Wednesday: May 14 Crane Job

Today at Murphy Brothers, we did one big crane job that took us the whole day. We started at 7:00am and ended at 4:00pm. We used the crane to remove several large Pine trees over 100 feet tall. The crane was set up in a good location so that it could boom out and reach all the trees we needed to remove. The trees come down in large picks on the end of the crane. The section of the tree you want to take is attached to the crane by a large choker. The best way to describe a choker is a like a large elastic band, but it this case it not stretchy. Since the Pine trees we were removing were so large, we were not able to chip the whole tree. Instead, we chipped the tops of the trees by using the wench to pull them to the chipper, and then had the log truck come and pick up the rest of the tree. The log truck saves a lot of time because you don’t have to cut it all up into firewood size and throw it in the back of the truck. Today I finally got up in the bucket truck. It was a great experience! Kevin guided me through the different controls in the actually bucket itself, and then I headed up into the air to remove the dead branches from a large Oak tree. At first when I was going up in the bucket, it took me a few minutes how to figure out the control. If you move the hydraulic levers too quickly, the bucket will jump all over the place, and you don’t want that. You want to be steady and slow on the levers. Kevin and Linus both told me that it will take a lot of practice to become a master like them in the bucket. On the way back to the shop, Steve and I had to go dump the truck to get ready for tomorrow. At the dump, Steve taught me a trick about backing the truck up to the chipper when you are trying to line it back up. You put two rakes down and make a "T" with them at the back tire. When you are backing up you want to stop the truck right where it meets the truck. This is a very good trick if you have to go dump the truck by yourself, then hitch the chipper back up. I was very pleased with what I accomplished today. Tomorrow is another day, and I hope to improve on my skills and learn more!