Quantcast

MMike

A fowl peckerwood.
Sep 5, 2001
18,207
105
just sittin' here drinkin' scotch
So the last two weekends I've been pruning trees....Red and white pine in my front yard. (I think they are white pine...)

Red Pine are a pain in the ass.....all irregular....wood is way harder. I've been trimming with a hand saw. Lots of neighbours gawking. I manged to not fall off the ladder yet. Still more to do.

And the pisser is that I have to bundle it all for the garbage. No wood chipper truck like in my parents' neighbourhood.



 

stevew

resident influencer
Sep 21, 2001
40,494
9,524
is there a dead tree you can park the jeep under....accidents do happen.
 

gonefirefightin

free wieners
not bad for doing it yourself........couple notes

keep the cuts as close to the tree as possible (can cause rust, disease)

cover your fresh cuts with a sealer

dont limb more than 1/3 of the tree

and be careful in the ladder, it is the leading cause of arborist deaths/injury due to wrong equipment (no climbing gear)

drop me a line if you need and input, nice work
 

MMike

A fowl peckerwood.
Sep 5, 2001
18,207
105
just sittin' here drinkin' scotch
I'm using a wee little hand saw. IT's only 12" long. A little Stanley Shark....nasty teeth on it. It's fantastic for the white pines. I have to work harder for the red.

The reds I've mostly only been taking the dead stuff off. I don't quite understand these trees. Most of my neighbours have the same things and they all have tons of dead stuff on the lower "layers". The white pines are is good shape. Just letting a little more light in. taking some lower layers off.

With the hand saw, it's hard to keep the cuts against the tree. The branches are at very sharp angles with the trunk, so it's hard to get the saw in. I've been trying to cut the branches (especially the larger ones!) in such a way that they will swing away from me (duh!). But I'm trying to really think and predict what they will do before I have at it. I seem be able to predict it pretty well now. I'm not that high.....but definitely high enough to kill me....I'm pretty sure my wife would be happy either way......I'm fairly well insured.
 

gonefirefightin

free wieners
I'm pretty sure my wife would be happy either way......I'm fairly well insured.
I take it trimming limbs with a handsaw from a ladder might be her idea then...

I knew a guy who died from a 7 foot fall off a ladder while trimming. the problem with ladders is they put you on your head.

my tallest climb was 198 feet in 2002 on a giant doug fir over a golf course pump house. I had to chunk it from the top down, 11 hours straight in the tree. a couple months ago I had a 130 foor pine hanging over a $1.4 mil house and had to chunk and lower (by rope) every single piece.

 

MMike

A fowl peckerwood.
Sep 5, 2001
18,207
105
just sittin' here drinkin' scotch
I take it trimming limbs with a handsaw from a ladder might be her idea then...

I knew a guy who died from a 7 foot fall off a ladder while trimming. the problem with ladders is they put you on your head.

my tallest climb was 198 feet in 2002 on a giant doug fir over a golf course pump house. I had to chunk it from the top down, 11 hours straight in the tree. a couple months ago I had a 130 foor pine hanging over a $1.4 mil house and had to chunk and lower (by rope) every single piece.

G][/QUOTE]

Wasn't that the guy would wanted to pay you like $200 or something because he initially told you it was a 20 foot tree or something?

And yep. It's all her idea. And she keeps blowing up paper lunch bags and popping them while I'm working...
 

gonefirefightin

free wieners
Wasn't that the guy would wanted to pay you like $200 or something because he initially told you it was a 20 foot tree or something?

And yep. It's all her idea. And she keeps blowing up paper lunch bags and popping them while I'm working...
yeah, that photo was that job, he owned the house here but lived in portland, I had to show him the pictures of the job in order for him to pay my invoice.

what was supposed to be a 1 hour job was a 14 hour job, I charge a minumum of 100 dollars an hour if I have to climb, it was all climbing work
 
not bad for doing it yourself........couple notes

...keep the cuts as close to the tree as possible (can cause rust, disease)

cover your fresh cuts with a sealer...

For white pines, I have found over the years that for dead limbs, breaking them off using a maul leads to less infection with heart rot - you have to strike the limb far enough out to get enough leverage to break it. I have speculated that either
  1. Breaking the limb triggers the collar to exude pitch and protect the wound or
  2. Saws carry rot spores from tree to tree.
I suspect that the latter is true.
 

gonefirefightin

free wieners
  • The cuts want to be perpendicular to the long axis of the limb.
  • You do not want to cut into the thickened collar at the base of the limb.
  • Sealer's discredited according to some (Alex Shigo).

For white pines, I have found over the years that for dead limbs, breaking them off using a maul leads to less infection with heart rot - you have to strike the limb far enough out to get enough leverage to break it. I have speculated that either
  1. Breaking the limb triggers the collar to exude pitch and protect the wound or
  2. Saws carry rot spores from tree to tree.
I suspect that the latter is true.
its a west coast thing, on either coast limb nub isnt that critical but sealer out here is. the PNW has so much rain and humidity it is pretty important to seal trees near a structure, I wont even bother if it isnt near a dwelling.

and yes, saws do carry disease, thus is half the reason the PNW uses it.

not very knowledgeable on the east coast procedures but it gets argued all the time on arboristsite.com
 

MMike

A fowl peckerwood.
Sep 5, 2001
18,207
105
just sittin' here drinkin' scotch
  • The cuts want to be perpendicular to the long axis of the limb.
  • You do not want to cut into the thickened collar at the base of the limb.
  • Sealer's discredited according to some (Alex Shigo).

For white pines, I have found over the years that for dead limbs, breaking them off using a maul leads to less infection with heart rot - you have to strike the limb far enough out to get enough leverage to break it. I have speculated that either
  1. Breaking the limb triggers the collar to exude pitch and protect the wound or
  2. Saws carry rot spores from tree to tree.
I suspect that the latter is true.
As much as possible i was trying to break the dead stuff off.....not because I know any better...just out of sheer laziness. If I had to I'd start it with the saw and then give it a whack to finish it off.

But what is the deal with red pine? Are they just like that? ie: half of it is just supposed to be dead? One of the neighbours said they were "self pruning".....which I think is somewhat less than accurate.
 
As much as possible i was trying to break the dead stuff off.....not because I know any better...just out of sheer laziness. If I had to I'd start it with the saw and then give it a whack to finish it off.

But what is the deal with red pine? Are they just like that? ie: half of it is just supposed to be dead? One of the neighbours said they were "self pruning".....which I think is somewhat less than accurate.
All the red pine by us is trash - people got enthusiastic about planting it in WPA days, but it does not thrive in our area. I have three or four of them in one patch of my woods that's mostly white pine going over to ash, oak and maple. Is it native up Montreal way?
 

MMike

A fowl peckerwood.
Sep 5, 2001
18,207
105
just sittin' here drinkin' scotch
All the red pine by us is trash - people got enthusiastic about planting it in WPA days, but it does not thrive in our area. I have three or four of them in one patch of my woods that's mostly white pine going over to ash, oak and maple. Is it native up Montreal way?
It must be. Our area (St-Lazare) is lousy with trees. It was all mature stands of...lots of stuff. My street was/is mostly red pine. My house was built in 1990. my trees are a crap-pile older than that. (To the credit of the developer/town, they did a good job preserving the trees around here). But anyhoo, the red pine are rather plentiful in my immediate area. But the left side of my driveway is all white pine and the right side (in front of my house) is all red pine.
 

bean

Turbo Monkey
Feb 16, 2004
1,335
0
Boulder
Be extra wary if your wife suggests using a chainsaw on the ladder this time.
 
Last edited: