landscapers who say 'the tree needs to be thinned...the grass is so sparse below, not enough light getting through...', well yes that might be part of the problem, but watch your gardeners blowing all the soil away!!!

 

[tree md]

What about palm, yucca, erythrina, oleander, phoenix, etc?
Jeff

There is no restrictions on what green waste you can dump there. As long as it is plant material it's OK. They are grinding it with the tub grinders and composting it. City residents can come and pick up bags of mulch as well as come out there and cut as much firewood as their hearts desire. They sell the rest of the mulch and ship it off somewhere. I can't remember what they do with it. They have mountains of mulch out there.

The interesting thing is it used to be a central hub where all the local tree services would meet during the day. Outside of the dump there would always be cardboard signs lining the fence looking for help wanted. There would be signs asking for climbers, ground men, CDL drivers, everything. Those signs disappeared about a year and a half ago. I haven't seen a help wanted sign out there in the longest. Kind of gives you a clue to the state of our local economy.

 

[treevet]

.

Outside of the dump there would always be cardboard signs lining the fence looking for help wanted. There would be signs asking for climbers, ground men, CDL drivers, everything. Those signs disappeared about a year and a half ago. I haven't seen a help wanted sign out there in the longest. Kind of gives you a clue to the state of our local economy.

Is the clue that there is no work out there or....

People can get along just fine without working (and us workers paying for it)?

 

[tree md]

Is the clue that there is no work out there or....

People can get along just fine without working (and us workers paying for it)?

Hey, I'm staying as busy as I want to be and I haven't put out an ad since 2008. I have scaled back a lot though. 2 years ago I was running 2 crews half the time (sometimes 5 man crews each). Now I've got three hands including my dad. I've had a few of my competitors call me looking for either a job or contract work in the past year and a half. Had a well qualified, certified arborist call me today looking for a job. I took his name and number. I told him I just don't have the business to support another climber right now but would give him a call in the future if I can put him to work. I could use someone like that sometimes but I hate to tell somebody yes and then only be able to work them part time. With his credentials, he would be better off with someone who is doing more volume.

 

[Blakesmaster]

pict. buddy?

You should be able to flip it upside down on top of your chipper. Not sure though, we carried one on my old boss's 1800 everywhere. Upside down wheels toward the ass and handles on either side of the chute. Looked like is was made for that spot. My bandit won't hold one there so we usually throw it in the back of the dump. You're right, takes up a bit of room there.

 

[treevet]

To me (no offense intended) a wheelbarrow is like tihts on a bull when you got a Dingo. We put mass loads on a tarp then drag it to the truck and sometimes pick up the tarp with the crane and wave bye bye. We also got a bin that is good for tossing mass stuff in then booming and dumping into the box. It's all good.....and.....drumrollllllll

it is what it is

 

[oldirty]

hey blakes. your bandit have the 2 bars in front of the radiator? the anti jackknife bars? stuff the barrel over them they hold pretty good or again go over one and bungee it down to the frame or to the radiator cover.

i love me a great clean up too but i find it a bit on the excessive side to be tarping the area around the chipper there TM. next time you pull this little move off i need some pics, please. just to see the setup.

hey tv. you got a pic of your chiptruck chipper set up? i'll find you a sweet barrel spot. i'll have a pic of our barrel hideaway for you tomorrow.

 

[tree md]

To me (no offense intended) a wheelbarrow is like tihts on a bull when you got a Dingo. We put mass loads on a tarp then drag it to the truck and sometimes pick up the tarp with the crane and wave bye bye. We also got a bin that is good for tossing mass stuff in then booming and dumping into the box. It's all good.....and.....drumrollllllll

it is what it is

I prefer to boom the whole tree out and just clean up around the chipper. Would be nice if they all went that way...

 

[oldirty]

we talking wheel barrel or big trash barrel things here? i dont have much love for the wheel barrel. too landscapey for me.

 

[treevet]

hey tv. you got a pic of your chiptruck chipper set up? i'll find you a sweet barrel spot. i'll have a pic of our barrel hideaway for you tomorrow.

Been having trouble embedding. Management may have me on super secret probation.

I have been a baaaad boy.

 

[treevet]

http://www.arboristsite.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=144502&stc=1&d=1279669851

 

[tree md]

I'd close the wheel barrel up inside the shute... or strap it to the back somewhere. That way when it falls off there is no chance of it scratching your paint and you can leave it junked on the side of the road where it belongs... :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[treevet]

I'd close the wheel barrel up inside the shute... or strap it to the back somewhere. That way when it falls off there is no chance of it scratching your paint and you can leave it junked on the side of the road where it belongs... :hmm3grin2orange:

If it was in the shute we could just run it thru and have a bunch of small wheelbarrows if it was a small job.

 

[oldirty]

lol, md.


hey tv sweet set up. the over hang might be a factor back there but i'd say bungee a barrel over that hydraulic jack stand!

 

[treevet]

Then when you gotta drop the chipper :bang:

Little schit like that just pisces me off.

Sometimes we got a garb can but the big green barrel rarely leaves the yard.

You got one in the box every day od?

 

[Blakesmaster]

we talking wheel barrel or big trash barrel things here? i dont have much love for the wheel barrel. too landscapey for me.

I WAS talking wheelbarrow not trash barrel but I may try your idea. You use the square ones and lay them over to rake into? Eric likes the wheelbarrow for moving a lot of wood at one time, I generally find it much easier to throw chunks on my shoulder and walk them out but he can move more material. I think a lot of it has to do with a lower center of gravity. I'm only 6 feet tall but I'm all legs and pushing a loaded barrow is hard on the back.

 

[oldirty]

just one of the bigger round trash cans. i'll snap up a pic tomorrow.

 

[treevet]

the big barrels work quite well with the cheapo dollys sometimesopcorn:

 

[jefflovstrom]

Then when you gotta drop the chipper :bang:

Little schit like that just pisces me off.

Sometimes we got a garb can but the big green barrel rarely leaves the yard.

You got one in the box every day od?

I keep a 10 yard in the yard just for situaions. Works great! Get's dumped every Thursday,Cool.
Jeff