Sunday Fun....

[rbtree]

first job- a hour's drive, so I had Greg take his truck and baby Vermeer 620, the diesel truck gets 3-4 times better mileage than my gas tank on treads. A small dead cedar and 100+ foot hemlock some 16 inch dbh. 2.5 hrs and we're gone.

 

[rbtree]

After lowering the top (took video of that)

 

[rbtree]

free dropping the wood, what an easy job

 

[rbtree]

So, we picked up an 8 lb coho salmon on the reservation for $8, drove back to Greg's, loaded his diesel p/u w/ winch, drove 1 hr to Skykomish, in the mountains, to fall 13 firs, 120-155 footers, mostly killed. Didn't start til 3 pm or so. We got 9 done, and winched/drug a few out of the neighboring cabin's drive.

He works for the pwr co, so he dropped the service, and we set some lines with the BigShot. Others had to be climbed (to set a pull line)as the first branches were up 80 feet or too tiny to catch the throw line.

Most were 14-20 inch at the butt, but most were over 120 feet tall, some 150 plus. We took an 80 foot top on one, from 40 feet up, a bit scary as it hung up before falling clear.

Ther is some discoloration in the wood, so we may not get export prices. Hoping for 3500-4000 board feet from them all, should clear $1200-1700 depending on the grade- after trucking.

 

[rbtree]

This one, over 150 feet tall, has about 600 board feet.

 

[rbtree]

looking up!!

 

[rborist1]

:Eye:

 

[rbtree]

No, Craig, that's the first time I've cut up there. 20 yrs ago, I removed a maple near Index that contained over 8 cord of wood....

So, tried City Park free? Todd Skinner said it was an easy 5.13c.....

S'pose you've heard of an old acquaintance of mine named Mark Twight. A lot less skilled, but even crazier was another kid I used to know, who, 18 or so years ago, soloed Polar Circus.

Town Wall is a pretty great place, but I kinda prefer those little walls in your backyard. My favorite was South Howser, the Beckey-Chounaird. I managed a one day ascent of that plum back in 1984, by far my best climb ever. Unfortunately, it was one of my last climbs, have done almost nothing since 1985. Climbed a tree or threee tho.....


Greg felled the first tree, it hit an old outhouse 130 feet away, knocked off a few boards. So I did the rest... and barely missed more structures... those trees were tall and skinny!!!

Look me up when you're next in Wa. I still have my EB's-LOL

 

[Bradley]

Roger, how are you hauling the wood? Do you run wood trucks as well or do you farm it out? That's alot of wood!

 

[rbtree]

We bring in a self loader.

We need a 36 foot length average to get export prices. Unfortunately, these trees were dead, and there is some discoloration, likely enought to drop the sort down. This will mean 400 per mbf, minus deductions, versus about 630. Either way, a far cry from doug fir peak prices of 1260 per mbf back in the 90's.

Not that much wood, most of the trees only contain 300-400 bf, some less, a couple over 600.

 

[rborist1]

:Eye:

 

[rbtree]

C'mon out, Dan,

You like to work in the rain? Thast's all it does from oct 15- June 1.

Too many tree companies here already tho. Bus. is slowing up already, I may have to hustle up work for the winter..


..or ski all winter!!!

 

[rbtree]

Another sunny 75 degree day here, gotta love it.

I sold a bunch of work today, so all is well...for a while!!

And when it's raining in town, it is usually snowing in the hills, so this ski bum is happy..!!

 

[rbtree]

I finished the dead tree logging today. Here's three pics of removing the largest, which would have yielded ~1500 board feet or so, but I had climb it. I had to go up to take a 30 foot top, as there was no safe place to drop a larger one, which would have saved 50 board feet or so. Then, I dropped 10-12 feet, wasting 100 feet, Next was a 20-22 footer, which landed flat from close to 100 feet up, so it broke, that was 150 feet or so. Got a 18, 36 and 40 after that, about 1250 board feet. The tree, which was 32" at the butt, was about 160 feet tall. But most of the others, while much skinnier, were 130-150 feet!!

I'm pretty sure these were killed by beetles, but i dont know for sure, as I have little experience in the woods. I'm sure the wood wont bring much money. It looked like 3500 board feet from all 13.

Greg is a rookie, he bid the job for the wood, which included 1.5 hrs of chipping, the customer drug brush. It should have been bid at about $1600 or more, with proceeds to the customer. So now he owes me big time!!! I'll get to use his bucket truck a bunch in trade, I guess... and that will work!!! As I have several jobs for it.

 

[rbtree]

John took video of the topping... anyone want to help with posting it?

 

[rbtree]

Another that I had to climb was so spindly, and scary dead, that I set a line in nearby fir, then took a 60 foot top from 55 feet up. The dang thing rolled off other trees, hit the top 41 foot stick from the big tree, broke, a small top piece falling across a service wire section that we had not dropped. Had it missed the tree trunk, it would have trashed the service to one or two cabins!! I should have climbed it higher, but anyhow, no damage occurred, lucky me. Then, when dropping the butt, it jumped sideways, and just nudged the outhouse a bit, no damage again.

Then, when I dropped the 41 foot big tree butt, I was hurrying as the self loader was waiting on me. I got sloppy, missed my aim, and hit a nearby tree. The log fell on the wrong side, and again just missed the service wire. As it was falling, I was thinking, oh my God, what about the neigboring cabin...but it wasnt close to that at least!! Phew!!

 

[treeclimber165]

Some days go like that, Rog. I've had days when it seemed like every other cut was off by 2-3 degrees, and I never knew which way I was going to be off! Makes ya want to pack up your toys and go home until it passes, but it also makes you appreciate your own skill when 98% of the time you are dead-on. I'm learning to recognize those days when I'm 'in the groove' and really try to push it then. It's all a mind set and I just gotta work with what I got!

Glad you had enough precautions taken so that there was no damage in spite of a couple missed cuts. :angel:

 

[Stumper]

RB, I think you need to take Sundays off and get some rest. There are tooo many close calls/mistakes in this story-you are better than that! :angel: