im yours.
supertopo.
your collective opinion of me,
i adore.
i am not entirely likeable.
i am quite awkward.
and confrontational.
and immature.
and dramatic and absolute
and judgemental and evil.
and most of all,
ignorant.
though if you know me, as me,
i am completely harmless.
i strive for consideration,
among you.
your recognition is to me,
emotionally pleasing.
consternation upon me, i'll take gleefully.
beatings upon my brow
are like cops upon my trail:
exciting.
so here i am,
being me, and nothing more.
if you ever need something or anything:
money, hugs, services, encouragement, cams that need lube,
guidebooks, splinter-ridden clean socks, a place to park your trailer,
a swayward vision, a riddle, hair product (sorry i cant provide anyone with hair product), a local guide or companion,
or even
if you just need someone to compare yourself agains to feel better about yourself,
i am a deep puddle in which you can step,
or even bathe if the chicks won't regard you and your dirtbag halo,
cheers.
supertopo.
we are we.
and this is exactly how folly flows.
Credit: Norwegian
Credit: Norwegian
Credit: Norwegian
please.
any endowment of yee, upon me is welcome
in my journey towards two smiles, successively.
Nice Weeg.. I used to teach climbing in the timber crew days- we cone collected that way.. Folks dont get how it feels to be up there in a slightest breeze that will make it seem like you doing twenty feet back and forth. and its just a grunt- that and the inevitable face plant against the bowl. feckin sappy process...;-)
Fun to run the videos, but watching the branches and trunk sections drop was a little too suggestive to me. Every time I drop something on a climb, I always think "this could be me!" But I enjoyed watching it anyway.
Still, Norwegian, you're a much braver man than I. One time I got a bear hang stuck up in a tree, and didn't want to use my climbing gear to get it down. We were horse packing, and one of the wranglers had a pistol (allegedly to shoot a horse if it broke a leg) and lots of ammo, and we proceeded to try to perforate the offending branch until it broke. Wish we had you along.
Cool. I used to do tree work for the USFS. We got to do some fun projects, bagging eagles, traveling around to different forests to do stuff.
We also built Osprey nests, which involved topping trees and then building a platform on the resulting flat surface. It's wild taking a big top off a tree- major swinging back and forth when it cuts loose!!
How do you make the first cut of the trunk with confidence that the tree top will fall away from you and not topple back and crush you on the way down?
if you just need someone to compare yourself agains to feel better about yourself,
i am a deep puddle in which you can step,
hilarious. when my mom tells me about another of her friend's 3rd child who got into a law school I will try to tell her I am not that bad. don't you hate when someone tries to compare you to other people? so f*#ked up...i am not them, and i am not those other guys bumming for a bus pass, so let me be me...
I enjoyed every minute of your videos! (Can’t comment on your poetry, though. No clue.)
BITD I used to do all kind of work hanging from a rope, like painting chimneys and construction, tower inspections, welding, etc. Even masonry! A lot of fun and a lot of money!
When I got older I started using my brain more and less muscle ;-).
bargain hunter, the pie cut with at least in inch of drop from the bottom of the front wedge to the height of the back cut creates the hinge- and slight wedging in the back cut as you get about half way through ensures the direction. Ive seen straight slash cuts come back onto the sawyer as the top sways backward- ugly scenario, jmho.
Credit: Ron Anderson
example of standard "pie" cut ^^^^ up hill fall nice on the hinge. back cut (final cut) is higher that bottom of front wedge or "pie" cut. Humboldt is just the opposite on the pie -so the bottom of the pie would be level with the back cut but rather downhill.. see? lol!
loggers loved this falling, saved the board footage!
baahaha oh i USE chaps and a helmet with shades for eye pro. never wore ear pro cuz i often wanted to hear the potential widow maker go before it hit me! Chaps saved me leg from going off,, cut through them and my knee cap once on a steep slope in a fire. Freshly sharpened 925 full compliment chain on a fourty inch bar did a job on me..air vaced to the horse-spital. where i sat --blood soaking towel after towel for fourty minutes in the ER- the fire boss wandering around cussing out everyone he could see lmao!
ron: sounds like you and i have some of the same background. i did alot of tree climbing for the cones. doug fir, ponderosa and jeffrey. also first saw on a hot shot crew and a faller. and chaps are for pussies. wore them for years fighting fires, never hit them once. wear jeans now, never hit them either.
I dunno if chaps are for pussies or not, but I imagine you gotta be a man to wear the extra weight and bear the heat - never wore them, I do like double front carhartt loggers for work.
I've done tree work for about 30 years and have never tagged my skin, or my pants with a running saw. I have tagged my Wescos on the edge of the soles a couple times. Never wore a hardhat, never wear safety goggles. I've had those boots since 1982, a few soles later, still using them.
What the hell are you doing way up in that tree Norwegian? Do I have to click your links to find out?
Edit: and Werner's right - you don't hit the strap, just like you don't front point yer lead line
Well in my defense, i was cutting on a slope where the back cut was at the ground, and the humboldt was above my head and the snag was burning -about 5 to six foot dbh. It was a shitty ass dirt- vert slope where somehow things grew- much like the rest of the shasta T...I was a felling boss that was also falling with a bunch of logger contractor fallers. i wuz on loan to the region.
And yeah seems there are a few of us.here the woodmen so to speak.
I wuz uh certified faller unlimited / instructor, red carded felling boss ,tractor boss, crew boss plus line boss trainee and base camp manager trainee. tallest trees i climbed were in the hood of 140' sugar pines. Those were some juicy bananas !
edit: and that aint Hank,, but i...back when hair grew dark on me.
How do you make the first cut of the trunk with confidence that the tree top will fall away from you and not topple back and crush you on the way down?
The simplest way is to unweight one side by cutting off the major branches, and the top will be pulled to the opposite side by the remaining branches. Wind must be considered. A rope from a helper on the ground can persuade the top to fall where you want it to. A wedge can be driven by the climber after a wedge cut and back cut are made, too.
I may not be as gray in the beard as some of you, but having worked in the trades since I was a kid, I've found this;
When you're green, you learn well and get reckless. Over confident.
When you've been doing it for a few years, you're good, but complacent. Settle into the groove, so to speak.
Then, you witness or are associated with, a freak accident. Someone is seriously hurt or dies in a situation where they were doing everything right.
So, after that happens, you take precautions. I'm a carpenter, so I wear headphones and eye protection when I cut or use large air nailers. Among other general safety rules.
Freak accidents happen, and I don't want to go out at work, it's got to be way cooler than that, whenever it happens.
wbraun: sorry to let the cat out of the bag so soon.
ron: i did a few 150'+ doug firs. never did any sugars. did stomping on the branches whip them loose or did you have to go all the way out and pick? that would be harry. i was able to do it with jeffreys because of the weight.
**"How do you make the first cut of the trunk with confidence that the tree top will fall away from you and not topple back and crush you on the way down?"
"The simplest way is to unweight one side by cutting off the major branches, and the top will be pulled to the opposite side by the remaining branches. Wind must be considered. A rope from a helper on the ground can help persuade the top to fall where you want it to. A wedge can be driven by the climber after a wedge cut and back cut are made, too."**
if the tree is leaning a little too much for a wedge you can use a hydrolic jack. start your back cut first, in about 6-8". cut a pie shape out for the jack, put your face cut in and slide the saw into the cut inside the jack and cut a lttle and jack a little until it goes. i only had to do this once but it worked.
I've seen some chainsaw accidents- always a big medivac sitch. I always wore chaps on fires. Well, they were required but I would have anyway. I never hit them but, like I said, accident = helivac and major blood loss. I didn't wear them in trees, too cumbersome to climb with.
Eye protection too, might be fine without it just cutting timber with sawdust coming out but in the brush some funky chunks take some funky flight paths.
I wear neither chaps nor eye protection sitting here at a computer!
i wasnt going to mention how many times i responded to cut woodcutters, all of the experienced and never wore protection UNTIL that day, when they ended up with 100 plus stitches up their leg. But, i would caution that 98% of the chaps out there wont block a freshly sharpened 925 forty inch bar with semi chisel when you slip on a slope and it comes down on yur knee still at speed. That was the FIRST thing they asked on the radio when i called myself in lol! Chaps were examined- parts of me still clinging to the cut.
edit : Manzanita, we once had to jack plate over a cedar snag that was nearly as wide as it was tall.. Odd that was.
Credit: Ron Anderson
My buddy Chuck Jobst with big tree of 82 i think,, a seven foot plus red fir
No Manzanita, we took em off with a twist right at the cone sprout. Very surgical.
I did some "high pressure" falls around lake tahoe on the NDOT right of way- between multi million dollar power lines and the road and MULTI million dollar houses and condos along the North shore. I would place a always handy beer or pop can for the target. Sometimes there were the bigwigs of NDOT there - i would play it up a bit to watch em sweat a little. they were quite gullible.;-D Did a ton of high ranger work too.
bargainhunter,
the top of this tree had fallen out previously, so i just climbed up to the tip which was still 24" in diameter) and took 2' at a time, working my way back down the tree.
i used a salami-cut to encourage the 300# pieces to fall away from me. the danger of this descending cut style is that you encroach upon your safety line at the far (and less visible) side of the tree.
much care is required.
ron this tree was leaning too much, even at the top, for me to utilize wedges / face cut combo. i was much too high to employ
guy lines to my ground man.
blublocker i dont know genevia?
is she a strawberry gal?
this was a red fir, about 180' in height,
about 5' diameter at the base.
once i reached the 80' level,
i rapped to ground and pulled the bare trunk down with a come-along and liberal wedges. i put a humbolt style face cut and left about 3" of hinge.
it had a strong lean back at the bridge, so the consequences for a mishap were unacceptable (i carry 2 million worth of insurance but i never ever want to use it)
we had to sled our gear into this job,
the client wanted it down prior to winter,
with the bridge hazard and all.
how'd you get the rope up there? I only ever threw a line as high as i could, then prussiked up, threw another line, prussiked up so on and so forth. man that seems like a life time ago (well just under half my lifetime at 16 years) agree with the statements on how far those trees move at the tip, i think the highest i ever went was 80' or so.
i prefer the original blasphemy
smacked of authenticity
you edited to appease the christian right
nutjob gun toting
bearf*#ker
where's the dignity in that?
wade icy my first trip report
was linked to video that had my
full name attached to the videos
so i re-uploaded the vid's to a stealth
account and hence re-did the report.
im pretty much a sissy-cat-coward,
despite my attempt to convince everyone
otherwise.
try as i did,
i could not flip line the initial 90'
of trunk. the circumference was about 12'
and the bark was highly featured;
the flip line would hang up and
i couldn't ascend.
so i climbed an adjacent tree,
threw my throw ball over a branch
on the big tree, then entered the
big guy on my climb line.
a storm rolled in so i
left the line fixed for a week
and then came back and jumared
to my high point,
at which the trunk was thin enough
for me to flip line.
flip lining large trunks is a difficult
skill to perfect.
here's a few pics from my hero grounds man, jared:
nice day at the office:
Impressive amount of work there Weeg. Tree exposure can be worse than rock exposure sometimes! they hold rot , cracking and leans unseen at times. and a foot of lateral movement may seem like thirty. Climbing and topping is the A game of logging. THUMBS Up on your game..
You should get a different flip line for bigger timber. You need an old school braided rig for the big trees- that and a western roll will get you right on up. One of my tasks at the smokejumper base was to make them with this ancient mariners tool thing using that huge hardback knot book as a guide- can't remember the name.
During smokejumper rookie training they made us climb MASSIVE NorCal doug firs. We had to go up to where the trunk narrowed down to about 4 inches or so. I liked it- great views, a nice breeze and pretty much the only place where one of the trainers wasn't yelling / making you do push ups / etc. Nice place to swing with the breeze for a few minutes.
i am not entirely likeable.
i am quite awkward.
and confrontational.
and immature.
and dramatic and absolute
and judgemental and evil.
and most of all,
ignorant.
though if you know me, as me,
i am completely harmless.
I often feel like this reads…
Thanks for letting me in on some of the orchestra known as the week life.
bump fer pitch in yur hair , sawdust in yur shorts.
Top- me training some of my all female timber crew on year- they were timber beasts..
bottom,, Log deck from the Acorn fire- the FIRST heli salvage sale in the region.
edit: Weeg, i understand your choice of cuts, since you inch wormed it down.;-) at that size, i would done the same. Last one i topped i took the top fifty out of it. You have to have your wedge timing down to the nuts as you scan the top. Slash cuts in those sitchs will kill ya..;-0
some NDOT cuttin.. That stretch of cotton woods on highway 95A between wabuska and yerington were pruned by moi, including taking out two of them completely,, 9.5 and 11.5 dbhs..
Bottom is on Spooner summit-Lake tahoe- where i cut the whole right of way from south shore to stateline..
Credit: Ron Anderson
Big tree of 83,, a 7 foot dbh ponderosa
Credit: Ron Anderson
and a GNARLY juniper snag that took DAYS to conquer in woodfords canyon..
cool Thread WEEG! hope you dont mind the add-ons..
I often feel like this reads…
