A little danger yesterday.

[Koa Man]

I always say the best groundman is an experienced climber. The best crew I ever had was in the early 90's. I had only 2 guys working for me, both fast climbers with more than 10 years experience and not afraid to do ground work. They out worked any groundman I ever hired. Unfortunately, both eventually moved to the mainland.

 

[Cobleskill]

I had a buddy running rope for me on a trim job. He had been doing great lowering and running a tag line at the same time. I was dropping a piece that I told him to let it go to the end of its swing and then just let it fly. He pretty much just let it run straight into the secondarys top down. We tried to lift it back up and broke out the TIP. Finally just let it go and got it to rotate on the wires. Little to much weight for it but it held.

Good help is hard to find.

I do have a HO that helps and does most of the cleanup that is on the ball. He always wants to break out the beer etc. before the job is all the way done. I always decline untill the saws are put away.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Most homeowners appreciate that you will work at heights, people more or less relate to that in some way, through their own fear usually, but don't have any sense of the criticalness of what you are doing, one little miscalculation in the set-up .....

Like when I was negotiating the price for the trim job, he says, "There are lots of people who will come and cut the trees". I didn't particularly like that comment.

 

[Burnham]

I haven't had a top come off and hit/sit on me like that. But I have sent a top off course into an adjacent tree and had that sucker bennnnndddd back and then toss that top right back on me. Got real lucky that day.

Topping in stands of trees is always a bit spooky...miss your lay and you stand a very good chance of getting nailed.

I've done a lot of them, and it never got "everyday".

 

[cutitup]

I'm glad you're OK WWB! Like someone else said "if your OK it becomes a learning experiance".
I had one last week. Brushed out a oak climbed down (it was the third tree of the day) and was getting ready to drop the spar and buck it up. My son is my groundie and I ALWAYS preach safety to him. I don't climb with chaps but "almost" always wear them on the ground. Anyhow they were in the truck and I was beat I didn't want to walk back to the truck to get them. Then I thought what kind of example would I be if I didn't put on my chaps. So I did.
Well don't ya know I'm bucking up the spar and after about the third cut I go to move and trip over a rock I didn't see in the leaves and WHAM!! I slam the 460 right across my knee at about 1/4 throttle! I look down at the kevlar stuck in the sprocket and my boy says "see dad good thing you had your chaps on - else we'd be on the way to the hospital"
I didn't tell him he's the only reason I had them on!

 

[pantheraba]

Great lesson for us all...thanks for sharing how your thought process worked and how well it took care of you.

I try to do this...if I am moving the chain is not...if the chain is moving, I am not. I always try to chain brake between cuts. After your story I will be even more conscientious about it.

Thanks.

 

[cutitup]

Thanks Gary. As is soooo often in these things it was near the end of a rather long day and I just wanted to finish up and get to "beer thirty". However, I do like you say chain brake on when moving, bar to the rear, step carefully etc, etc. In this case what kinda got me off guard was I was bucking this into firewood and I didn't move but a SINGLE STEP! And, of course, that was when the "trip" occured.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Good posts. When everything is down and no possibility of hangers, I usually take off my hardhat and work that way.

 

[squisher]

When you least expect it is when it'll happen. I never work without a hardhat espescially a saw. I've had a kickback before where the chainbrake engaged but the saw still hit my face screen and hardhat. Had I not been wearing that I'd still be wearing the scars today. It took a chunck out of the lip of the hardhat and put holes in the screen where the stopped teeth hit it. That was a holysh-t moment for sure, sit down and think about what happened for a few minutes type of thing. I'll never forget that and still have the screen somewheres in my shop. Every now and then I come across it, usually while looking for something else, and I remember what could have been.

 

[Greenhorn]

No good help around I used to break out the pole saw and take alot of weight off one side of the top, taking out the guesswork.

 

[woodworkingboy]

When you least expect it is when it'll happen.

word!

 

[Altissimus]

a good close call ... a similar scenario a few years back almost tore me out of the tree as the top I was wearing rolled off me .... two weeks with a hurt back .... after that for the longest time I would NOT trip any piece of top more than my body weight....

 

[Tucker943]

I dont like tops.......dont like lowering em, dont like lettin em rip, dont like lettin em fly with a tag line in em, dont like any of it. It's just my quirk as a climber. A few bad experiences have created this fear in my mind. I can say that those bad experiences were usually poor judgement on my part, and 2 of them were the groundies fault.

Height doesnt bother me, rigging big wood doesnt bother me, I can even turn a blind eye to defects in a treee within reason........but tops freak me the fawk out!

 

[Altissimus]

I tell my groundsman ... "It's a different tree once the top and limbs are gone" ... but getting there ...

 

[rumination]

I love letting a top fly. Rigging them isn't as much fun unless you've got a good groundie.