Working In Extreme Weather & Temperatures

[StihlRockin']

I have to bear some extremes today and it's gonna be rough. I have to do some maintenance this afternoon after I'm done with my "nap"... and the temperature is extreme.

...Like 57° today.

The 20mph+ winds forecasted I can handle.

How 'bout you guys? What sort of temperatures or tough weather conditions have you had to endure doing your craft?

StihlRockin'

 

[chip's-tree]

hot day

well yesterday was bad. temp was 102 and heat index about 106. there was 4 of us carrying brush and blocks up a hill and loading in a truck. 6 hrs and 4 trees......

 

[asthesun]

its been 93-99 all last week here, expecting the same this week. still and humid to top it off. i bring like 5 shirts with me and soak my pants and saddle with sweat every day. it was roughly the same working katrina in NO, LA. did some work in neosho, MO for the ice storms a couple years back. it was between 0-30f the whole time, not very nice for a florida boy.

 

[Bigus Termitius]

Beat the heat! Drink water!

Better be careful where that water comes from!

I was doing fine in the heat last Monday, but I ran low on water. Like always, I found a source at a coop member's farmstead where we were trimming.

I make it a note to ask if it's suitable for some water just tastes poor. However, I have never come across truly bad water in Illinois farm country.

Until Monday afternoon. I asked and the farmer said sure it's fine for drinking, so I filled a gallon with his help, smelled it for sulfur and whatnot, and sipped some.

It was fine, clear as a bell. Pretty typical, so I chugged a good portion and continued working. Within a half hour the water turned a tint rusty. Then about an hour later I went for another drink and the most awful smell came from the jug and I tossed it. It wasn't chemical in nature, more like septic.

I was good and sick Wednesday morning, tried to work Thursday anyway, but the heat was too crazy for being sick and dehydrated.

I've been sick ever since, but I'm getting better in time for Monday. Thank God it will be cooler.

Lesson learned. Be 100 percent certain of your water source.

I've been throwing in a 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt in my water to replenish and rehydrate. I think I'll start doing that as a rule. I'm also doing my best to keep the potassium levels up as I've lost alot.

I don't mind the heat as long as I have good water.

I came across some bottled water at Gustav that seemed to have gone bad, and then read something about that in passing the other day. So if you find yourself at a storm and someone gives you water, make sure it is good before you rely on it.

 

[StihlRockin']

What a worker, athlete, sweater, etc, needs is electrolytes. Our body produces them from the fruit we eat. I like to eat bananas, apples, plums, pears, peaches and cherries when I can. I also occasionally drink Gatorade, which has electrolytes in it, when I think they're low from dehydration.

Bigus Termitius, I guess I sometimes take for granted the water I have here. It's a deep well and had it tested a while back. The county said it's one of the most best waters they tested. It couldn't taste any better! Hope you feel better soon.

asthesun & chip's-tree, the heat sometimes gets like that around here, but not too often. Back in the day when I worked the twin cities area, it got hot there. I've experienced the shivers(goosebumps), ringing ears, seeing colors, going totally dry and quit sweating all together and nose-bleeds.... all symptoms of dehydration. Those are some crazy temps you work with. Hope y'all don't melt. LOL!

Take care guys. Thanks for the replies.

StihlRockin'

 

[Redsquirrel]

I like Emergen-C, especially the Hi-K Cola. It's a drink powder made by a company called Alacer. Sort of like Gatorade without the sugar.

Anybody got any recommendations on what to wear for cold weather climbing to stay warm but mobile?

 

[KMB]

I don't do tree work, but do cut firewood in the Southern humid heat. A shot of apple cider vinegar helps me in the heat.

Kevin

 

[Kunes]

It's been pouring here for over a week. thus the chainsaw hasn't been touched.

 

[StihlRockin']

It's brutal here today. 75° with a slight breeze and a whopping 33% humidity.

StihlRockin'

 

[Sc0]

Does anyone here keep track of water ph? I do notice a difference in water acidity when drinking and prefer 7+, a few bottlers are much better than others. (Granted I wasn't doing tree work but when the heat index is 130f and i'm around concrete without shade I need all the help that I can get.)

 

[StihlRockin']

Sc0,

I don't evaluate water by the PH as I never thought of doing that, but do know there's a chart that explains. Some where around 5-8 is good and if you go lower, it gets less healthy and more acidic. If you go higher, it's too much alkali and that's not good either, so your count of 7 is right in the prime of the chart.

StihlRockin'

 

[BlackenedTimber]

As far as brutal weather goes, I walked away from a job this past saturday, partly due to weather.

Two 60' x 36" DBH locusts over a trailer at a campgrounds. The owner of the campgrounds wanted them out, as they were dead and rotted. 3 big spars on the one, 5 on the other, mostly vertical growth. The tree closest to the trailer had been hit by lightning, and thats what must have issued the coup de grace. The one farther away had a substantial portion of it's root mass underneath the road, which was a main access road to the campgrounds, so that coupled with insect infestation killed the tree, IMO.

I climbed the one closest to the trailer first. Some bark peeling at the base, but solid wood underneath. It was sunny when I started.

After removing 2/3 of the first tree with my uber-green groundie (aka the guy that batches concrete for me at my full-time-gig) the wind picked up fierce, to 40+ mph, and it started to rain hard. The forecast was partly cloudy with 0% precip. guess they were wrong, but we WERE working in beautiful Mount Storm, WV...

I had to put a ratchet strap around the tree, as it was blowing all over the place from the wind, causing the split from the lightning strike in the base to open and close with each gust. The tree was more rotted up top then at the base, anyone else ever experience this? Most I have seen are worse down on the ground, with stable, though mostly dead, wood up top.

The insect damage seemed to be from carpenter ants, as they were all over the tree as I was doing the removal. At 30 ft up, the only thing holding the tree up was heartwood, with 2-3 inches of rot all around, and bark peeling. Not much purchase for my spurs. There was zero green wood, so between the wind, and knowing that my hinges weren't going to hold, I called it off.

I gotta go back and drop the rest when the weather will cooperate. As long as I can muster the balls to get up those rotten devils again.

I told the campgrounds owner to look into someone with a bucket, as I may not be able to safely take them down while climbing. I definately do not want to rig off these trees, as they are substantially more rotted than I first expected, and there is nothing close enough to rig to, and the spar over top of the trailer must be pieced out, it cannot be dropped due to lean.

T