Nope. This thread is for near disasters. Not for fully completed !$@#!%'s.
But it was probably pretty embarrassing at the time, wasn't it?:greenchainsaw:
oh dear.....
- Thread starter Little Monkey
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Nope. This thread is for near disasters. Not for fully completed !$@#!%'s.
But it was probably pretty embarrassing at the time, wasn't it?:greenchainsaw:
Near fatal
Was trimming storm damaged limb about 20 feet up a cherry for this very nice elderly couple (in their 80s I think). Working alone, I tied in about 10 feet above limb and walked out to tip and started piecing down. Each cut was small enough to hold with one hand, hang saw on belt, then toss onto nice little pile so as not to ruin their fancy shmancy lawn. As the pieces got bigger, went to snap cut where I could hang saw, then break with both hands and throw on pile. Very last cut was limb dia. 7 or 8 inches, 3 or 4 feet long, and I was sitting on limb facing tree with one leg hanging on either side. I crossed my legs, under-cut a little, then from the top cut it off. I went down a foot or two but still had piece between legs, hung saw, reached down and took piece, spun a bit and threw on pile. Back to tree and made finish cut, down to ground and feeling pretty good about it all. Ten minutes later I'm running the rake over grass where pile had been making it look like I was never there and the guy comes out and says I scared his wife nearly to death. Said they were watching out the big window and as I started cutting, she screamed and started pounding on the window for me to stop and when me and that piece started down she grabbed her chest and fell back on the couch and he ran and got the nitro and she is now resting and going to be alright . . . He was in tears tellin me about it, and I appologised all over the place. Said I should have warned them. Ever since, when I work for older people I warn them I may be doing some scary looking stuff, so don't watch if you have a weak heart.
Talking about cutting off the piece you are tied to . . . I've never started cutting, but SEVERAL times been ready to cut, just one last check that everything is OK and realised I was still tied in to the piece I was about to send to earth . . . almost makes you puke.:jawdrop:
Was trimming storm damaged limb about 20 feet up a cherry for this very nice elderly couple (in their 80s I think). Working alone, I tied in about 10 feet above limb and walked out to tip and started piecing down. Each cut was small enough to hold with one hand, hang saw on belt, then toss onto nice little pile so as not to ruin their fancy shmancy lawn. As the pieces got bigger, went to snap cut where I could hang saw, then break with both hands and throw on pile. Very last cut was limb dia. 7 or 8 inches, 3 or 4 feet long, and I was sitting on limb facing tree with one leg hanging on either side. I crossed my legs, under-cut a little, then from the top cut it off. I went down a foot or two but still had piece between legs, hung saw, reached down and took piece, spun a bit and threw on pile. Back to tree and made finish cut, down to ground and feeling pretty good about it all. Ten minutes later I'm running the rake over grass where pile had been making it look like I was never there and the guy comes out and says I scared his wife nearly to death. Said they were watching out the big window and as I started cutting, she screamed and started pounding on the window for me to stop and when me and that piece started down she grabbed her chest and fell back on the couch and he ran and got the nitro and she is now resting and going to be alright . . . He was in tears tellin me about it, and I appologised all over the place. Said I should have warned them. Ever since, when I work for older people I warn them I may be doing some scary looking stuff, so don't watch if you have a weak heart.
Talking about cutting off the piece you are tied to . . . I've never started cutting, but SEVERAL times been ready to cut, just one last check that everything is OK and realised I was still tied in to the piece I was about to send to earth . . . almost makes you puke.:jawdrop:
That's a good story!
Mikecutstrees
ArboristSite Guru
I did that too early in my tree climbing career. Luckily I was also tied into the trunk with my lanyard and my climbing line pulled free as the top flipped upside down. I don't like talking about that incident much. I always always check twice now..... Mike
treeclimber101
UNCLE BUCK
No your story fits because your ### nearly got fired not because you hit the truck , because now that poor #### has to listen to his old lady about how ###### her car looks .:biggrinbounce2:
HorseShoeInFork
ArboristSite Operative
I backed into a Cat 966 loader bucket. Peeled the whole drivers left rear fender off an 04' Chevy pickup. Drove a near new (I knew where the owner hid the key) RT160 Terex rough terrain crane a total of 40ft. Somehow I managed to smoke the computer. It would only start and idle for about 6 months. Even the Terex mechanics couldn't figure it out. After a complete new LMI system and multiple battery replacements it works, but the scale readout is still toast. I still have bad dreams about that one.
Rickytree
Addicted to ArboristSite
I've done it in a corkscrew willow. Even had my ground guy pulling the limb over with a pull line. And the idiot still didn't tell me. Finally noticed I was tie to it when it was coming over. I quickly grabbed my knot and let it run. I wasn't far up but it wasn't the fall it was goin to be the pull that would of been the real problem.. The ground guy's history and still an idiot.
treeclimber101
UNCLE BUCK
Alright since were all coming clean on our stupid mistakes, I ruined a brand new septic in 96' by driving a backhoe over it and crushing the box that my father and brotherlaw put in two days earlier. Oops , you wanna know why ,well i'll tell you because i was too lazy to walk my :censored: back to the woods to take a :censored:. I believe that if we were not blood related i would have never made it to see 20. lololol
I was felling a 24"dbh hickory that had canopied over a morton bldg.
had a bull rope and a 3/4 ton come along hooked up. Made my face and back cuts [ did I mention that this was just after an ice storm?]. Just as I winched it to about a neutral position it ripped along the hinge at 90 degrees and the tertiary branches brushed the edge of the roofline.
I could not believe the weight of the ice! Scared the ---- out of me.
I told the HO I would be back to do the remaining trees AFTER the ice melted. live and learn Artistree
had a bull rope and a 3/4 ton come along hooked up. Made my face and back cuts [ did I mention that this was just after an ice storm?]. Just as I winched it to about a neutral position it ripped along the hinge at 90 degrees and the tertiary branches brushed the edge of the roofline.
I could not believe the weight of the ice! Scared the ---- out of me.
I told the HO I would be back to do the remaining trees AFTER the ice melted. live and learn Artistree
tree md
Addicted to ArboristSite
About the worst damage I have done is wrecked a section of 8' privacy fence. I had spent a day and a half lowering every branch out of a huge Cottonwood that sprawled over two houses. The tree was over 3' dbh and had a 68 inch stump after we flush cut it. I was working with a new ground guy. He was prolly 6'6" and weighed about 275; dumb as a box of rocks but a decent guy. He was worried every time I had him hold the rope. I couldn't get it through his head that he needed to let the rope run a little when I roped a piece out. I was lowering a 5' chunck of a fork that was easily 2+ feet in diameter. I'd say over 1000 pounds. I explained to him that it was very important to let the piece run or it would swing right back into me. I made the cut, he locked up and let the piece swing right back into me. I threw up my hands to try to deflect the log and still had my running saw in my hand. The saw cut the rope and dropped the log right onto the privacy fence I had spent a day and a half protecting. I couldn't really get too mad at the guy because in his mind he thought he was protecting me. He just couldn't break the code that you need to let the pieces run a little bit. Needles to say that was the last time he ran the ropes. I repaired the fence myself and it didn't cost me anything but it still sucked. I was pretty embarrassed over it.
One of my guys slung a rock with a stump grinder in a condo complex I was working in and broke the glass out of a sliding glass door. I bid the stump at $250 and had to pay $280 out of pocket to repair the glass. I paid $30 to grind that stump...
The guy I first worked for put me up in a massive Beech to swing some large limbs for the first time after he had brushed the tree out. I was swinging limbs about 25' long with 2' butts. I hadn't really learned how to make proper cuts yet and cut a limb off where the butt dropped strait down and the bull rope caught on the stub. I got up as high as I could on the limb and pushed as hard as I could to keep the limb from swinging back in my direction and cutting me in half with the rope. Definitely a scary experience. I learned from that one.
Same guy who I first worked for cut a top out of a large Oak on a military base in GA and left his climbing line teid into the top. I wasn't working for him at the time it happened, it was before I started with him but I saw where it almost ripped his Weaver saddle in half. He was lucky that the top hit the ground before snatching him so he didn't have to take the full force of the falling top. He had to cut his climbing line to unload the weight of the top that had him stretched out. Said he was sore for quite a while after that. Fortunately I learned from his mistake. I do cut notches while I am still tied in and often have groundies yanking my rope to warn me that I'm still tied in. I've never forgot to untie before making my back cut though (knock on wood).
One of my guys slung a rock with a stump grinder in a condo complex I was working in and broke the glass out of a sliding glass door. I bid the stump at $250 and had to pay $280 out of pocket to repair the glass. I paid $30 to grind that stump...
The guy I first worked for put me up in a massive Beech to swing some large limbs for the first time after he had brushed the tree out. I was swinging limbs about 25' long with 2' butts. I hadn't really learned how to make proper cuts yet and cut a limb off where the butt dropped strait down and the bull rope caught on the stub. I got up as high as I could on the limb and pushed as hard as I could to keep the limb from swinging back in my direction and cutting me in half with the rope. Definitely a scary experience. I learned from that one.
Same guy who I first worked for cut a top out of a large Oak on a military base in GA and left his climbing line teid into the top. I wasn't working for him at the time it happened, it was before I started with him but I saw where it almost ripped his Weaver saddle in half. He was lucky that the top hit the ground before snatching him so he didn't have to take the full force of the falling top. He had to cut his climbing line to unload the weight of the top that had him stretched out. Said he was sore for quite a while after that. Fortunately I learned from his mistake. I do cut notches while I am still tied in and often have groundies yanking my rope to warn me that I'm still tied in. I've never forgot to untie before making my back cut though (knock on wood).
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treeclimber101
UNCLE BUCK
Really if you expect anyone to believe that your crazy, were not gonna tell anyone !!!!!!:biggrinbounce2:I wish that all i broke was an eight section of fence . lol
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tree md
Addicted to ArboristSite
Honest to God truth. Only house damage I have done is I knocked a small section of guttering off driving a Bobcat through the back gate with a log in the jaws and that's about it. I am hell on power drops, cable and phone lines though. Oh yeah, and I have tore up a nice charcoal grill onetime. The job was for my insurance agent... Yikes!
Guess I have been pretty lucky. I don't make a cut unless I'm sure where it's going to go.
Unfortunately however, I have tore my own body up a time or two...
DK_stihl
ArboristSite Operative
the low down
I was actually bringing the truck and trailer (rear mount 75' w/ beavertail trailer) back into his yard. His yard at the time was very small and had a steep hill off to the left that I needed to pull up to back the truck and trailer in correctly next to his house. Anyway, there was ice and I couldn't pull up enough to straighten out, I tried correcting, the truck slid backwards on the ice into the yukon. I felt horrible. He pulled into his yard like two minutes after it happened too...
I was actually bringing the truck and trailer (rear mount 75' w/ beavertail trailer) back into his yard. His yard at the time was very small and had a steep hill off to the left that I needed to pull up to back the truck and trailer in correctly next to his house. Anyway, there was ice and I couldn't pull up enough to straighten out, I tried correcting, the truck slid backwards on the ice into the yukon. I felt horrible. He pulled into his yard like two minutes after it happened too...
treeclimber101
UNCLE BUCK
I was slow learner the list of have broken is much shorter than haven't but thats just me. THank god those days are behind me now smooth sailing with the occasional ripple.
Raymond
Addicted to ArboristSite
LOL :hmm3grin2orange:
Little Monkey
ArboristSite Operative
Little Monkey
ArboristSite Operative
very true i always let the client know how we work but even still i often see them standing there with their hands on there heart praying, one old guy wanted me to stop because he was to worried !! HE was afraid of heights and could not watch ME !!! funny thing was i was only about 15 feet off the ground !!!!!!
Little Monkey
ArboristSite Operative
TreeTopKid
ArboristSite Guru
I've already told the one about nearly having a scaffold impale my torso (it only got my leg) so I'll tell you about the closest brush with death I had working for my fathers company in about 1986/7.
As usual he wanted to get off looking at jobs and began rushing. He wanted to cut this huge piece of stem/spar at the limb junction which all five us were trying to tell him we couldn't hold. He didn't have the blocks in place and there was nothing substantial enough to put the rope around. His last words were 'do not let go of the b***dy rope okay. I already knew if the chips were down everyone else would bale (they did), and if I let go 'everything would be blamed on me.
When the timber left the tree all five of us were dragged down the garden at an ever increasing speed until it was just me. The nearly half ton piece of Oak and myself ended up side by side at the base of the tree. Just another incident to distance myself from my old man and improper work techniques. My old man just laughed about it and went off to price his jobs.
As usual he wanted to get off looking at jobs and began rushing. He wanted to cut this huge piece of stem/spar at the limb junction which all five us were trying to tell him we couldn't hold. He didn't have the blocks in place and there was nothing substantial enough to put the rope around. His last words were 'do not let go of the b***dy rope okay. I already knew if the chips were down everyone else would bale (they did), and if I let go 'everything would be blamed on me.
When the timber left the tree all five of us were dragged down the garden at an ever increasing speed until it was just me. The nearly half ton piece of Oak and myself ended up side by side at the base of the tree. Just another incident to distance myself from my old man and improper work techniques. My old man just laughed about it and went off to price his jobs.
