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treevet · 28th February 2008, 06:00 PM

[quote=Tree Machine;23583]

Ice storms can be wicked. Treevet got an early, wet October snow a few years ago before the trees had shed their leaves, I remember, it walloped you.

Right, TM, but last year in Feb we got hit with a major ice storm, 1 of 3 I ve been involved in my 38 years of tree service. It gave us 3 months of non stop storm damage 6 days a week. The first day I was out clearing driveways so people could could go to work and it was like a war zone (been there too) as big snaps, cracks and wooshes and huge crashes as limbs rained all around you.

You d have to go in and get out as fast as possible. It was extremely profitable but way dangerous, too.

A cable story out of this. HO Calls and a whole side of a tree was on her house. Showed up and you could see the dark wood in the split that meant it had been split for a while and cable would have corrected the problem.

It was in the teens and limb was lying on 4 inches of snow and other end was still attached to stem about 40 feet in air. It was behind house in deck and unreachable with my picker and/or crane. Big problem was tree was encased in ice about 3 to 4" thick. No climbing from ground was happening. Decided to leave until ice melted.

We waited a few days then ice started melting. Problem was ice was still thick on tree and weight of limb, melting snow and damage from impact was allowing water to just pour inside the house in torrents.

Got a 120-ft sub crane, and it was cool. He couldn t boom me over tree and down to crotch as canopy was in way. I hooked up to ball and he aimed it at crotch I wanted in and he kind of injected me in the canopy of the tree. I never dropped more than 2 feet below the shiv and he boomed out the full extent while feeding cable and put me right on the limb ready to tie in and then disconnect lanyard from ball. What a magician! I tied in, and yes, I was wearing spikes in a live tree, but these were extraordinary circumstances. The melting snow was flooding the house and things were being destroyed. Besides, ice was so thick, I was barely entering the wood with spikes.

Anyway, I tied in, slid down, hooked a choker, he tensioned, I cut leader off, and sat back and watched him boom entire lead in air as I was worried it would break loose and crush me. Big buck$ on that job

Big fun, too.

28th February 2008, 06:00 PM	#34 (permalink)
treevet Over mature heritage tree Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Posts: 972	Re: Violent weather, tornado belt [quote=Tree Machine;23583] Ice storms can be wicked. Treevet got an early, wet October snow a few years ago before the trees had shed their leaves, I remember, it walloped you. Right, TM, but last year in Feb we got hit with a major ice storm, 1 of 3 I ve been involved in my 38 years of tree service. It gave us 3 months of non stop storm damage 6 days a week. The first day I was out clearing driveways so people could could go to work and it was like a war zone (been there too) as big snaps, cracks and wooshes and huge crashes as limbs rained all around you. You d have to go in and get out as fast as possible. It was extremely profitable but way dangerous, too. A cable story out of this. HO Calls and a whole side of a tree was on her house. Showed up and you could see the dark wood in the split that meant it had been split for a while and cable would have corrected the problem. It was in the teens and limb was lying on 4 inches of snow and other end was still attached to stem about 40 feet in air. It was behind house in deck and unreachable with my picker and/or crane. Big problem was tree was encased in ice about 3 to 4" thick. No climbing from ground was happening. Decided to leave until ice melted. We waited a few days then ice started melting. Problem was ice was still thick on tree and weight of limb, melting snow and damage from impact was allowing water to just pour inside the house in torrents. Got a 120-ft sub crane, and it was cool. He couldn t boom me over tree and down to crotch as canopy was in way. I hooked up to ball and he aimed it at crotch I wanted in and he kind of injected me in the canopy of the tree. I never dropped more than 2 feet below the shiv and he boomed out the full extent while feeding cable and put me right on the limb ready to tie in and then disconnect lanyard from ball. What a magician! I tied in, and yes, I was wearing spikes in a live tree, but these were extraordinary circumstances. The melting snow was flooding the house and things were being destroyed. Besides, ice was so thick, I was barely entering the wood with spikes. Anyway, I tied in, slid down, hooked a choker, he tensioned, I cut leader off, and sat back and watched him boom entire lead in air as I was worried it would break loose and crush me. Big buck$ on that job Big fun, too.