From da top Down, Pics

[chet]

Taking trees down from the top down, always gives me a little extra thrill. Add in some power lines, a house, a garage, a well manicured yard, and a few curious onlookers and now we're talkin' fun.    8)    8)    8)

[biziedizie]

  Very cool Chet Can you teach me how to do that. 8)
  I would love to climb a tree and top it but I think I would kill myself :D
  Where did you learn your trade??? Do you ever have panick attacks while your up a tree as it sways back and forth???
  

    Steve

[Kevin]

Now that's fun!
I took the top out of a 16dbh poplar yesterday that had grown up into two leaders and broke the lashing wire supporting a 2"communications cable.
It's a jungle out there!  ;D
Chet, is that a linemans pole strap attached to your saddle?
What make of saddle?
Did you drop those tops on a block, I can't see one in the pictures but I do see a couple of ropes.
Good to have another climber on here!

[Bro. Noble]

Kevin,

Are you unaware that I also do aeriel tree trimming? ???

Well maybe not as high as you and Chet.

My Dad asked me to help him trim some walnut limbs in his yard a few years ago.  Dad doesn't hear real well and doesn't read lips or signals at all.  I was way up in the air (at least 8 ft.) in the bucket of the loader and Dad was on the tractor.  I successfully trimmed the limbs and was ready to return to earth when I was attacked by big black ants (wonder what the term for about a gazillion ants is?).  I started hollering at Dad to get me down------pointing downward,  jumping and fighting ants all at the same time.  Dad sat there saying WHAT?  WHAT? :

[chet]

Steve I learned my trade on the job. It is how I actually payed my way through college. And no, sway does not bother me. Sometimes the nerves take a beating when taking the first few pieces from a tree that you are not sure will suport you.  :-/ The tree in the first picture is a good example. The customer had dug a big hole right next to the tree, to add on to his house. Of couse the tree started tipping into the hole and toward the house. Luckly there was another tree close by for me to be tied into just in case the tree I was removing went over.
Keven I did not catch the pieces in the first pic, the tree would have never held, I just tipped them back away from the house. The tree in the second pic I caught the pieces with a butt-check. A deck had been added to the home around the tree so there was no place to drop the wood. I climb with an old leather buckingham leg strap saddle. It does fit a little tighter now than it did 30 years ago,  :-[  I think it shrunk  . My strap is an Edison belt, it is 3/4 nylon rope strap that is adjustable.

[Kevin]

Noble, that's what we call a hack attack.:D
 
Chet are you using a split tail or traditional system?
What hitch?
Where do you get your supplies, is there a dealer close by?

[chet]

Kev, I still us the old traditional method, with either a taught-line or a rolling hitch. It depends on the climb.
Most of my gear I have had for many years, but anything that I have recently gotten has come from Sherril Arborist Supply.

[Kevin]

Sherrill is good and getting better all the time.
Do you use a stopper knot on that rolling hitch to keep it from rolling out?
I'm using the Distel on a split tail, it works really smooth and never locks up when the weight is removed.
I try and get my climbing in before the afternoon heat, it's been a little rainy lately.

[chet]

I've tried a lot of them new fangled knots and newer climbing lines, but its really tough for an old tree dog to swicth from what has faithfully served him for so long.   :-/   But I will admit, there have been some real advances in recent years that sure have make a tough job a lot easier.     Problem is some of them ain't to DanG cheap.    

[chet]

Hey Kev, I noticed you're really crowd'n dat 50 mark jist like me. I was going to tell ya we should sit back and let dem kids hoof dem trees.   ;D
Den I remembered to factor in the exchange rate and shoot, dat only makes you about 36.   :D

[Kevin]

I wish I was 48 again!
I could footlock back then.   ;D

[Tom]

You mean you had to use your feet?

[Kevin]

Along with a few other parts.

[chet]

Footlockin' now dars a real treat.   ;)   Kevin do you footlock using any of dat new fangled gear they have out now, or are you one of us dumb old farts that uses just your own muscle and your rope.
There ain't nothing better than footlocking a few trees then going home at night and then going jogging for some exercise.    :D    YA RIGHT   ;D

[Kevin]

Chet, for footlocking I use a static rope and I have the Kong double ascenders.
I use a backup hitch.
I also have a pantin and use it from time to time.
A ladder is faster to set up on occasion and I prefer the hooks but only on take downs or dead or dying trees.
What length of gaff are you climbing with?

[Fla._Deadheader]

You'se guys got me sweatin and pantin, just reading this thread. : Just rememberin the times we clumb?climbed? ascended? old poles, and having them start to fall over when ya took the last line or guy wire loose, was ALWAYS a treat. Only remember 1 guy being hurt when the pole fell with him on it. Made us good candidates for the rapid descent of the Timber sports competitors. : : : Now, them guys, is REALLY nuts, dropping so far and hooking the trees 3 times. How ya keep from breakin ankles ??? ??? ???

[Bro. Noble]

Chet and Kevin,

It's really interesting to learn the type of equipment my fellow 'high-in-the-sky' chainsaw guys asre using ;)

Due to a combination of advancing age and the availibility of new technology,  I have developed a new method that I prefer------Sthil -on-a-stick and feet on the ground ;D

[Greenman]

Noble, try using a Stihl-on-a-stick up in the tree.

For the record, I'm hardcore against gaffs unless you're on a pole or removal.  Even on removals, I've only used 'em once.

[Kevin]

Green, are you a certified arbo?

Noble, I have heard of professionals using those new powered pole saws, you're just a little ahead of your time.  :D

Dead, I've seen those clearance poles drop on more than one occasion, usually customer owned poles with service wires on them.

[Greenman]

yessiree, bob.  (see member profile)

[Kevin]

Good stuff, I'm a climbing lineman with several hundred  miles of communication cable to patrol along the trans Canada two track north of the Great Lakes.
I try and gather proper pruning techniques from arborists in order to clear my lines but save a few decent trees in the process.
I'm sure everyone here can learn that there is a proper method for caring for their own trees especially when it comes to over pruning and the dreaded topping.

Just as a side note I see the Silky Zubat/sheath selling for $45 at Hall's Safety.

[Kevin]

I just got back from walking the dog, around the corner is a guy with his van parked under a tree on the sidewalk with a ladder on top of the van.
He's on the ladder breaking branches in an attempt to prune it.

[chet]

Did ya look to see who dat Canuck tree trimmer was.   :-/  Might have been dat dar Red Green fellar, wit da possum van, eh.   ;D

[DanG]

No arborist here! I get nervous on a 4' stepladder. :D

Just a couple of side notes, though; I watched an arborist pruning a live oak a couple of weeks ago. He was using a really nifty hydraulic pole saw. Looked like a 14" bar and he was whizzing through 8" to 10" limbs like butter.  He was working from a bucket, about 30' up.

On the down side, and arborist was killed in Tallahassee, last week, when a limb took an unexpected turn, somehow, and pushed a power line into him. An awful shame, and a high price to pay for a moment of carelessness. :'(

[Kevin]

Here's the article on that one, appears he was a contractor doing line clearance.

Posted on Thu, Jul. 31, 2003 story:PUB_DESC
Worker dies from electrocution
Tree trimmer cut oak branch over power line
By Kim McCoy
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

A young husband and father died Wednesday morning after being electrocuted while trimming trees.

Michael Brown, 27, of Colquitt, Ga., had been working for Musgrove Construction, a subcontractor for Talquin Electric Cooperative, for about a year. The construction company is located in Live Oak. He was married and had a 3-year-old child, said Lt. Linda Butler of the Leon County Sheriff's Office.

Brown was trimming trees away from power lines while inside a bucket lift on Dick Mitchell Drive. Brown was near a transformer when he was electrocuted about 11:30 a.m., said Sgt. Curtis Parker of the Sheriff's Office.

A preliminary investigation showed that Brown cut a limb above a power line. The limb then fell onto a high-voltage line, which struck Brown, said Allen Shepard, area operations superintendent for Talquin.

An unusual accident

Tree trimmers use insulated hydraulic saws and wear hard hats and safety harnesses, and gloves if necessary, Shepard said. Brown was wearing the necessary equipment for his job, Shepard said. Shepard has worked with the company about 25 years and doesn't remember any other worker fatalities.

"It's very rare that stuff like this happens. They're very well-trained," Butler said.

After the incident, Talquin shut down power to about 2,000 homes in the surrounding northwest area for just a few minutes, so rescue workers could work safely, Shepard said. Power to the approximately 30 homes on Dick Mitchell Drive was shut down for nearly three hours, he said.

Grady Belgeo was washing cars in his yard when he heard a buzzing sound.

"I heard a noise and looked up. ... I could see fire flash around him," he said of Brown.

Jay Walker, another Dick Mitchell Drive resident, spoke with Brown about 45 minutes before the worker died. Walker heard the tree-trimming and went to his front porch, where he could see Brown. The men greeted each other. Brown later knocked on Walker's door and told him he was going to trim some oak trees. Walker later heard a noise while working from his home office.

"I heard a pop," Walker said. "I walked outside, and saw him up there. ... He was basically motionless and leaning backwards, still standing in the bucket."

The incident is under investigation by Talquin, Musgrove, the Sheriff's Office and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

[chet]

Hey Greenman, noticed by your bio your connection to Purdue University. Ever attend the forestry camp they used to have here in the UP of Michigan. Back in the late 70's they hired me to take about 75 trees out from around their buildings for them.
And for the record, I hooked every tree.  ;D

[Greenman]

No, I didn't go to camp.  I had work experience that nullified the requirement for me.  And at the time I thought I really needed to use the room that made for other classes.  Now I really wish I had gone, though.  I've never been up there, and I heard it's a really great time.  I also heard some stories about some o' da yoopers (sp?) up der didn't like our students hangin' around.  A few vans even ended up with all of their tires flattened.  But I still think it would have been a great experience.  You can't let a couple bad apples...

I have an arborist horror story, too.  It happened at Purdue (meaning on the job for Purdue) as a matter of fact.  I had a friend who was helping one of the wildlife grad students retrieve a radio transmitter from a dead bird.  They were about 35' up ,both tied in to the same branch, when the branch let go.  My friend ended up with a broken back.  The wildlifer was able to go get help.  The scary thing is that later a couple of professors and other experts went to look at the tree and could find no reason that the branch should have fallen.  The branch was more than big enough to hold them both, the day it happened the weather was beautiful, there was no apparent rot or defect, and it was an oak that had every appearance of being perfectly healthy.  It was just one of those freak things.

Last time I saw him, he was finally walking again, but he had to wear a back brace and had some vertebrae fused together.  But he still didn't have complete control of the nether regions (had to wear a bag).

I guess it goes to show you have to really love what you do and live the way you want 'cause you never know what's gonna happen.

[chet]

Yur friends broke one of da tree-trimmers 10 comandments. NEVER tie to a branch, (always tie around the main stem of the tree).
Mistakes or carelessness can be very unforgiving.  

[Mark M]

Gosh - Kevin and Chet I'm the same age as you guys and always considered myself to be a young whipper-snapper. I didn't realize I was almost 50 :D

Mark

[OneWithWood]

Kevin, Chet and Mark,

I am just a 49 year old kid.  Sure hope the AARP discount works for the roller coasters :D