I once had a boss or climber who........

[Ekka]

I had a guy once who ....

all contributions invited but they have to be true and preferably funny.

Who sent the 372 up to me after fitting a new chain with the bar nuts only done up finger tight. As I was blocking down, I started to cut horizontally thru the log and heard and felt this unusual clacking sound ....
.... I stopped, looked around, didn't really see what was going on and started cutting again (saw was buried in log to the dogs) .... brrrrrr, brrrrr and then I saw a bar nut fall to the ground and the cover lifted and the chain derailed all in a split second.

I pulled it from the cut and freaked out. I asked the clown why he didn't do up the bar nuts and he promptly told me it was my fault!

When asked why he told me that coz I was up the tree it put pressure on him to hurry.

 

[elmnut]

how about a backward chain to get the job going.

 

[Jumper]

Ekka, a two way street........................

 

[Jumper]

1. Got real keen to do a job, was generally miserable, that I was too slow getting set up etc etc etc, then climbed a large Manitoba Maple for a removal on a property along the Bay. Apparently the client, watching, was a big time birder in Quinte, and down came Mike because there was a robin's nest with four eggs in it that he was sure the client did not want disturbed. De rig everything, chip up what few branches he dropped, then waited two friggin hours while he had coffee and discussed birds with the client. I might point out I also left home at 0600 to drive out from Toronto to be on time for work at 0800. It was noon plus before we did anything else. I could not deal with this guy's inconsistant behavior.

2. Same boss two weeks later, I just finished telling the client that he was not really that bad a guy after they queried how I worked for him given his anger management problems. (actually true I meant it) and boss shows up, blows a gasket over SFA in front to clients (second time that day) and suggests i take the afternoon off. So I load all HIS equipment off my truck (his was broken in the garage), left him a bill for 64 hours which he had avoided paying for weeks and left hime there with a lawnful of equipment and trailer that was going no where fast. I did get paid after about another month....

 

[SRT-Tech]

I once had a boss who....never returned my calls, the multiple emails to both him and his partner, personal messages on a forum, and basically left me with no idea what was going on with work.

would have been REAL SIMPLE to SIMPLY tell me "hey, not enough work to keep you" or "I only needed you while i was injured".

COMMUNICATION is KEY here people. dont need a groundie anymore? TELL THEM! When your workers send you multiple emails or phone calls asking whats going on, REPLY AND TELL THEM whats going on!!!

WHY THE **** IS THIS SO DIFFICULT FOR OWNERS/BOSSES TO DO????

whatever...im better off now in a professional company that i am in some two bit company.

 

[sloth9669]

climber

i was a ground worker for about a year got teamed up with a small climber pete. He was 5'6'' about 150lbs red hair. i was learning to climb and rig with him and we made a great team. Iam 6'1'' 230lbs. we would joke around bust b@lls and one day he could not take a joke and he picked me up on his shoulders and chucked me on a pile of brush....no one was hurt and we ended up laughing all day about it but he got his point across...big guy = nothing compared to what a short red head climber can do to you that is pissed off....and pete if your out there call me some day would be nice to catch up...andy in mass

 

[Jim1NZ]

Haha i was on a job and run out of fuel in my 200T, sent my saw down to the groundie and asked im to fill it up with gas. He did and sent it back up, when i got it i noticed there was no bar oil split at all and it was a super quick fill which made me second guess what he had done exactly. I opened the bar oil cap on the saw and she was bone dry!!!

Ha i asked him why he didn't fill it up and he said i didn't tell him to! The thing is i didn't tell him to but com on :bang:

 

[lastradicaldude]

Let it down. Duhh!

I once had a groundie that was holding the rope while I cut a 100 + lb block about 25 feet over a sidewalk. After it stopped swinging, I said "let it down". At which time he completely let go of the rope. Dead shot! I said what did you do that for? he said, "What?". I said, "Let go of the rope". He replied, " You said let it down." I said, "What did you think the rope was for? " He replied, "I don't know" Luckily the way it struck the walk, there was no damage.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Ha i asked him why he didn't fill it up and he said i didn't tell him to! The thing is i didn't tell him to but com on :bang:

I had a guy who would argue with me about bar oil, If there was some ing, then it did not need filling. After a few times of that I just started asking people to top the saw off.

Heck they design the saws to run out of gas first, even with the oiler wide open!

 

[Log hog]

This Could Take A while...

Like I said in another post, I showed my groundie what a wedge was, I had a smaller yellow one and asked him to go and get me a larger ORANGE one, which was in my chip truck. He brings back a yellow wheel chock.
I had another groundie who I told to fill up my 2171(Been a great saw) he brought it back and I fired it up and it ran for about 15 seconds or so and I could not for the life of me figure out why it would not start again. First I thought it was flooded, but no, thought it might be spark. but no. Just for ????s I opened up the gas in case he forgot to top it off. Well it seemed that the gas was just a little cloudy like it was just not right. Wouldn't ya know he put the bar oil in the gas tank and the gas in the oil tank.
(Same guy as in the first paragraph). I was in a low traffic area and was down in a deep ditch about 5-6' depth. I had this guy watch for any cars coming and to stop them. "OK BOSS" I place my notch and start to fell , I look up :jawdrop: and right under where my tree is going to drop sits a Mercedes SUV with an old guy in the thing. I start screaming go go go, I quick pause my cut and the tree is at a 45% lean right over the SUV luckily my hinge holds just long enough for the old guy to move his dam SUV out of the way. Talk about cleaning out your pants after that one.
Theres morr, trust me but maybe later.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I had a guy like that, did not say a thing when a car drove through the cones and right under the pull rope whilst I was making the back cut. He even started to pull.

Last time I dropped a tree into a road on my own job.

Had one on a subcontract, we tapped and coned the road off.
had trucks with lights flashing in the road.
pull line was redirected through a block on one trucks bumper
lady drives over cones
under tape and
into pull line
as Dave is starting his back cut.

Whew! she did not even bend a wiper!

 

[Jumper]

How the h*ll did this all get combined into one thread???

My point was that for every ground guy story, there is another for when the climber or the boss was all SNAFU'd.

EDIT: Merged at Ekka's request.

 

[Rspike]

Like I said in another post, I showed my groundie what a wedge was, I had a smaller yellow one and asked him to go and get me a larger ORANGE one, which was in my chip truck. He brings back a yellow wheel chock.
.

LMAO Just unreal . I dont think i could of even made that story up ..... Holy he(( that got me rolling.

 

[Jim1NZ]

I had a guy like that, did not say a thing when a car drove through the cones and right under the pull rope whilst I was making the back cut. He even started to pull.

hahaha the "even started to pull" part made me laugh!

Ok, seen a climber on his first day, first tree and first cut ready to take the top out of a over grown pine shelter-belt. Groundie says there's a top coming out so i stay well clear and have a good view, next thing i see is half the tree coming down, breaking sideways straight across the road and taking out 2 phases of 11kv! :jawdrop:

No one was hurt apart from the climbers pride, the lines were up in a few hours, and tree cleaned up in no time.

 

[Ekka]

I had this guy once who thought he was the best climber and rigger since the English invaded Australia. (He was a Pom)

I explained this job over and over to him for a few days before and then the day come.

We had to lower the head of a queen palm over a garden and decking.

so he rigs the pulley onto the trunk, makes his scarf, ties the head up etc and we're all watching. I get on the lowering rope and he makes his back cut and

... WELLA, the head, pulley rope and whole shabang hits the ground and not a thing broken! We were all gob smacked, both at how nothing busted but how the whole lot come down at once.

So he has to lower another block of trunk, sets everything up and is mighty agitated now that us convicts are giving him lip.

Prior to him making the back cut we ask for him to push the rigging out into full view for inspection. He argued that it's right and bla bla but eventually shoves the rigging out so we can see what's going on.

Yep, he had the notch and backcut below the block!

 

[Jim1NZ]

Yep, he had the notch and backcut below the block!

HAHAHA! Thats a good one

Yea the guy from my post above was pom too.

 

[Ekka]

I went to do this quote once and the lady reckons "just go thru the side gate down to the back yard and have a look."

She wasn't home see.

So the worker and I rock up, open the 6' high colourbond gate to go down the back. The worker is about 10' in front of me, I'm about 2' past the gate with my hand still on it.

Then out of the blue this pissed off blue heeler comes tearing around the corner, growling and teeth showing, man it meant business...

.... in like a split second I had jumped backwards and the gate slammed shut .... worker on the other side!

A split second after that he came flying over the top of that colourbond fence ... like a flamin pole vaulter.

We got back to the car and pissed ourselves laughing and I got hammered for months after that for slamming him shut in there with the dog. After that he always walked behind me when we were in strange territory.

 

[a_lopa]

Had one leading hand got hired because he could talk the talk,turns up starts saw walks to tree starts cutting without putting a scarfe in it.interesting watching the guy who hired him try and school him in 2 minutes.

Another leading hand climber real power hungry control freak would take his own cell phone and the company one with him up the tree just "incase".

one leading hand dropped a heap of big pines in a river then went on holidays leaving all the others to try clean up hehe that was me!

 

[Jim1NZ]

Once had this bloke learning how to fell on the course i was doing. There is a tutor between 3-5 students with only one felling at a time, the rest processing or dragging brush at a safe distance of cause.

The guy who's turn it was to fell a tree started to prep the escape route, the tutor left for a minute to cut out a student who had his saw jammed. On the way back to assist the student felling the tree, another guy noticed something strange about the way the tree was being felled and asked the tutor what the guy felling was doing. The tutor turned around and said "oh hes just..... hang on what is he doing!" At this stage the student felling was on the backcut and had been hammering his wedges in, the tutor stopped him and asked what he was doing wrong.....

"hmmm oh hmm um think i forgot me scarf"!!!!!!!

The student was in his 40s...

 

[Ekka]

Hahahaha good one guys.