Damage from accidents !!!

[John Paul Sanborn]

On little letter....

Well i guess the "pooch does not help either.

It is short for the military slang "screwing the pooch".

So pooching something has come to mean screwing up royaly.

This worker did a poor job of felling a tree and it came at him. He did not run the right way, but did get far enough that only the top came down on his leg, not any realy heavy wood.

As my aquaintance said, not the type of lesson he wants his people to learn. Though on the bright side the guy has become a very competant bucket man during his convolecance.

 

[treeclimber165]

So the worked pooch was too tired to lead him out of the way??????

Did he end up using the same pooch for bucket work? What kind of harness did you have for the pooch? Or wasn't he tied in?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

You need a two person bucket, and the dog SHALL have a full body harness.

A canopy or cover should be used while screwing the pooch though

 

[Newfie]

hey JPS,

Is the Corps still screwing the pooch. You guys are always behind in equipment and tactics. The Army abandoned screwing the pooch in the late eighties. We found it to be outdated and unreliable technology once the Blue Falcon (acronym code for Buddy F#%cker) technology had been perfected. We found the pooch mortality rates too high and plenty of "buddies" under the knew training scheme. A much easier system to maintain in field conditions and a lot less ticks.

 

[coydog]

I don't like putting much tension in a line prior to felling, Today I felled a pretty massive dead elm slightly against its lean. I used the landowners tractor as an anchor point but told him to shut it off because I didn't want him getting any bright ideas and trying to pull while I was cutting. What works for me in most felling situations is a line set high and anchored to a fixed object with a z rig in it. I can pretension the line lightly to give the tree a little spring in the right direction and can also signal to a groundie to pull the line in, the z rig not only gives mechanical advantage but guarantees a smooth even pull instead of a yank that could bounce back. I also generally keep 3 wedges and a sledge on hand. I figure the purpose of the rope is to hold the tree in place until it's ready to be pulled ie a hinge is established and working, and only then should excess force be applied.

 

[coydog]

but this thread WAS about damage from accidents, yesterday I was using a 20' pole saw from the clients balcony all was going great and just as I was thinking how smart I was I gave a littl to much backpull as I finished a cut and sent the butt end right through their screen door. lucky i didn't break the glass

 

[Treehugger101]

Property damage eh? Well in 10 years or so we have been pretty lucky, one broken deck board, and just recently the top rail of a chain link fence (I told the new groundie he needed more wrap, but he knew better . . . my younger brother!).
A few years back we were asked to give testimony in a case where a tree service destroyed a house! They were removing a largish cottonwood (40" dbh or so) in a small backyard. Apparently they got all of the crown done and broke for luch with just the main trunk left, maybe 30' tall. Well it turns out they visited the local pub for lunch and came back to the job with a little false courage and decided to drop the whole trunk. They had a lane about 10 feet wide between the house and a fence to lay it in and it was possible to put in it there, though too risky under normal circumstances. With their enhanced courage they fired in a sloppy notch and dropped the trunk diagonally through the house! The tree was about 15 feet from the house corner, just enough to get maximum effect. The impact was enough to blow all the windows from the structure and moved the entire building off the foundation. It was basically totaled! Fortunately no one was inside!
All the evidence was sitting there on the stump . The sloppy notch wasn't totally at fault, it wasn't that far off. It turns out the faller had cut all of the hinge away from the house. He ended up in jail, he had claimed to have insurance but didn't!

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

i look at stuff in terms of forgiveness. Dirt has more forgiveness than grass, which is more forgivingg than concrete, which is more forgiving than a roof....

Way at the top somewhere is soft, very unforgiving aluminum. Whether it morphs into gutter, carports, or with even less forgiving (but cheaper) screen to make a huge pool enclosure.

Aluminum, will always give ya problems, just got to stay off it! You can get away with a limb lightly brushing off a roof like ballet (maybe even reduce cleanup like that! ), but a gutter would give it an unforgiving place to hang on!

 

[Nickrosis]

Yeah...and the metal on cars, too.

I was on the ground when the climber dropped an 8" diameter, 2' long piece onto a sidewalk. "What are you doing??" I yelled. He replied, "I hate concrete." You might hate it, but you're really gonna hate paying for this....

Nickrosis