# I feel like such a sissy



## Tree Pig (May 12, 2009)

Had a smaller tree (black birch 18 DBH) to drop this afternoon, the last of three for this customer. Geared up climbed about 30' to the first limb pulled the saw up to start cutting and CRAAACKKKK goes the lightning. Not near me but considering I was standing in a tree with metal gaffs and wire core flip line I got a little nervous. Needles to say I then tied in a climb line and bailed from the tree leaving it in the same shape as it was before I got in it, with the addition of the new spike holes. No big deal I will go finish it in the morning but, just the fact that I only had to make a few cuts to drop what I need to up top then rope down and flop the rest of the tree, I now feel like such a sissy for having bailed from the tree... But I dont like lightning.

So here is the question what would you have done? Honest answers please. Remember this lightning wasnt right near me but it wasnt all that far away either.


----------



## dafunk (May 12, 2009)

I would have done the same as you man, never take chances with mother natures forces. I don't think being cautious makes you a sissy and if anyone says you are who cares.


----------



## outdoorlivin247 (May 12, 2009)

All the sissy are taking about bees and snakes...Lightening just flat scares the #### out of me if I am out in it...If I am inside I like watching it, but outside I am the first to run for shelter...


----------



## Tree Pig (May 12, 2009)

Yeah very true just hate having bailed with 10 minutes of cutting left to do in the tree and then drop it, but that lightning was just too close and like you said Dont mess with mother nature is a good moto.


----------



## Tree Pig (May 12, 2009)

outdoorlivin247 said:


> All the sissy are taking about bees and snakes...Lightening just flat scares the #### out of me if I am out in it...If I am inside I like watching it, but outside I am the first to run for shelter...



be out in it doesnt bother me as much as being 30' feet up in a tree with the metal spikes and wire flip line did today. I think that was the first time I have ever been caught in a tree when it started to lightning

Here is a picture of me in the tree just before I bailed


----------



## outdoorlivin247 (May 12, 2009)

I have been sitting in my tree stand and had lightning strike a tree in the woods about 75 yards away...I could not get down fast enough...When I say being out in it, I mean see the flash, hear the bang lightning...Not for me...


----------



## Tree Pig (May 12, 2009)

Lightning has never really scared me before not like this I have been doing all kinds of things when it started to lightning before. Most of the time I stopped what I was doing but it really didnt bother me. this time it did.


----------



## tree md (May 12, 2009)

Yeah, I'm definitely out of there if it starts lightening. I have continued to work if I am doing a big removal and I am almost there with it and didn't want to have to climb the thing again. 

I used to build foundations and pour concrete before I did tree work. Some of the pours would be poured with a pump truck and boom. When your pouring concrete for a foundation, once you start pouring you have to keep going until it's finished or you will end up with a cold joint if you stop. If that happens the joint will be a weak spot and can allow water to enter the structure. We would try to plan for rain but in GA thunderstorms roll in so quickly they can catch you by surprise. On the end of the boom pump is a large rubber hose that whoever is pouring holds onto and pours the concrete down into the forms. When a storm rolls in and it starts lightening the boom builds up static electricity and you can barley touch the rubber hose on the boom because it stings so bad. It hurts like a biotch, not to mention being as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs over the lightening. 

When I have done treework with an outfit with a crane we have always shut down the crane immediately if we saw lightening.


----------



## tree md (May 12, 2009)

Stihl-O-Matic said:


> Lightning has never really scared me before not like this I have been doing all kinds of things when it started to lightning before. Most of the time I stopped what I was doing but it really didnt bother me. this time it did.



Your spidey senses where trying to tell you something. Got to listen to the spidey senses...


----------



## Tree Pig (May 12, 2009)

tree md said:


> Your spidey senses where trying to tell you something. Got to listen to the spidey senses...



lol yeah watch the home owner call me later and tell me the thing got hit by lightning, that would freak me out.


----------



## treemandan (May 12, 2009)

yeah big sissy. what? Big tough treeman can't take a little jolt? 

No, good call. Get out when you see that chit, that's protocal.


----------



## Rickytree (May 12, 2009)

Nothing worse than a Cold Joint!!

Butt seriously! The reason Men get struck by lightning 5 times more than women is that We are Working in IT!!


----------



## Tree Pig (May 12, 2009)

Rickytree said:


> Nothing worse than a Cold Joint!!
> 
> Butt seriously! The reason Men get struck by lightning 5 times more than women is that We are Working in IT!!



pffft more likely that men just cant be that lucky... I mean how many times has the wife come out of the house yelling about something while your cutting the grass or whatever and you thought to yourself man I hope you get struck by lightning.


----------



## treemandan (May 12, 2009)

Rickytree said:


> Nothing worse than a Cold Joint!!
> 
> Butt seriously! The reason Men get struck by lightning 5 times more than women is that We are Working in IT!!



would you like me to warm that up for you?

Butt seriously! There is no argueing with your logic.


----------



## mnsnow (May 12, 2009)

Play it safe - you only get one life.

I would have done the same thing - I can finish the job another day. I know with my luck if I was in or by a tree ZAPPP.

I don't take unnecessary risks - but that's me.


----------



## Raymond (May 13, 2009)

Call me crazy buy my neck would of dropped down into my shoulders and I'd probably finished, the climbing part anyway. 

Mom always wanted to get a GOOD life insurance policy out on me. She said it would be a good investment. :monkey:


----------



## treemandan (May 13, 2009)

Raymond said:


> Call me crazy buy my neck would of dropped down into my shoulders and I'd probably finished, the climbing part anyway.
> 
> Mom always wanted to get a GOOD life insurance policy out on me. She said it would be a good investment. :monkey:



List tree climber as your occupation and see them run. You could chain smoke 6 packs a day but that wouldn't scare em as much.

The only reason I get up there is cause I am worth more dead than alive. I hate them sob's but wouldn't do this chit if I wasn't insured every which way possible.
Sometimes I call my insure-er's just to remind them of what it is I do. I say, " still here m and f'er and that is good for you"
I love insurance man meat stuck between my teeth. Wayne Moore, he is the guy handling the oil spill at my house. We got off to a hard start but now I call him and just say " Yo". To which he replies " Yes, Mr. Saville, what can I do for you?" The stammering he used to do has stopped alltogether.


----------



## BarkBuster20 (May 13, 2009)

well i wont even run a saw if there lightening on the ground or in a tree. good call.


----------



## treemandan (May 13, 2009)

BarkBuster20 said:


> well i wont even run a saw if there lightening on the ground or in a tree. good call.



hell, I won't even leave the house. well maybe there was a time but the boat and everything else was plastic.


----------



## mrowens33 (May 13, 2009)

*Statistics*

Good call- you don't need to be one of the 73 people who die each year from lightning strikes. Not to mention being disabled(maybe worse than death). In my college physics class there was a girl who told a story from childhood. She and a freind were on a see-saw(from back when playground equipment was actually fun) while a thunderstorm was approaching. They laughed at eachother each time they would swing up, their hair would stand on end. The physics prof explained to her that that was the negative charge trying to equalize with the positive in the sky and they were very close to being struck by lightning. She was a little freaked out.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0522_030522_lightning.html


----------



## TreEmergencyB (May 13, 2009)

i was told if you can see the lighting ur close enough to get hit,

time to go


----------



## randyg (May 13, 2009)

*Sissy*

Before lightening strikes, your hair will stand on end. Back of your neck, your arms if you have much. Same happens if you get to close to the big power lines (transmission lines I think they call them). Heck, I would have hung climbing line (should have had that done already) and providing hair was not standing up, would have dropped that top. 

OK Just kidding! Pouring rain, I stay up there. I HEAR lightening no matter how far away, we head for the pickup/bucket truck/home.

Think BUG-ZAPPER


----------



## tamadrummer (May 13, 2009)

Stihl-O-Matic said:


> Lightning has never really scared me before not like this I have been doing all kinds of things when it started to lightning before. Most of the time I stopped what I was doing but it really didnt bother me. this time it did.



Scares the snot out of me. If you have ever been in a FL storm, you would really be terrified of the stuff. I was mowing a 4 acre field about a month ago and figured.... ahhh I am just going to put on my rain suit and keep trucking. NO WAY the lightning was following me as I was moving. I dumped the mower and jumped in my truck and got out of dodge. 

I cannot imagine being in a tree with the stuff with in 15 miles of me. 

Good call getting out!!


----------



## outofmytree (May 13, 2009)

I work like lightning does that count?


----------



## KD57 (May 13, 2009)

Better a live sissy than a dead tough guy. I have been 50 feet from a lightning strike to our crane boom. Scared the crap out of me.


----------



## Rftreeman (May 13, 2009)

Lighting can strike up to ten miles away from a storm, I would have probably came down also, sissy move would have been you coming down for a spider or snake or something like that.


----------



## treesquirrel (May 14, 2009)

I would have gotten the F out too friend!


----------



## Job Corps Tree (May 14, 2009)

Don't play with Lighting can shoot sideways for 10 Miles and hit somthing have you ever seen what it can do to a Tree Not me at 1 time I would play at it watch it come across IL & Hope I could get down in time NO MORE You can go back up but you will not come back if you get hit
Rftreeman and I think the same


----------



## canopyboy (May 14, 2009)

Stihl-O-Matic said:


> Dont mess with mother nature is a good moto.



Something about not messing with Mother Nature as a motto and then cutting down her trees for a living just makes me smirk a little...

:greenchainsaw:


----------



## Tree Pig (May 14, 2009)

canopyboy said:


> Something about not messing with Mother Nature as a motto and then cutting down her trees for a living just makes me smirk a little...
> 
> :greenchainsaw:



Yeah it is a bit hypocritical, I guess a better statement would have been "not messing with mother nature any more then we already do" But honestly as corny as it sounds I do try to respect trees as much as possible, for instance... I am 275lbs and I ALWAYS rope up trees when pruning (yes I know its said here over and over again) But lets be honest 95% of the homeowners dont know the difference. But I do. I dont really think that running up to do a quick prune will damage a tree so bad that it will place it at risk. But IMHO it will make it pretty damn ugly so I dont do it. When I can do try to do whats best for the tree. I have taken money out of my pocket by talking people out of removing trees for the wrong reasons.


----------



## ozzy42 (May 14, 2009)

I'm in the lightning capital of the world'Tampa bay area.
I am constantly scoping the horizon.If I see any of it anywhere,time to bail,especially if i"m in a tree prone to attracting it;slash pine,tall oak,or a crappy silk oak,the latter one I have seen them blown to bits throwing 4-5 ft chunks 2 doors away,they just kind of explode.


----------



## canopyboy (May 14, 2009)

Stihl-O-Matic said:


> But honestly as corny as it sounds I do try to respect trees as much as possible.



I know you do, I've seen your other posts. And I'm glad you do.

I just couldn't help but laugh a little at the irony of the wording.

How about "Respect your Momma (and her trees)"?


----------



## VA-Sawyer (May 14, 2009)

To the "chicken sitting in tree"...... where is your PPE ?

Anyways, you said that having on the metal spikes and wire-core flipline made you extra nervous. Believe me, if the tree was hit by lightning while you were in it, the spikes and flipline would have very little effect on the outcome.......toast is still toast !

Being close enough to see lightning doesn't get my attention to much, but being close enough to hear any thunder, I switch to "storm-safe" mode real quick. I would of bailed too.


----------



## Tree Pig (May 14, 2009)

VA-Sawyer said:


> To the "chicken sitting in tree"...... where is your PPE ?
> 
> Anyways, you said that having on the metal spikes and wire-core flipline made you extra nervous. Believe me, if the tree was hit by lightning while you were in it, the spikes and flipline would have very little effect on the outcome.......toast is still toast !
> 
> Being close enough to see lightning doesn't get my attention to much, but being close enough to hear any thunder, I switch to "storm-safe" mode real quick. I would of bailed too.



Metal attracts lightning, 12 foot wire core lightning rod around my waist worried me more then the tree itself getting hit.

this is kinda how I felt







The chicken has since been fired he went out that night got drunk and didnt show up in the morning. Nothing worse then an undependable chicken


----------



## JONSEREDFAN6069 (May 14, 2009)

lol, not a cutting story but in college on the golf team, we were doing a practice round in the rain, weather got progressively worse around the 
12th hole there was a strike about 50 ft from our group, i was wearing metal spikes in a really wet part of the course and got zapped enuff to
drop me to my knee's. I still remember the feeling and don't like it at all
I wont even go out if i dont have to in a storm any longer. Didn't mean to hijack just a lightening story.


----------



## Tree Pig (May 14, 2009)

JONSEREDFAN6069 said:


> lol, not a cutting story but in college on the golf team, we were doing a practice round in the rain, weather got progressively worse around the
> 12th hole there was a strike about 50 ft from our group, i was wearing metal spikes in a really wet part of the course and got zapped enuff to
> drop me to my knee's. I still remember the feeling and don't like it at all
> I wont even go out if i dont have to in a storm any longer. Didn't mean to hijack just a lightening story.



well hell whats better the a golfer that can remove his own tree hazards. Just toss a Jonsered in the golf bag and away you go. All that time I wasted working on a flop shot.


----------



## JONSEREDFAN6069 (May 14, 2009)

Stihl-O-Matic said:


> well hell whats better the a golfer that can remove his own tree hazards. Just toss a Jonsered in the golf bag and away you go. All that time I wasted working on a flop shot.



lol, ya we called it a jonserwedge.


----------



## Tree Pig (May 14, 2009)

whats the loft on that?


----------



## TreEmergencyB (May 14, 2009)

even if you come down go sit in the truck maybe go get a good lunch see if the storm passes no hope of stoppin pack it up get her tomarrow lose the work trucks and go to the bar
lol and talk about how you "almost" got hit by lightning while you were topping this tree today


----------



## fishercat (May 15, 2009)

*i ahve seen and removed enough trees that had lightning damage.*

i'm down and i think you did the right thing.


----------



## Tree Pig (May 15, 2009)

well thanks for the group hug all.Thanks to all your support I am now fully recovered from my lack self esteem after getting out of that tree.


----------

