OK here's the story........
This man I know from New Warrior, Tom, called me up to ask for some part time work.... I told him he would be better off finding a different job and I would make a few calls for him... over the next month he called and asked for work two or three more times. He has been in the middle of a career change... just got his teacher's certification but no job yet and his money is running out fast...
So I invited him to work on a Sunday with Big Jon doing the climbing.... He worked hard, though it was apparent that his experience was in sales... not hands on.
He ended up working his second day on Wednesday of that week... We were shorthanded and I went to pick up a stump grinder at the rental shop, while my co-worker, Nuni, got started on the job. Tom met Nuni at the job and I showed up less than an hour later. Nuni had taken the initiative to get the job started by taking the top out of a big birch which was coming down... Now that was unusual, since he hadn't been up in a tree since he worked with me a few years back.... And he did a real nice job on that birch and a sweet job of pruning another big birch very near the house.
Right after I arrived on the job Nuni and I took a moment to look at the remaining trees and that's when we heard a very nasty sound coming from the chipper.... we both stopped...... what was that????????
Turns out Nuni had used my saddle, and Tom grabbed a piece of birch trunk with attached branches, without noticing the saddle was tangled in it, until the saddle was in the mouth of the chipper.... he wasn't used to using the control bar to stop the feed wheels and vainly tried to pull the saddle free... The rest of the story is in a box with Canopy tree written on it...... (Tom D. I need your address)
I learned two important lessons from that moment.... 1) its definately time to buy a new saddle and 2) when teaching chipper operation.. always have the new operator practice repeatedly using the control bar... Stop and start and reverse the brush until they get very comfortable with using the bar.