Tree climber ......Nuts !

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Minister of Fire
Mar 28, 2011
618
Corunna, Michigan
Thought I’d share a few pics of a silver maple I had a tree company take down this last fall.
I should’ve cut it down before I built the pole barn but I just didn’t want to see it go .
Needed to make room for a expansion on the sugarhouse so it had to go . I’ll stick with my 2 feet on the ground getting firewood , these tree climbers are definitely professionals .

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I cut all kinds of firewood. Plus, I have built 4 custom log cabins turn key by myself and the main tool of the log builder is the chain saw.
I am really good with a chain saw.
But I am not going to climb a tree with a chain saw. Good Lord is that some dangerous work.

I admire those climber guys it really takes some nerve.
 
I live in an older neighborhood of the city where we have many mature trees (less and less now). Bloody infills. Sometime I would drive by and see the Usplundh trucks parked and the guys working. The climbers looks like teenagers sometimes. Scary!
 
Any time I've hired tree guys I haven't had a problem writing a healthy check at the end of the day. They earn every penny! I usually make sure I have some cold beer in the fridge too.
 
Any time I've hired tree guys I haven't had a problem writing a healthy check at the end of the day. They earn every penny! I usually make sure I have some cold beer in the fridge too.
Just make sure you wait till they are done before you break out the beer. Made the mistake of serving beer a little too soon to the fellas trowling a garage floor for me. You can still see it in the floor about where the beer started.
 
Just make sure you wait till they are done before you break out the beer. Made the mistake of serving beer a little too soon to the fellas trowling a garage floor for me. You can still see it in the floor about where the beer started.
I had a beer before I finished the last tree on a recent job for a friend. The part that scares me is the potential to having to pee and of course there’s always people watching. The worse thing is the potential 3 day hangover from one too many. Had that happen twice last summer on two different tree jobs. Definitely getting to old for celebration
 
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I am an expert at very few things. One of them is a strong will. I will not crack a beer before I am finished using/operating any power tool (gas/electric). Afterwards, watch out. Love walking around with a beer in hand watching the fruits of my labour!
 
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Ya, it’s a different world. I used to speed climb way way back with a world champion that called beer climbing oil. He ended up getting gout and can’t drink at all now. Still a beast
 
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I’ve taught a couple guys how to climb. I tie a rope up about 60’ on a donor tree and have them in a harness with an ascender. It’s really not much harder than climbing a ladder once you get the technique down. I use a lot of safety techniques nowadays as well that keep me safe. The impossible part is passing the actual tree cutting knowledge. There’s no place to run from any mistakes. What might seem safe and right while on the ground becomes very different when your glued to the front row seat
 
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yep..nuts is right!


Thank you so much. I will be dizzy for the rest of the day! So much for productive work this afternoon.
 
Just make sure you wait till they are done before you break out the beer. Made the mistake of serving beer a little too soon to the fellas trowling a garage floor for me. You can still see it in the floor about where the beer started.
LOL... you can see it in my garage floor where my brother in law and started drinking more.
 
Just make sure you wait till they are done before you break out the beer. Made the mistake of serving beer a little too soon to the fellas trowling a garage floor for me. You can still see it in the floor about where the beer started.

My tree guy has a strict rule--he won't crack a beer until everything is cleaned up. I appreciate that on more than one level. One time he finished the job at about 10 AM. My wife just shook her head when she came home for lunch to find me and his crew a sheet or two to the wind sitting on the porch.
 
Tree topping at 200 feet. I didn't even turn on the video I know I couldn't watch.
What is weird, I have flown hang gliders quite a bit. I have made 104 flights from Lookout Mtn. Georgia, my longest flight was 3 hours 5 minutes.
I have no problem being up 200 feet in a hang glider, in fact I felt real comfortable at 1,500 feet above the ground.
But I ain't going up 200 feet in a tree. To me that is scary, scary.

As diabel said I won't touch a beer until all the power tools have been put away. I have done quite a bit of construction work, all the carpenters held to that rule. Now the painters, that was different, I am talking about interior painters where you cannot get more than about 2 feet above the floor on the ladder, but I would often see the painters hitting the Budweiser at 7:45 before they even began to work.

Carpenters who start on the beer in the morning are going to be missing a thumb.
 
Now the painters, that was different, I am talking about interior painters where you cannot get more than about 2 feet above the floor on the ladder, but I would often see the painters hitting the Budweiser at 7:45 before they even began to work.
funny you say this.

some years ago i hired couple of commercial painters to paint my house. One of them was a friend of a friend. I kid you not......they would show up on the job 7:30am sharp and the first thing they would do is look into my fridge to make sure there was beer for them for the 9:00 smoke/beer break. Will never forget that.....they did a great job painting though.
 
I definitely try to be done before beer. Hard to say no sometimes to friends. One beer isn’t horrible but still makes me feel yucky and weak if it’s a tough tree and fatigue is a huge enemy
 
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And to make matters worse, all i had was quarts.!!!
 
I can’t watch that guy.
Thank you so much. I will be dizzy for the rest of the day! So much for productive work this afternoon.
I didn't even turn on the video I know I couldn't watch.

I'd much rather watch than be up there! !!! I got sweaty hands, but that's it. That guy has nerves of steel. Later in the video he's talking to the camera a couple times in the tree like he's sitting on a beach in Maui.
 
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As Paul Harvey would say “‘now for the rest of the story “.
Before I hired the crew to take down the maple I decided hey I can do this myself . Local rental place has man lifts so I called and rate for a 40 ft lift was like $100 for 4 hours . Ok cool , problem solved I’ll get the man lift and do this myself .
Got the man lift home , got inside a small cage and up I went . I do have a Husky top handle arborist saw . Went up to about 3/4 way up and stopped . Looked down thru opening in wire floor and said to myself “ what do I do if that gas motor quits ? That’s all she took , I was down off that thing I’m record time ! I’m in central Michigan and I’ve told the family and friends that I was so high I could see Big Mac to the north and Canada to the east . Needless to say they don’t believe me . Lol
 
As Paul Harvey would say “‘now for the rest of the story “.
Before I hired the crew to take down the maple I decided hey I can do this myself . Local rental place has man lifts so I called and rate for a 40 ft lift was like $100 for 4 hours . Ok cool , problem solved I’ll get the man lift and do this myself .
Got the man lift home , got inside a small cage and up I went . I do have a Husky top handle arborist saw . Went up to about 3/4 way up and stopped . Looked down thru opening in wire floor and said to myself “ what do I do if that gas motor quits ? That’s all she took , I was down off that thing I’m record time ! I’m in central Michigan and I’ve told the family and friends that I was so high I could see Big Mac to the north and Canada to the east . Needless to say they don’t believe me . Lol

Lol...try being fully extended in a 145' man lift. Lots of boom deflection when it's scoped out all the way. You can literally see the bend in it and you really have to feather the controls when it's out that much or you will over swing when you go left or right and literally piss your pants.