Tuesday, July 21, 2026

When the train jumps off the tracks...

Yesterday's work-tickets dropped like flies. Well, at least the first two did.

I elongated the holes in the frame of the Troy-Bilt tiller. It turned out that I only needed about 3mm to get the belt squared away. I guess that when the shafts are very close together, it doesn't take much misalignment to make them look horrible.

I added the gear lube and let it sit nose-up for 20 minutes to ensure that the lube flowed all the way back to the tiller/tines. Yes, it says to do that in the manual.

I got the cabbage sprayed for cabbage-loopers.

And then...and then....

Mrs ERJ pointed out a branch from our Honey Locust that shades the south half of the garage. The branch extends 35 feet from the tree trunk to the west end of the garage

Yep, that is a problem.
She called my attention to the split.

I started trimming branches from the far end but quickly ran out of length to my pole saw.

I suggested that I should purchase a fall-harness, lanyard and rope and work from the roof of the garage.

She "suggested" that there are some jobs that are best handled by professionals with truck-mounted cherry-pickers.

It was not an argument I was willing to pursue.

She worked her magic with the phone.

Paul pulled into our driveway at 8:52 a.m.

I was a little slow to start taking pictures. He is almost done.


The last chunk he removed

Width

A good view of the split

He was gone by 9:55 a.m.

I am very proud of myself. I didn't give him any advice at all.

Highly recommended for tree work. 

9 comments:

  1. LOL! Great job indeed!
    Paul looks like the kinda guy that knows his way around a chainsaw.

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  2. Your wife has good sense!

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  3. I'm not an Arborist, but I was taught to make an upper cut on the branch you're cutting so the bark doesn't peel back like it did in the 4th pic.

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    Replies
    1. Good eyes!

      Two chunks before that piece, he lopped off a 6' chunk of the section that was split. He wanted to get most of it in one-go because he couldn't predict how it was going to react.

      The other chunks were between 40 and 80 pounds and he had been cradling them so they didn't drop on the roof. They didn't pull a strip like the big chunk did. Obviously, 6' was going to be WAY more than he could hold while he finished the cut.

      One consequence of not starting with an undercut is that he 6' long piece didn't drop straight down. I don't know how it looked from the bucket but it sucks when a 400 pound piece of wood doesn't follow the flight-plan.

      He did perform an undercut on the last piece so he wouldn't pull a strip of bark off of the trunk.

      Delete
  4. The advantage of hiring a tree service is the reputable ones have insurance to fix anything that gets effed up. Which is why they can be spendy to hire.

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  5. So the tree guy spent an hour doing a great job for you and probably charged a four hour minimum, ( which is standard practice.)

    I used to have to do the same, especially after one client asked me to drive an hour one way, borrow a very tall ladder and replace a light bulb at the peak of a cathedral ceiling. When I was done, she offered me a twenty dollar bill and says...This should cover it. We had a very heated, ( none cussing on my part, which was very hard.), argument, after which I told her not to call me again. My rates were very reasonable and I didn't appreciate being short changed.

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    Replies
    1. I paid him what he asked and tipped him 10%. He tried to give it back but I told him that he had earned it.

      I also texted him some of the photos I took for his wife to post to the company's Facebook page.

      Delete

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