Bill Grumbine
12-23-2003, 7:00 PM
Good evening all
Yesterday I got a call from a friend of mine, Bob Berner, about a very large maple tree. I told him I was interested, as I am fresh out of fresh maple. We arrived at the site where the tree was being taken down, and spoke with the gentleman running the crane. After some negotiations, he agreed to bring the tree to me for a very modest fee. How modest? Let's just say that if the whole thing were to turn into firewood, I would still be way ahead of the game.
<img src= "http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/maplecrane01.jpg">
SWMBO and all the kids came out to watch this one, and SWMBO brought the camera. She made a point of thanking the operator for bringing this log to me, saying that they all had experience in cutting and hauling the big stuff. Here is a long shot of the crane just getting ready to lift the log off the back of the truck.
<img src= "http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/maplecrane02.jpg">
This is a closeup of this behemoth rising off the back of the truck. Hydraulics are a wonderful thing. I am recovering from an attack of tendonitis in my lower back, and the operator broke two of the fingers on his left hand loading this thing, so we made a sorry pair, but we managed. For scale, you can see me standing on the back of the flatbed of the truck, although I am somewhat obscured by the trees. My trusty Chevy K1500 is in the background.
<img src= "http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/maplecrane03.jpg">
This picture will give you a real sense of the size of this thing. I have some huge logs of red oak and walnut in the field right now. Bob was with me for hauling them home too, and we needed to drag them out of my truck with the tractor. You can see a curly red oak butt sitting to the left of this monster. It about did for the suspension in my old truck. This log dwarfs anything else in the pile. Keep in mind that I am 6'2" and just shy of 400 lbs. SWMBETTE #3, a.k.a. Emily is sitting on the log. The operator estimated this log to weigh between 10,000 and 12,000 lbs. Is he right? I don't know and it doesn't matter. There is enough maple here for a lot of bowls, vessels, table legs, whatever. Oh yeah, while I can't say for sure yet, there are indications in the bark that it is curly. We shall see...
Bill
Yesterday I got a call from a friend of mine, Bob Berner, about a very large maple tree. I told him I was interested, as I am fresh out of fresh maple. We arrived at the site where the tree was being taken down, and spoke with the gentleman running the crane. After some negotiations, he agreed to bring the tree to me for a very modest fee. How modest? Let's just say that if the whole thing were to turn into firewood, I would still be way ahead of the game.
<img src= "http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/maplecrane01.jpg">
SWMBO and all the kids came out to watch this one, and SWMBO brought the camera. She made a point of thanking the operator for bringing this log to me, saying that they all had experience in cutting and hauling the big stuff. Here is a long shot of the crane just getting ready to lift the log off the back of the truck.
<img src= "http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/maplecrane02.jpg">
This is a closeup of this behemoth rising off the back of the truck. Hydraulics are a wonderful thing. I am recovering from an attack of tendonitis in my lower back, and the operator broke two of the fingers on his left hand loading this thing, so we made a sorry pair, but we managed. For scale, you can see me standing on the back of the flatbed of the truck, although I am somewhat obscured by the trees. My trusty Chevy K1500 is in the background.
<img src= "http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/maplecrane03.jpg">
This picture will give you a real sense of the size of this thing. I have some huge logs of red oak and walnut in the field right now. Bob was with me for hauling them home too, and we needed to drag them out of my truck with the tractor. You can see a curly red oak butt sitting to the left of this monster. It about did for the suspension in my old truck. This log dwarfs anything else in the pile. Keep in mind that I am 6'2" and just shy of 400 lbs. SWMBETTE #3, a.k.a. Emily is sitting on the log. The operator estimated this log to weigh between 10,000 and 12,000 lbs. Is he right? I don't know and it doesn't matter. There is enough maple here for a lot of bowls, vessels, table legs, whatever. Oh yeah, while I can't say for sure yet, there are indications in the bark that it is curly. We shall see...
Bill