A few more pictures from yesterday (Sunday). Managed to drop 479 yesterday in 9 1/2 hours. My biggest day yet as far as total trees go and I averaged 50 an hour.
Have had an extremely sore and slightly swollen left forearm since the middle of last week. Saw a Physiotherapist mate of mine tonight after work as yesterday's effort has really stirred it up and unfortunately it is chainsaw related dammit. He has called it DeQuervain's Syndrome (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeQuervain's_syndrome ) and has taped up my left forearm and has told me I now need to wear a brace to give it relief or give it a rest for a few weeks. I've chosen the brace option. All I know is it hurts like hell and I need to ice it when I get home from sawing. If that fails I'll get a Cortisone injection.
Photo below shows weaker/dead trees adjacent to a winegrape patch. These vines are probably getting around 40% of the water per year that the citrus is but salinity also an issue on this property in the lower areas (like here). This has also affected the vigour of the Casuarinas and has actually killed quite a few in low areas - they do not seem to be a very salt tolerant variety. You can see how the tree health and size of the windbreak increases next to the citrus.
Before...
After...
Had one run of trees that had a Creeper/Vine running through the canopy. There have been a few guys that have work related injuries (on light duties) going along ahead of me cleaning up the bottom parts of the trees so I have easy access. They are helping a lot as there is nothing worse than fighting through the bottom part of a tree with spring loaded branches and a running chainsaw. I did one run of about 50 trees that they hadn't cleaned up and I finished the day looking like I'd had a fight with a Mountain Lion.
As you can see below these vines had a fair bit of strength as they held this one tree partly upright. It only fell when I cut the next tree. Can't say I've seen this before in my area as we don't have enough rainfall as a rule - these have been benefiting from fertiliser and irrigation too.
A reasonably large Casuarina that I dropped with the "Snellerized" 7900, HD filter kit and 24" GB Pro Top (Labelled Total II). Have retired the 25" Roller Nose after I bent the tip earlier on (pic in this thread). I though I'd straightened it enough (which I had) but it has weakened it that much it now bends just by looking at it.
There was a really strong Southerly blowing which helped immensely (I didn't have to wedge one tree). This tree started going before I expected and as you can see there is a big lump of uncut wood left. The trunk split as it fell and the right part swung on this wood about 10 foot further to the right than expected. If it wasn't bifurcated and hadn't split this tree would have gone exactly where intended. I had heaps of space to work with on this row but things like this are something I have to keep in mind as there will be some very tight felling work later on some runs. I probably should have whacked the 32" bar on but this tree was way larger than the others in this row so just took it on with a 24" instead...
Was running both the 24" bar and 3/8" semi chisel with 8 pin or the 32" and non skip semi chisel all day on the 7900 only. This thing is continuing to impress me and with a 24" bar and 8 pin sprocket I don't think I've ever had a saw cut this fast. As mentioned I'll be getting another one off Brad soon.
And.....
A big error on my part. This is what happens when you just expect trees to fall over with the wind but they don't so you keep cutting and not concentrating. Basically I cut straight through the hingewood and had this tree fall exactly 90° to where it was meant to go. As you can see there was only one tiny part of hingewood left on the side I was cutting from. Worst thing was is that I was on that side of the tree using the back of the bar (faster on smaller trees in this situation as you can do all the felling cuts from one side). As the tree fell it caught the bar, held the saw then the butt landed on my new 7900 (or so I thought). Luckily a few lower branches had kept the butt only inches off my saw and it and the bar was unscathed. I had visions of getting a new 7900 from Brad sooner than intended. I'd have to ask for a discount from Brad as after all this was HIS fault. He made this thing cut too fast
The top of this tree landed on an adjacent Citrus tree and apart from knocking a few branches off didn't do too much damage. Out of 2075 trees so far this is the 3rd time I have done this and it has only happened with smaller trees while not concentrating. I tend not to lose concentration on the bigger ones!
Study this cut then look away - it's disgusting! Add it to your "I WILL NOT DO CUTS LIKE THIS" list.
Anyway, as mentioned total trees dropped so far in 50 1/2 hours is 2075 which works out to an average of 41 trees an hour.
I just hope my forearm gets better this week otherwise I'll get into a doctor on Friday for a Cortisone injection.
Matt.