whadja do today?

[pdqdl]

... This tree is an Amur Corktree (phellodendron amurense). The bark feels like cork when you touch it. I guessed that it had to be a super soft wood. The arboretum guys said they lost two more of them and some woodturners asked them to save a few pieces for them. The wood was cracked so badly by the next day that it wasn't usable for turning.
...

Wikipedia tells us that ain't such a nice tree.

"It is native to eastern Asia: northern China, northeast China, Korea, Ussuri, Amur, and Japan, the Amur cork tree is considered invasive in many parts of North America. The State of Massachusetts lists it as a noxious weed."

 

[tree MDS]

Limb walk?

Nice work! Just don’t get that beard caught in them things, tough guy!!

 

[tree MDS]

Was moving some wood out at the end of the day yesterday and this shot caught my eye. North Street in my town. While I always sort of hated this street and it’s inhabitants (for the most part), I have to admit , some of these places really are something else. It was definitely old school money that built them.

That’s a Cucumber Magnolia next to the house. They must be planted as they’re not something you see every day around here. Just a big weed tree really. Not sure I’d want it over my house, no matter how many cables and lightning rods or whatever it probably has in it.

The company that takes care of it does do a hell of a job keeping it from falling apart, I’ll say that. That thing probably gets fed straight cash. Lol

 

[mike515]

Wikipedia tells us that ain't such a nice tree.

"It is native to eastern Asia: northern China, northeast China, Korea, Ussuri, Amur, and Japan, the Amur cork tree is considered invasive in many parts of North America. The State of Massachusetts lists it as a noxious weed."

I'm actually not surprised by that.....having looked at it in person. I can imagine how that tree could just spread and take over an area. I'm going to mention it to the arboretum guys next week.

By the way....we got that job cleaning up the trail system at the arboretum. I am kind of wondering what to expect at this point. I told them that clearing the trails would take 5-7 days. They said they would also want us to go into the woods and make everything safe for people who may leave the trails (that may be a lot of work). Then they said they have other work they want us to do in the actual arboretum. I'm fine with all of that. I figured maybe a few more days. But then they asked me yesterday if I wanted to bill them by the week. Either they have a lot more work than I expected or they are really underestimating how much work we can knock out in a day. I'm guessing it's the latter. They are used to working with volunteers. If you send 3 seasoned pros into this scenario with storm damaged trees, widowmakers, etc and no obstacles at all to worry about......they will get done more in 1 hour than 10 average volunteers can do. I don't think it's even close.

In any case, it's a hell of a score considering I went down there planning to do a bunch of free work and ended up being asked if I want to bill by the week.

 

[mike515]

View attachment 893441
Was moving some wood out at the end of the day yesterday and this shot caught my eye. North Street in my town. While I always sort of hated this street and it’s inhabitants (for the most part), I have to admit , some of these places really are something else. It was definitely old school money that built them.

That’s a Cucumber Magnolia next to the house. They must be planted as they’re not something you see every day around here. Just a big weed tree really. Not sure I’d want it over my house, no matter how many cables and lightning rods or whatever it probably has in it.

The company that takes care of it does do a hell of a job keeping it from falling apart, I’ll say that. That thing probably gets fed straight cash. Lol

How much would you charge them to cut that thing down?

 

[tree MDS]

How much would you charge them to cut that thing down?

Without having ever walked up to it or anything, I’m guessing that’d be somewhere in the neighborhood of an $8500 harvest right there.... maybe more depending on how bad the hardware situation looks.

 

[mike515]

Without having ever walked up to it or anything, I’m guessing that’d be somewhere in the neighborhood of an $8500 harvest right there.... maybe more depending on how bad the hardware situation looks.

I was thinking maybe 8-10K just based on the one pic. It would be awesome to just drop it but I'd be worried about it landing and kicking back into the house.

 

[mikewhite85]

What is the text on the gate of the chip box? I can see "We will call...." The italics on the word "will" make me think you're working in an area where guys just don't call back or show up for jobs....that happens here all the time. I just don't get that but it's common in my area and not just with tree guys. It's all sorts of contractors. I once hired an electrician because he was the only guy who showed up to give me an estimate out of all the guys I called.

Yup! "We WILL call you back" Like your area, contractors are notorious around here for being flaky.

It's actually not my truck. I sub him to help out. He does call back!

 

[mikewhite85]

Without having ever walked up to it or anything, I’m guessing that’d be somewhere in the neighborhood of an $8500 harvest right there.... maybe more depending on how bad the hardware situation looks.

8500? Holy cats I need to move back to Fairfield County. I've been gone for close to 20 years.

My first tree job was with Dave Montague in Newtown. Wonder how he's doing. He wouldn't let me touch a chainsaw back then! I was a bit of a putz.

 

[tree MDS]

8500? Holy cats I need to move back to Fairfield County. I've been gone for close to 20 years.

My first tree job was with Dave Montague in Newtown. Wonder how he's doing. He wouldn't let me touch a chainsaw back then! I was a bit of a putz.

Well, at least you’re working, right!!

 

[tree MDS]

Holy cats!!

 

[mike515]

Holy cats!!

I'm going to start saying Holy Cats around my guys just to mess with them and make them wonder what I'm thinking. I like doing that kind of thing sometimes. I keep a straight face and laugh on the inside!

 

[tree MDS]

Holy Cats, Batman!!!

That really is some good stuff.... I’m sorry, Mike!

 

[bck]

8500? Holy cats I need to move back to Fairfield County. I've been gone for close to 20 years.

My first tree job was with Dave Montague in Newtown. Wonder how he's doing. He wouldn't let me touch a chainsaw back then! I was a bit of a putz.

He’s still kickin

 

[mike515]

I went out on a power company work order with some of our guys today. I already saw the job site, knew it was bad and was expecting to do it with hot lines so I definitely wanted to be there. It ran through a wooded area and was completely buried and burning. Luckily, they killed the line before we got there. So we had a bunch of trees to take down and that whole area had been taken over by Japanese honeysuckle so you are basically cutting your way into everything through a wall of trees, brush, vines, thorns, etc. Kind of sucks but it is what it is. What was pretty cool to see was the tree below. A large part of the mess was just covered in vines. We finally cut our way in far enough to find this ash tree at the center of it all. Huge vines ran along the ground and climbed up the tree, completely engulfed the crown and then flowed back to the ground like a head of hair before it consumed everything around it....including the line. The neutral wire was so buried with treetops and then tied together with vines that we just called the service truck and had them take the line down so we could clean all that stuff off from the ground. I've seen a lot of woods with lots of vines but this was a royal pain.

 

[mike515]

Had this going on this morning.



Then I did this one. These were a lot bigger than they look in the pics. This one was nearly perfectly balanced.

 

[tree MDS]

Worked around the yard MDS style yesterday afternoon. Easier said than done. Lol. Took down the two ratty trees in the front. Gonna grind the stumps and pick up some 3/4” processed to finish it off. Should make it easier to park things, back in, etc. I’ll miss the trees, but it was time.

 

[mikewhite85]

Worked around the yard MDS style yesterday afternoon. Easier said than done. Lol. Took down the two ratty trees in the front. Gonna grind the stumps and pick up some 3/4” processed to finish it off. Should make it easier to park things, back in, etc. I’ll miss the trees, but it was time.
View attachment 894492
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you've got some pretty toys. Looks like you maintain them quite well!

 

[mikewhite85]

He’s still kickin

Glad to hear!

 

[mike515]

The arboretum job that was going to be a volunteer job has turned into 50 hours of paid work cleaning up trails (so far). Should get that done next week. I just got done spending 2 hours walking out new trails that we will be creating for them, plus all of the clean up that their volunteers didn't get done and then they have over 300 stumps for us to grind. I'd say that first phone call I made has turned out pretty well so far.