When I was at the inaugural Boston Rec Tree climb, Paul Buck and I were discussing this interesting device he had clipped to his saddle. It's a compact pole that can be extended about 10 feet and used to grab lines, throw bags, etc when aloft. It's called a reTREEver. He highly recommended it.
Well, I am practicing setting new lines in this tall hickory in my backyard and realized a week or so ago that the line I want to set is on another large branch that I can easily reach with my throw bag, but then the line will drop straight down to where I can't reach it.
So, I bought a reTREEver from the local Vermeer dealer in Hopkinton, MA and got to try it out yesterday. I was about 65 feet up in this hickory and wanted to throw across to the other lead to set up a new line. My first couple throws were off target. When I was pulling the throw bag back, it flew off a small branch, went over my head and the zing-it wrapped itself around a 1/2 inch diameter branch about 8 feet behind me. There was no way for me to pull the line hard enough to break this branch and get my throw bag back or to get myself close enough to the branch to untangle the throw bag.
Well, with the reTREEver handy, I just bent the end into a hook, extended the pole and slipped the end through the ring on the throw bag and flipped it around the branch three or four times and then pulled the throw bag back to me. Total time was about 5 minutes. Without the reTREEver, I would've had to cut the zing-it and figure out some other way to get the throw-bag.
This device really worked nicely ands adds a lot of flexibility to repositioning while aloft.
Also, before going up in the tree, it worked great to scare/tickle my kids with it when they were playing the sandbox!
Well, I am practicing setting new lines in this tall hickory in my backyard and realized a week or so ago that the line I want to set is on another large branch that I can easily reach with my throw bag, but then the line will drop straight down to where I can't reach it.
So, I bought a reTREEver from the local Vermeer dealer in Hopkinton, MA and got to try it out yesterday. I was about 65 feet up in this hickory and wanted to throw across to the other lead to set up a new line. My first couple throws were off target. When I was pulling the throw bag back, it flew off a small branch, went over my head and the zing-it wrapped itself around a 1/2 inch diameter branch about 8 feet behind me. There was no way for me to pull the line hard enough to break this branch and get my throw bag back or to get myself close enough to the branch to untangle the throw bag.
Well, with the reTREEver handy, I just bent the end into a hook, extended the pole and slipped the end through the ring on the throw bag and flipped it around the branch three or four times and then pulled the throw bag back to me. Total time was about 5 minutes. Without the reTREEver, I would've had to cut the zing-it and figure out some other way to get the throw-bag.
This device really worked nicely ands adds a lot of flexibility to repositioning while aloft.
Also, before going up in the tree, it worked great to scare/tickle my kids with it when they were playing the sandbox!