Howdy!
Okay, I didn't do this TODAY, but I think it's fairly interesting.
The city that my employer is based in had a big creek clearing job that we won the bid for.
I packed up a few ground guys, some rubber boots, some chain saws, and a man-portable winch, and got to work.
Every single piece of wood we removed from that creek was either:
Stuck in the mud.
Under tremendous pressure from the 15 other trees on top of it.
Covered in poison ivy.
It took three months, and I met some of the most fantastic animals Florida has to offer, such as water-moccasins, spiders the size of a child's hand, snapping turtles (one of them tried to bite the foot off of one of my guys, and I think it could have. It had a head like a foster's beer can), and everything else under the sun.
In fact, the easiest part of the job was the tree-work part of it. I learned more about rigging, mechanical advantage, and wood-weight than I ever thought possible.
I remember at one point, we set a bull-line up into a live-oak with a pulley to help redirect a large log we were pulling from the creek. As I started up the winch and started pulling, the rope was feeding onto the drum no problem.
Actually, there was a problem. The rope was feeding onto the drum not because the log in the water was moving, but because I was bending the tree my rigging was in, to the point where we heard a huge BOOM, and down comes 5 tons of live oak and rigging. Scared the crap out of me.
All that was left was a jagged staub, and a tree top, which we also had to remove from the water.
What I learned:
Jungle boots are better than hip-waders for tree work in the water.
Throwballs are expendible.
Rotten palm trees spray fountains of horrible smelling fluid all over whoever cuts them with a chainsaw.
Chainsaws don't stand up to cutting things underwater for very long.
Ropes that break with 5000 pounds of tension sound like rifles and can take your head off.
You CAN free a pinched chainsaw with a machete, but it takes a very long time.
STIHL chainsaws are very dependable as long as you don't drop them into the river.
Never shimmy up a palm tree in shorts without verifying that what you thought was Virginia Creeper isn't in fact Poison Ivy.
Many fast-food establishments will refuse to serve a bunch of dudes covered in dry black mud carrying machetes who smell like something died in their pants.
Mac
Had to explain to him that if he wanted his tree down he would have to stay back at a safe distance! HC
Your lessons learned are great...I needed the laughs. It's funny how the words that relay the troubles you had can cause such smiles later.
