sertyfyed

[fmueller]

Just wanted to share my experience at getting ISA certified. Went to a Neil young concert the night before. Got home about midnite, got up 5 hours later and had my dear wife drive me two hours to go take the test. They said be there at 8:00 and the test started at nine. I got there at eight sharp and they were already started. So I plop myself down and proceed to fill in the little dots. During this some guy come in and starts blabbing with the test administrator for like twenty minutes. Not quietly mind you but like they're at a ???? party or something. Just as I was about to tell them I paid good money to take this *&^%$#@ test and not to listen to their blabbing the guy gets up and leaves. So I finsih filling in the dots and two weeks later find out I got 84 and passed. All I did was read the book and do all the questions plus shell out 200 bucks for test and book. Practically nothing on climbing except a picture of the good ol tautline (which after one of the threads here, I've gone to the blake, sorry MB, I bailed).
So to anyone out there who has any inhibitions about taking the test, I say go for it. I wish instead I coulda gone to work for one of you pro's and really learned something more practical! Anyway, it might get me a few more jobs and hopefully a little more $$.
Climb on dudes!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Congragulations!!!

And use whatever hitch you want!

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Originally posted by fmueller
. I wish instead I coulda gone to work for one of you pro's and really learned something more practical!

You can still hire me for a week or two. You should be able to learn a few things during that time

 

[Guy Meilleur]

I first saw Neil Young in 1966. Buffalo Springfield played at the YMCA in Racine WI where I went to the catholic school. Great songs; he sang good harmonies but had an edgy guitar. Now Crazy Horse, old stoners swappin grunge solos. to hear he's still jammin.

O yea, Certification. You should more than get your $$ out of it if you market it right and follow up with more experience to sell. And if you let ISA know the proctor was chattin up his homey when he shoulda been takin care of test biz, maybe they'll get on his case and he'll stick to business the next time.:Eye:

Congrats on passing. Getting the ceu's is the fun part; follow your bliss!

 

[JonnyHart]

congats FMUELLER, I want to get the guides and take the test, and I gotta do it alone, my bosses got their mind on one thing, money. OH YEAH, I use the tautline, because of the seven companies I worked for it was all old, stubborn dudes so alot of my knowledge is old school.

 

[monkeypuzzle]

do you guys really climb trees or do you guys wish you climbed trees

 

[JonnyHart]

Hey, I'm here to learn monkey.

 

[fmueller]

monkeypuzzlebutt
Yeah we climb trees. Got a Big Walnut to do on Saturday. Two large limbs to come down. One hanging over a newer wooden panel fence and the other hanging by the house. Probably gonna rope my way up to the limbs then spike up the limbs and chunk em down with a block and bull rope. My unemployed son will be my groundie with a hardhat to protect his noggin. I guess we can't all be excellent professionals such as yourself but we have to start somewhere and we got nobodys coat tails to ride. I'm sorry if our inexperience and ignorance has offended you so maybe we should find some other site to share our thoughts with. Have a nice day.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Momkeypuzzlebutt!

Aw, MP ain't so bad. I think he was just under the influence of the bearded clam, or sumptin!

 

[fmueller]

Holly Schnykeys, Thats quite a log!. Anyway I'm sure yer right MB. Maybe he just needs to go in the closet and spank his monkey. I just gots to say after reading this site awhile you are one of the coolest dudes on here MB. Never heard you get pricky or anything like that. Anyway you should get some kind of award or something. Thanks from this low life inexperienced tree grunt for your positive and thoughtful contributions to the site and I'm sure plenty others feel the same way.!

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by fmueller
you are one of the coolest dudes on here MB. Never heard you get pricky or anything like that. Anyway you should get some kind of award

Check the archives; mb got plenty prickly on a couple threads! Toned down now as he's seasoned, though.
YOur walnut job sent up a couple of red flags. How big would the wounds on the trunk be? Is there a way to shorten the branches to leave smaller wounds? *Leaving the upright-growing portions leaves a strong branch free of the house and fence.* How balanced will the tree be when you are done? Will you be pruning the whole tree so it's not left lopsided and rotting??

monkeybone's question may have some usefulness to it--if you can't climb the whole tree and manage the whole tree so it's safe when you leave it, you're open to lawsuit if the tree fails due to injuries that you caused. Make sure you take care of the whole tree, and don't just whack what the owner tells you to.

If you post pictures you may get some pointers you can use. Main hint is to climb as high as you can into the middle of the tree.

 

[fmueller]

Tree is at least 14' dbh. If I take the limbs down to the trunk it would leave probably a foot diameter scar for each limb on the trunk. There is plenty of wood still above these two limbs to balance out the weight on the trunk. The limbs are staggered so the wounds won't be one above the other and there is plenty of diameter left unscarred so it should'nt over stress the tree. They wanted to take off more but I said no cause older trees like this don't respond to stress as well as a young whipper schnapper would so this would be plenty for one season. It sill leaves plenty of crown. Wish I could send pics but don't have a digital camera yet. Thanks for the constructive input. Any more is welcome.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by fmueller
Tree is at least 14' dbh. older trees like this don't respond to stress as well

14' dbh?? Wow! What a whopper!
Yeah I know you mean 14", and I'm glad to hear you're thinking of consequences.. Still, getting high into the middle of the tree is the only way to survey the whole crown and :Eye: what you're working with.

And, several smaller reduction cuts, if that will achieve the goal, stress the tree much less than whole limb removal.

O yea, I also have an unemployed son as a groundie; he likes his hardhat.

 

[fmueller]

oops, my bad,
I meant 14' circumference which is about 4.22 dbh if my math is correct. c=pie r squared ,no? Yer right about getting high up in the tree so I can see whats going on. Also much easier to get around if I have a crotch high up to tie into which there is. Hopefully the weather will be decent. We get alot of wind here in the spring. Then the next weekend gotsa big Silver Maple. No buildings to worry about and it has some good tie- in points to work from. It also is about 4' dbh . Will take off about 4 limbs 1ft dia. It'll probably bleed some cause of time of year but I read somewhere it does'nt affect the health of the tree so much, (the bleeding that is) just doesn't look that good fer awhile.
Reduction cuts don't achieve the goal on the Walnut cause they want the branch off the neighbors yard cause it's dropping nuts on the neighbors lawn. I guess the neighbor picks them up off his lawn and chucks em back at his house. ( Sounds like a looney tunes to me).

 

[xtremetrees]

I believe it, haha "I guess the neighbor picks them up off his lawn and chucks em back at his house. ( Sounds like a looney tunes to me)."

Id say 30% of the tree jobs I've gotten is out of neighbor competition.

In my last neighbor hood I started with one job and wound up cutting for 7 different people. They all knew each other.

 

[jmchristopher]

circumference= pi x diameter

14 feet / 12 = 168 inches

168 / 3.14 = 53.5 inches (BIG!)

Congratulations on your membership in the elite ranks!
There's not much about climbing on the test because a lot of folks who take it aren't into the climbing side of things, but still are into tha big picture.

 

[xtremetrees]

I think the ISA should include basic physics for climbers in the test.

I think the ISA should include wood strength in the test of all species.

I think a climb event should be added to the test. How else can you do a ariel assement of a tree unless you climb.

Do you think a book worm college boy should carry your most prestigous title?

Sound off!

 

[fmueller]

Thanks Jim,
You must have a mind like a steel trap. I been outta school for 23 years and forgot the formula for circumference. So if you would be so kind and ignore my ignorance what again is pi r sqaured?

 

[rumination]

pi r squared = area of a circle

 

[fmueller]

Der thats right. Its all coming back to me now! (not really). If one of you guys can come up with the formula to find the area of a cone I'll be REALLY impressed. That was another one o dem tings I lerned in skool that was pretty useless to me. Anyway thanks! You da man! There was a useful thing I saw somewhere about the density of differnt types of wood so you could kinda figure out how much load yer ptting on a rope when yer droppin a chunk. Anyone out there actually do that?