su madre es un parque de atracciones para los hombres.

Im too drunk to writes this entry. Expect one soon.

Good night.

Its me again, that tall dark handsome drink of water. Well I see I haven’t been that good of a blogger as I have not blogged about anything and just watched my blog appreciate in value. Cash rules everything around me, cream, get da money, dolla dolla bill yall. Pay me for this.

A lot has happened but I will keep the format of previous posts to keep me on track, and stuff simple for you.

In 3 weeks of Plant Health Care the only thing I can say that is not even really worth mentioning was that I almost flunked my weed I.D test. My worst mark to date but I believe it had good cause. I climb trees, I don’t piss about with dandy lions. Next order of business please.

Urban Forestry has actually been cool the past couple of weeks. We actually got out and pruned, and for those that had their climbing gear with them, got to climb and prune. Now because it was not my climbing class, I got to use my heathen harness that is frowned upon by my program head. Well I didn’t get to use it, I just used it anyways. We also did a field tree description, in which we had to identify defects in a tree, which was done in the first 20 minutes of class, then 40 minutes of rock throwing followed. Wtf? I also had to hand in a street tree inventory project where I assessed and recorded all city trees on a street. The city of Lindsay has some really weak trees.

Operations has been alright. We had our chain sharpening test right after St. Patty’s day, so half the class was still drunk and the other half hungover. I was between the two. My teacher was cool about it though, and let us out early after the test. We also did our WHMIS testing in which I took the time to doodle on the WHMIS handout that was given to us. These are all things I am very proficient in, so my attention slips from time to time. I’m not just a jack ass.

Climbing is awesome. Now that we are in advanced we are not only off the crappy basic system and climbing on our own, we are actually pruning and rigging branches for removal on the streets of Lindsay. We now climb on an open Blake hitch system, which is an upgrade but still no eye-to-eye split tail 4/1 swabisch system. I killed the ascent test in 10 minutes, and ended up with 23/25. I lost two marks trying to do the Big Shot portion of the test. A Big Shot is a giant sling shot used to shoot a throw ball into the tree and I suck at it. I just don’t use it because its not practical for where I work… That and I don’t trust myself shooting a giant sling shot, too much fun could be had. Because I was in the top 10 marks of the class I get to participate in the FTCC (Fleming Tree Climbing Competition) on April 17th, here at the college. Come out and support if you can. If I do well in it, I may enter into the OTCC (Ontario Tree Climbing Competition) in Hamilton in the fall.

Overall my academics are some of the best I’ve ever had. Id say I’m sitting in around an 80+ average.

Work for me is looking good. The job I interviewed for out in BC, I got, so I’m heading out their for the summer to work. Its going to be awesome but I’m going to miss my friends a whole lot and I know I’m going to miss out on some good times. Work has been awesome, boss hog has had me up in the trees putting in work, and because he hasn’t picked my work apart, I must be doing an alright job cause he keeps putting me up in the trees.
I also had to interview for another job with a company out of Halton Hills for marks. They were chapped that I was heading out to BC, but told me that they want me when I come back.

Personal Life has been pretty weak. March is never a good month for me. Gotta keep moving though with my head up.

I added some links to the side bar. Links include places where I buy my equipment, industry information and certifications, and where I work now and will be working in the summer.

Cheers,

Ross

WHMIS Training

WHMIS Training

P.S I have a small video of me foot locking. I need to tinker around with the word press features but I will get it up.

I have been terrible with keeping up to date with my posting. A lot had happened in the two weeks. Not really. So lets get down to it.

Week 7 was the big mid-term week. I forgot the feeling from Durham of the endless nights of studying the morning before the test. Haha… It still was a pretty hard week, and despite the middy’s going on we still had class; mostly review.

Tuesday started with a bang. 30% final climbing test for basic tree climbing ‘what’s up’ after playing in a hockey tournament all family day Monday. I’m just going to throw in the random stuff throughout because I’m too lazy and burnout to edit. For this test we had to climb up one stem, double tie-in to the second stem, cross the crown to the second stem, descend down the second stem, re-tie in and ‘TIME’! I faired rather well, in the end I passed the basic tree climbing course proudly with 92%

Wednesday we were out in the bush. I didn’t have much to do, so I did my tree felling test. This time they actually picked apart the defects in the proper notch and back cut from the stump we left. Trust me, you can tell exactly how; and how well a tree has fallen from the stump. I have an unfortunate bad habit of losing the angle of my back-cut in relation to my notch, leaving my hinge wood all wack like. This caused the tree to roll a bit when falling. Still walked out of the bush tall with an 86.

Thursday was the fun fun fun plant health care mid-term which was open book. Now this would be a great opportunity to get 100% and get a free 25% in the course… …   .. .  .. .   So I played a pretty fun game of shinny the night before. I miss hockey, don’t play it as much anymore which sucks… Same goes for lacrosse.

Friday which is normally my day off became my elective day to do my Urban Forestry exam. We got to do it any time during the week on webCT  in a designated computer lab at the school. I remember doing them in Durham, except it was during class time, meaning set date. I rather enjoyed the fact that I could take the exam at freewill during the week. It was not like the tree characteristics in Week Fo’; rather more about the science of trees such as: Hardiness zones, tree biomechanics,  tree biology,  vascular systems etc. I actually enjoy reading and learning about that gibberish, and it payed off with an 82%. All in all I am quite pleased with how my academics are right now.
Work hard, play hard right? Well didn’t do too much over my reading week. I celebrated my birthday which happened on the  Thursday, on Saturday with a couple of buddies at Wild Wing and in class fashion almost got into a fight. Monday I went to CFE and got a handsaw, scabbard, gaff covers for my spurs, shit that doesn’t sound like English to most reading. Went to the gym a bit. Was at the cottage Thursday till Sunday. Chilled mostly, broke in the new saw dead-wooding a tree, entered and lost an ice fishing derby, a wee bit of snowmobiling.

I can’t win with keys. So I get back and go to get into my room… no key. Luckily, I knew I had a few options as to where it could be… Between the seats in my car in the parking lot outside of the crackhouse residence? Nah, too easy.  At the gates at my cottage in the mud? Haha, It gets better. I had to stop at Shoppers Drug Mart in Lindsay, in doing so, I cleaned some of the garbage out of my car with new 600 dollar car fucking wonder key in hand. Luckily I was a smart man and hid the key in the dumpster where no one would find it.

Cheers,

Ross

MS Paint What.

Holy moly was there a lot happening.

Week 5 just flew by and I really can’t recall anything of significance.

I lost the keys to my car, and spent most of week six trying to get everything back. 1. Volkswagen sucks my balls, terrible service for this type of problem. 2. Don’t ever lose keys, lose your credit cards instead. The total costs of the key combined came to about 500 dollars. Frustrating.

Week 6 was alright. I destroyed my basic tree climbing test, despite some bad tosses with my throw weight. I’m getting way better at my height and distance, accuracy still is a bit rough. Thursday I rolled around the grave yard for a bit, demonstrated aerial rescue to someone who missed the test and that was about it.

Operations I took my chipper test and passed with flying colours.

Didn’t have labs on Monday cause of Family Day. Lectures was alright. We learned about hardiness zones in urban which is always interesting stuff. Plant Health we just went over the up coming midterm somewhat.

A pretty mellow week compared to the one ahead of me. I signed up for a job interview with a tree service company in BC, which I feel went rather well, so this summer I could be out in BC practicing my trade. It sounds like a really sweet gig, but I need to see if my boss here is willing to bring me on for more money. I got to sort that stuff out soon. I really want to start working.

Bought a set of Bucklite spurs with steel insert Velcro pads in week 5 for $500. It sucks cause it’s just the tip of the iceberg for stuff I want to buy. But hey I have a birthday in 4 days and if your looking to help out your soon-to-be local arborist here is what to buy and send:

Treemagineers hitch climber pulley

Rescue 8 friction break

150′ Poison Ivy lifeline rope

200′ of  1/2″ stable braid bull rope

Couple of Petzl William Tri-Act (HMS) ‘biners

Couple of Petzl Caritools

Petzl Acsenders

Full body fall arrest attachment for my saddle

Throw line collapsible cube w/ 14oz weight

Corona Pony Saw

Couple of 10mm 30″ eye-to-eye bee-line hitch chordage

www.wtsherrill.com is where you can get it =P

And don’t even get me started on the saws I want.

Cheers,

Ross

Eva getting a $140 escort to the dealership

Another rad week. More mark’s up.

Plant Health care didn’t even go to lab or lecture. Got the stuff I missed in class today. The teacher is a pretty laid back dude, hes due up for retirement so he’s jus’ chillin’.

Urban Forestry I wrote my tree characteristic test, don’t think I did exceptionally well, but I know I passed. I was kind of weak on the tree identification. Lecture was pretty cool, learned about tree biomechanics. I will post some interesting tree statistics as to why trees are awesome in another post. I like to keep these strictly business ha…

Basic was a crap shoot for the most part. Nutted myself Tuesday as stated in a previous post. I re-climbed that tree on Thursday and successfully climbed it and descended through an alternate crotch for my bonus mark… But lost it because I didn’t have my safety glasses. All in all, 2 more challenge tree’s done, 1 to go. Me and my partner also did our aerial rescue test on Thursday, cause we got bored. We were given a scenario, where the arborist in the tree had injured themselves, and we had to go up the tree and bring them down on our climbing line. I lost a mark because I forgot to say a command, but still walked away with 4/5 in 4 minutes.

Operations was better this time. Instead of 3 teams of 2 in one small block, it was just a team of 2 per block. We got a lot more cutting in which was awesome. I also completed my chainsaw lab, and I’m pretty sure I nailed it. The only bitch was we had to rig the tree’s with a throw ball. A throw ball is a very acquired skill that takes time to get good at. I’m better at getting my height, I just need to work on my accuracy, I actually somewhat enjoy the painstaking task.

Till Next… Cheers,

Ross

Pictures!

Me in the Walnut

Positioning myself

Thats the limb I nutted myself on

Lining up my cut

Making my notch

Well I didn’t hit any branches, or fall from a tree (F*** eh?). However on my ascent up a challenge tree, I had to ‘shinny’ the last section to get to my ribbon. For those playing the home game… ‘Shinnying’ is when a climber basically climbs the tree by gripping around the tree and pushing and pulling themselves up with their legs and arms, not their rope. *Note* Sometimes very uncomfortable for a male, because of the sensitive anatomy down there (testicles, balls, optimus  prime and the autobots, twig and berries, nuts, cajones, kiwi’s, etc.).

Well on my ascent up the final branch I roped my lifeline improperly, so that I couldn’t advance myself up to the final limb, because I was stuck on a smaller limb. Having no where to go I sat back on my boys in the hood, I think realized a woman’s pain there and then, screaming at my partner to give me slack. After about 5 minutes, I finally was able to slide down the back side of the branch to the nearest crotch. Because it was the end of the day everyone had gathered at the base of the tree to get in their shots, I took it in stride cause it was funny as hell if you think about it.

God it was the worst pain though.

Cheers,

Ross

Had a pretty good third week of school, good weekend too. Got a lot done in my climbing class. Missed some classes though this week, none from what I heard of really any importance, mostly material I already knew by reading.

Plant Health Care is a pretty bogus course, everything is pretty much handed to us on a plate, I missed the lab, but went to the lecture… Boring. We learned about pesticides and labels.

Urban Forest Science, I missed both lecture and lab, but I handed in my tree fact sheet (refer to previous post for that). Talked mostly about the compartmentalization that tree’s use to heal themselves. It’s pretty cool, unlike you and I, tree’s don’t regenerate damaged or infected tissue… Rather they release a chemical creating a wall suspending that point of the tree, while new cambium grows over the wound, or natural growth just over takes the wound.

Got a lot done in Basic. Climbed 2 challenge trees already and passed my first basic climbing test. Not a fan of being timed, just because I like to dick around in the tree, and I lost time doing so. I know I could have climbed that tree faster if I was a bit more relaxed. But now that I know what to expect, and I know where I can improve on my testing. The first challenge tree was one of those ridiculous walnuts I was talking about earlier, I nearly popped one of my berries “shinnying” out to a limb, and boy did I sure hump some serious air to get up to my first crotch. I should be able to climb 3 more challenge tree’s by week’s end.

Operations was also rad, had the first trip up to Balsam Lake. Aside from the intro and instruction, there wasn’t much time for cutting. Me and my partner are paired up with two more cutting teams, and were assigned a block of forest to clear cut. Because of time, I only felled one tree. Some of the dudes in my group got a fire going (which were allowed) to keep us warm, so this week I’m bringing some weenies and beans for a hot meal.

Started going to gym again to bulk up huge because I’m pretty out of shape for a climber. If you want tickets to the gun show just holler.

Cheers,

Ross

I Got Tickets

Finally got my software all sorted out and I have the media manager for my phone up and running. I will post pictures of me, and my classmates participating in our daily climbing and chainsaw labs. Till then, here is a mock tree fact sheet I have done for a Sugar Maple… Client being Pa Dukes.

Cheers,

Ross

P.S. Changed my header… It’s not me, but can you really tell?

+Tree Fact Sheet

Second week was pretty rad. Definitely got me more pumped on school. Started off Monday with my teacher canceling out Plant Health Care class. Kind of chapped cause I showed up instead of getting the three hours of additional sleep. The lecture on Thursday for Plant Health Care was bogus, especially considering its one hour and after my climbing lab.

Urban Forestry Science was alright. We went on a nature walk around Lindsay looking at trees. There is a lot of trees out there, and with it being winter, a royal pain in the ass to tell which are what. It will come with time. It was sick to see that Lindsay has some London Plane-Trees… which are becoming my favourite tree. Missed the lecture on Thursday… Me and my roommate rotate lectures every other week and give each other missed material.

Basic was awesome… aced my knots test, and got climb the basic system they’re teaching us and how to tie up a belay system. Thursday we got out into the graveyard where we will be doing the remainder of our climbing and testing. They gave us a break down of the challenge trees (Some are ridiculous walnuts), which are like our lab trees. Would have been a good day, if people spent less time asking fucking questions and spent more time climbing. Wasted an hour of climbing time listening to questions. The class will soon learn questions will only get you so far. Feel and technique you only develop by climbing. The test tree we need to climb in third week is pretty easy, I just need to focus on communicating with my ground guy properly. I expect high marks.

Maintenance and Operation was alright. Wrote a 10% test on first week material, which was pretty easy. Watched some more videos to get us ready for the White Pine plantation in week three. We also got assigned our saws (Stihl MS260). I was kind of bummed to find out it is me and my partner that share the saw. I wanted my own one. We broke them down pretty much to the engine, cleaned them out and sharpened the chain. Our saw wasn’t spitting out bar oil, so I need to take a look at it on Wednesday, before we go to Balsam Lake. It seems I’m a bit more mechanically inclined than my partner, however his will come with time, and our saw will be it’s own logging operation.

All in all, good week.

Cheers,

Ross

Here’s a fun fact. I took apart my computer piece-by-piece (processor, fan, hard-drive, etc.), and cleaned the dust a shit-load of dust out of it today cause I was bored… She’s humming like a kitten now, and not roaring like my car when I’m on the 401. I think I deserve a Carling.

Cheers,

Ross

P.S

Gonna try to get my black berry program running on my computer so I can upload some pictures from my Field Labs. Till then…

Dubya.