Bounty Hunter
Addicted to ArboristSite
Okay…You know how it is...bad days start out with the best of intentions...it began as a favor for a friend of a business contact…seemed like a good idea at the time, even though I really didn’t want to do the job. But you know how it is…ya got to keep your name in the game, right? The work involved removing an old treehouse…not my typical job but my friend knew I climbed trees and did demo work.
The home is in a REALLY exclusive area that backs up to the Huntington Gardens…I like working in bizzilionaire neighborhoods. So I get to the job (driving “Old Grumpy”, for the demo scrap) and introduce myself…luckily my buddy had told the guy what I looked like beforehand, so at least nobody called the cops.
He takes me down to see the tree house, which is down a pretty steep slope and in a big, squat Black Alder. The dilapidated treehouse had once been pretty cool…but it was now a product of 20 years of neglect. The Alder was actually quite nice, about 2 feet in diameter. The tree house was positioned about 10 feet up the tree, in the lowest and heaviest branches. The old ladder looked sound enough to support my weight, so I climbed up and looked around. No Problemo…This will take less than ½ day…
The guy’s got to go to work, so he leaves me to take care of business. The housekeeper, a nice Latin lady, is there in case I needed anything, so I go an collect my gear. I unloaded a 200T, a 260 Pro, a big framing hammer, climbing harness and rope. This is about the time I met “Kimo”
Now don’t get me wrong, I like dogs, I have two of ‘em…and most dogs are perfectly nice creatures. “Kimo” is a 10 month old Husky…classic gray and white…with that fluffy curled tail that arches over his back. Kimo really wanted to play…but I had work to do…and I wanted to get into it.
Kimo wasn’t going to wait…He grabbed my harness in his teeth and took off! OH SHOOT! Dang Dog! Git Back Here, You Rotten Mutt!
The darn dog ran…and boy was he fast…and the property is at least a half acre, and the upper part was steep slope. I tried chasing him…probably a big mistake…because now he feels it’s a game. I can run fast…but nowhere near as fast as him., even though he’s got the harness hanging out of his jaws and banging against his legs. He would stop, lay down (with his front paws stretched out and his butt in the air)…and bait me to try and run at him and attempt to grab the harness. Worse yet, he was moving his jaws, and chewing up that nice, fairly new Miller Equipment safety harness straps! Darn Dog! Come here, you stinkin’ flea-bag two-bit mongrel!!!!
This game went on for an hour…I can be stubborn to a fault…and still wasn’t making any headway at all. Kimo, as young and strong as he is, could probably run for days…but your 50 year old Bounty Hunter was getting’ winded. I gotta end this…I took an old sweatshirt out of the truck, and offered it as a substitute toy…but Kimo wasn’t going for it (It was a Harley Davidson shirt too…clearly the dog’s got no class…).
In one last desparate move, I pretended to turn my back on him…then lunged (this hadn’t worked the last 10 times)…but when he jumped up and snapped at the harness, he missed! That was all the opportunity I needed! I pounced! And I got it!
But alas…he had already chewed ¾ way through one of the shoulder straps…Shoot!...Dang!...Darn!
Okay…back to the treehouse now…the demo went easy…I cut the roof apart with the 200T and broke it up. The sides cut apart quick, and I sectioned the floor into small pieces.
After it was all down, I cleaned up some dead branches and did a little cosmetic trimming to balance the tree. All Done!...just got to load it up and haul out!
The ladder was gone…kicked off onto the slope…so I lowered the saw with the rope and then jumped down…
…And imeadiately felt a sharp pain in my right foot. I tried to take a step, but my foot wouldn’t move…it was stuck to the plywood I was standing on.
AH MAN!!! Now What!!!!????
I started pulling my foot up…definitely stuck…But by what?
A really strong yank got my boot off the plywood…and revealed a 4” nail, through the ½” plywood…that I hadn’t seen when I took my ill-advised leap down out of the tree. My soft-soled climbing boots did nothing to slow it down, and the nail had gone deep into the foot, just in front of the heel…got stuck in the bone I figured, as much effort as it had taken to git it off.
Loading the truck wasn’t a lot of fun…hauling the scrap up the slope with a sore foot, which had started bleeding quite a bit…sloshing and squishing blood out of the top of the boot and soaking the sock. Nuts…Mrs. Bounty Hunter won’t be too happy about this…Plus I gotta stop by the First Care and git a Tetnus shot…AND unload the truck…my afternoon, planned to be relaxing, is gonna suck instead.
The First Care Doc cleaned me up, and grabbed one of those 8” long “Q Tips”…I thought he was going to ram it up the puncture, so I was about to get Pi$$ed…but he just swabbed around. I got my shot, wrapped it up, and got out the door.
By the time I got Old Grumpy unloaded and home I was Grumpy too…but a kiss and a hug from my wife made it all better…
All is well…I’ll limp a little for a few days…and between the ruined climbing harness, First Care bill, and the general mess of my boots, I went way negative on the day’s work income…but I got plenty of work ahead, a good construction job as well as the firewood. My heart goes out to all you PNW Loggers who are outta work, or anyone on unemployment. Things will get better soon, for everyone…
Thanks for reading my dumb story...I'm gonna go split that 2 cords of wood sittin' out there...
Bounty Hunter
The home is in a REALLY exclusive area that backs up to the Huntington Gardens…I like working in bizzilionaire neighborhoods. So I get to the job (driving “Old Grumpy”, for the demo scrap) and introduce myself…luckily my buddy had told the guy what I looked like beforehand, so at least nobody called the cops.
He takes me down to see the tree house, which is down a pretty steep slope and in a big, squat Black Alder. The dilapidated treehouse had once been pretty cool…but it was now a product of 20 years of neglect. The Alder was actually quite nice, about 2 feet in diameter. The tree house was positioned about 10 feet up the tree, in the lowest and heaviest branches. The old ladder looked sound enough to support my weight, so I climbed up and looked around. No Problemo…This will take less than ½ day…
The guy’s got to go to work, so he leaves me to take care of business. The housekeeper, a nice Latin lady, is there in case I needed anything, so I go an collect my gear. I unloaded a 200T, a 260 Pro, a big framing hammer, climbing harness and rope. This is about the time I met “Kimo”
Now don’t get me wrong, I like dogs, I have two of ‘em…and most dogs are perfectly nice creatures. “Kimo” is a 10 month old Husky…classic gray and white…with that fluffy curled tail that arches over his back. Kimo really wanted to play…but I had work to do…and I wanted to get into it.
Kimo wasn’t going to wait…He grabbed my harness in his teeth and took off! OH SHOOT! Dang Dog! Git Back Here, You Rotten Mutt!
The darn dog ran…and boy was he fast…and the property is at least a half acre, and the upper part was steep slope. I tried chasing him…probably a big mistake…because now he feels it’s a game. I can run fast…but nowhere near as fast as him., even though he’s got the harness hanging out of his jaws and banging against his legs. He would stop, lay down (with his front paws stretched out and his butt in the air)…and bait me to try and run at him and attempt to grab the harness. Worse yet, he was moving his jaws, and chewing up that nice, fairly new Miller Equipment safety harness straps! Darn Dog! Come here, you stinkin’ flea-bag two-bit mongrel!!!!
This game went on for an hour…I can be stubborn to a fault…and still wasn’t making any headway at all. Kimo, as young and strong as he is, could probably run for days…but your 50 year old Bounty Hunter was getting’ winded. I gotta end this…I took an old sweatshirt out of the truck, and offered it as a substitute toy…but Kimo wasn’t going for it (It was a Harley Davidson shirt too…clearly the dog’s got no class…).
In one last desparate move, I pretended to turn my back on him…then lunged (this hadn’t worked the last 10 times)…but when he jumped up and snapped at the harness, he missed! That was all the opportunity I needed! I pounced! And I got it!
But alas…he had already chewed ¾ way through one of the shoulder straps…Shoot!...Dang!...Darn!
Okay…back to the treehouse now…the demo went easy…I cut the roof apart with the 200T and broke it up. The sides cut apart quick, and I sectioned the floor into small pieces.
After it was all down, I cleaned up some dead branches and did a little cosmetic trimming to balance the tree. All Done!...just got to load it up and haul out!
The ladder was gone…kicked off onto the slope…so I lowered the saw with the rope and then jumped down…
…And imeadiately felt a sharp pain in my right foot. I tried to take a step, but my foot wouldn’t move…it was stuck to the plywood I was standing on.
AH MAN!!! Now What!!!!????
I started pulling my foot up…definitely stuck…But by what?
A really strong yank got my boot off the plywood…and revealed a 4” nail, through the ½” plywood…that I hadn’t seen when I took my ill-advised leap down out of the tree. My soft-soled climbing boots did nothing to slow it down, and the nail had gone deep into the foot, just in front of the heel…got stuck in the bone I figured, as much effort as it had taken to git it off.
Loading the truck wasn’t a lot of fun…hauling the scrap up the slope with a sore foot, which had started bleeding quite a bit…sloshing and squishing blood out of the top of the boot and soaking the sock. Nuts…Mrs. Bounty Hunter won’t be too happy about this…Plus I gotta stop by the First Care and git a Tetnus shot…AND unload the truck…my afternoon, planned to be relaxing, is gonna suck instead.
The First Care Doc cleaned me up, and grabbed one of those 8” long “Q Tips”…I thought he was going to ram it up the puncture, so I was about to get Pi$$ed…but he just swabbed around. I got my shot, wrapped it up, and got out the door.
By the time I got Old Grumpy unloaded and home I was Grumpy too…but a kiss and a hug from my wife made it all better…
All is well…I’ll limp a little for a few days…and between the ruined climbing harness, First Care bill, and the general mess of my boots, I went way negative on the day’s work income…but I got plenty of work ahead, a good construction job as well as the firewood. My heart goes out to all you PNW Loggers who are outta work, or anyone on unemployment. Things will get better soon, for everyone…
Thanks for reading my dumb story...I'm gonna go split that 2 cords of wood sittin' out there...
Bounty Hunter
