After years of putting it off ( and sweating and fretting though every big wind storm the past decade) we finally had the big Ponderosa Pine felled out in the front yard.
We hired a friend who’s been doing this for over 40 years. Russ is originally from Pittsburg PA. and he began climbing trees at age 13 in conjunction with a high school vo-tech class. It was a hoot to watch.
Before:
Russ saddles up:
The chipper is a key element to this operation
The big limbs are lowered down to the groundmen by rope
A crowd assembles. We should have charged admission
In the top of the tree they zip line the branches down (see video below)
Guys in this line of work really ain't in their right minds:
The saw running out of gas doesn’t slow Russ down in the least
After he drops the higher parts of the trunk he sends down his small saw and yards up his 24" bar Stihl 36 to fall chunks of the larger trunk. The trunk is felled with a Stihl 66 (see video below).
Note to self - NEVER challenge this guy to arm wrassle.
Short videos:
Russ’s insane workplace http://s151.photobucket.com/user/ropestretcher/media/Suburban%20logging/vid1-crazy_zpsc07815f4.mp4.html
Revenge of the tree http://s151.photobucket.com/user/ropestretcher/media/Suburban%20logging/vid3-revenge_zps148a8370.mp4.html
So do you have a nice stack of ponderosa split in your backyard?
No Kevin, we've got plenty of split, dried lodge pole pine, so we let the "wood maggots" who work with these guys take it. The one merchantable log was picked up by a guy with a self-loader who trucks them up to Portland, there being no mills round these parts anymore.
Right on!
That lodge pole probably burns hotter anyhow.
No mills around Bend?!! What they heck is this world coming to?
There are plenty of trees to harvest near Bend isn't there?
Which endangered species has your forest locked up?
Mike,
Could not see the split trunk in the first photo.
Good thing you got that out of there.
Joe
There goes your shade tree!
Yeah Joe, the multiple school marms made a pretty tree into a hazardous tree, as a school marm will. We had Russ cable them together about 5 years ago, but there was so much play in the crown with the wind twisting the whole rig around crazy-like that the cables snapped after the second year. That, and the fact that the tree was shallowly rooted in a lava shelf without much more than prayers and clean living to keep it anchored proper brought us to the conclusion that it was us or the tree. Us 1, Tree 0.
What'd that job cost ya?
Did you jingle with him, and see if he'd do his job for $150?
🙂
Nate
> Did you jingle with him, and see if he'd do his job for $150?
> Nate
Even though we had him up a tree we didn't try to "jingle" with him Nate. This guy's a pro and it was a dicey operation. He didn't destroy the light pole, landscaping, Maureen's apple tree or any of our sprinkler system. And after he wiped out the mail boxes he put them back in place
I am just kidding you. I mean, I have had Realtors, and others with no understanding, try that with me.
(I did not expect you to "Jingle" with him, as it would be below you. And the rest of good surveyors.)
N
