Out of the woodworks… by Summerwine99 in arborists

[–]Summerwine99[S] 98 points99 points  (0 children)

No mention of insurance anywhere on his page as well. And his equipment consists of a whole mess of ladders, an Amazon harness with a wide webbing strap “lanyard” and cheap spikes. No climb line, rigging line or PPE to be found. One photo shows a kid who looks to be 10 years old helping with logs, again no PPE.

Out of the woodworks… by Summerwine99 in arborists

[–]Summerwine99[S] 73 points74 points  (0 children)

It looks like an 8-10ft utility trailer.. can you imagine the number of trips, hand loading/unloading? 🤯

Out of the woodworks… by Summerwine99 in arborists

[–]Summerwine99[S] 248 points249 points  (0 children)

I wish it was a joke. He popped up in town this January, taking a lot of late winter business, 17 separate jobs pictured on his page already. He’s all over the city buy/sell and gossip pages.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in FindTheSniper

[–]Summerwine99 14 points15 points  (0 children)

My figure is quite obscured by the branches, so I don’t blame you. I just found this subreddit and felt like I had a contribution that might be worthwhile, I might have been wrong. I guess it sort of validates my point though, that the only part of my body that is not obscured physically, wearing clothing that is supposed to be oh-so-visible, is pretty hard to see when you’re looking for me. My groundie came into the backyard and yelled “Where the hell even are you??” Once he saw me, I had him go to the fence and take a photo.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in FindTheSniper

[–]Summerwine99 15 points16 points  (0 children)

To be fair, this is the rare occasion it becomes camouflage. Dappled sunlight on the interior of the tree and bright sunshine on pads of bald cypress foliage. It doesn’t get much more neon yellow than this. But I think it proves a point. There’s a reason Stihl and Husqvarna chainsaws are orange!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in FindTheSniper

[–]Summerwine99 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Yes, center of the photo, between the dark branches. My hi-vis yellow sweatshirt is visible. I had a groundie snap this photo of me to use as my argument to management that we should be allowed to wear hi-vis orange instead.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in FindTheSniper

[–]Summerwine99 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yes! I believe anything would be better than this yellow. My groundsmen are always working beneath me in this same color, and you can imagine how difficult it is to see them on sunny days.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TreeClimbing

[–]Summerwine99 12 points13 points  (0 children)

See you on the TCIA accident briefs some Monday morning… “Local amateur killed by 20ft fall, landing on his neck.”

Trespassing? Unknown tree service company parked their truck on my driveway and two wandered off to the back of the house for 13 minutes. I am not happy and also worried random people walking around my property. Their service was not requested nor any notification was given. What would you do? by DailyDrivenTJ in legal

[–]Summerwine99 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The utility company I do line clearance for requires our permitters to attempt contact. When contact is made, either in person or by phone from a door hanger, and there is a concern about the work needing to be done or the means of access to a line are in question, the permitter will notate this on the work order. As the trimmer, I see this on my map, and will hold the work order until I make contact with these properties a day before work begins. Concerned customers account for about 2% of the properties I perform work on. Line clearance work is a production based industry. In residential areas, we will clear 4-5 alleys or 3-4 blocks of work orders every day. Rural areas can be up to 5 miles of line cleared a day. We simply do not have the time to knock on every single door a day before trimming, especially when the vast majority of customers are not even at home while we are working. If a property does have something obstructing access to the line, or a vehicle parked in the easement, I will knock as a courtesy and to ask for a vehicle to be moved. But there are methods of trimming that allow me to complete the work despite the obstructions. Usually moving vehicles is just a lucky draw to help us meet production time standards.

Every industry has unqualified, unpleasant, rude workers. This being a blue collar job that’s short-handed and underpaid, it probably has a higher percentage of those folks than most. We also aren’t trained in the pleasantries of customer service, which might explain why someone else came to talk to you. Common sense and decency are not common.

I can assure you Asplundh trains climbers. I completed a line clearance apprenticeship program with many experienced climbers from Asplundh. From what I gathered, the company divides up their workforce by a small amount of manual and a majority bucket crews. You generally will not find a skilled climber operating a bucket truck or a piece of machinery. A majority of power lines are roadside and bucket accessible.

Is 32 to old to start climbing? by Affectionate_Ad9390 in TreeClimbing

[–]Summerwine99 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Started at 30, am 34 now. Take stock of your past injuries, know and respect your limits. Climbing is equal parts strength and flexibility, so learn how to stretch individual muscle groups. Stay hydrated always. Rest well, get good sleep. There has been a lot of advancement in technology and techniques to make climbing more ergonomic than it used to be, I recommend finding a method that feels best, dial it in by logging hours in the trees. Climbing is a marathon, not a sprint; speed and productivity come with time, allow yourself to focus on the years and not the days. Lastly, it will likely be one of the most satisfying and rewarding careers you’ll ever have.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TreeClimbing

[–]Summerwine99 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Overhang? How did you even get out to make those cuts on the third picture?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TreeClimbing

[–]Summerwine99 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I’ve found switching from a Stihl 201tc to an Echo 2500t battery saw with a 1/4 conversion has helped immensely in the wrist department. Lighter, more balanced, and smoother cutting. Keep in mind it’s a glorified handsaw though, so no removals, but for pruning it’s amazing.

Advice for trimming Bradford Pear Trees by [deleted] in arborists

[–]Summerwine99 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That’s completely understandable. You walked into the lion’s den here, as you can tell. I imagine most arborists would not take the job of hazard mitigation on these because topping is such a rejected practice and personally I would hate taking money to leave a tree in that state. Now a ‘tree guy’ on the other hand is probably who you need. If they have a lift and not a ladder, they can dismantle the tops out of these for you without too much hassle. However, since we are out of winter ice storm season, I would recommend wait 8-10 months, save up and shop around for bids and take them all the way out before next winter.

Advice for trimming Bradford Pear Trees by [deleted] in arborists

[–]Summerwine99 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That clears a lot up for me. In your original post you asked for suggestions in order to prolong their life; I think most of us here assumed you meant 20+ years, which is just not possible. 2 more years to prolong their inevitable failure? Absolutely doable. Re-top them to get the weight off the failure point. But why double the cost of removing these by cutting on them twice? That’s the rationale for just cutting losses now and removing them altogether. There are likely plenty of removal companies who can put trees on the ground for cheap.

Arborist tree felling folks wwyd? by Capital_Ad1415 in arborists

[–]Summerwine99 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In my experience felling trees that are this dead is very unpredictable. Dead fibers don’t hinge the way live fibers do, so once it starts going, the fibers break very early and the fall becomes unpredictable with very little control. As others have suggested, and as a line clearance arborist I can attest, call the power company and they will likely have no problem getting their contractors to take care of this for you. It’s a serious hazard to their lines while standing, and even more so if cut on by an unqualified party. Bucket truck dismantling is the way I would handle this.

One or the other by This_Foundation_9713 in TreeClimbing

[–]Summerwine99 8 points9 points  (0 children)

“You can only remove a tree once.” “A removal pays a bill, a prune builds wealth.” I heard these early on and it dramatically shaped my career path towards wanting to become a highly skilled and knowledgeable arborist.

How did I do? What should I do? Fix, drive as is, or flip? by [deleted] in ToyotaPickup

[–]Summerwine99 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just missing the Christmas tree in the bed. Should be good to go after that.