Bob Weber- Bob the tree god

Bob Weber is in the middle, Chris Roddick to the left, and me. this picture was taken in 1997 judging by the date stamp in the bottom right corner. The year before i had gone down to North Carolina to work in the cleanup of hurricane fran. Bob had organized a bunch of climbers from around the country to lead 4-man tree crews. each crew had a climber, skid steer operator, crane operator, ground guy, and a monitor from the army corp of engineers. this was one of my favorite experiences doing tree work. it was like going away to war for tree climbers. we would travel from town to town encountering horrific tree disasters. tall pine trees half uprooted towering precariously over peoples homes. multiple trees piled on top of homes. all the fallen trees under tension. one wrong cut and your saw would get pinched or worse yet you would unleash a log under tension , which is the equivalent of playing with dynamite. situation after situation of the tree removal scenarios usually encountered only once or twice a year. 2 0r 3 a day, day after day. we would work from morning till night, no days off. 7 days a week. staying in dinky little motels. we would all meet after work to eat and exchange war stories. i had never worked with cranes before and a lot of what i was doing was the first time. i was excited as hell, like a kid at camp. for Bob, all the complicated rigging scenarios were just business as usual. people began refering to "Bob the tree god".