PSA: When chainsaws fight back.

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Damn! I guess you'll be using this as an excuse for not returning my call eh? Lol. Jk'ing man, but still curious to know which customer we have in common. Heal up man.
 
The chest is a rare spot to cut.

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That's burly, a wake up call for sure, So happy it wasn't worse for you.
I've imagined the 44 kicking back into my chest chunking out wood one handed.

Thanks for posting.
 
Nick, so are you saying this guy is very safety conscious but he also gets a lot of work done?

Thats a bit gray... There are certainly more productive foremen, but he is no slouch. Where he loses time is setting up cones, signs, rescue equipment etc; it doesnt set us back on one job so much as the days we have lots of small jobs. Now I wont for a minute discount the importance of cones, rescue equipment, road signs, flaggers, and the whole menagerie of risk mitigating process but sometimes it can be taken a bit far. i.e We need 12 cones per truck to set a proper taper in a traffic zone. Another example is chaps, Big Green policy requires them for all cutting not done in the tree or bucket, per z133, it is also illegal to chip wearing chaps, so if you are running the chipper and need a relief cut its stop>chaps on>cut>chaps off>chip>chip>chip>stop>chaps on>cut>chaps off>chip and so forth; now most guys dont wear them at all, with this guy its letter of the law.

On the other hand he is an excellent rigger and often times saves huge chunks of time by devising innovative rigging and felling plans.

Bottom line, we get all the work orders done before the trucks go back to the shop, are there faster guys? Sure. Safer? no way.

Overall, its been great working with him as I had never even worn chaps before I started at Green, and he has made me a much safer cutter both in the tree and on the ground. Its an opportunity for me to build best practices into my routine. Whether I am a letter of the law guy forever I am learning the best and safest ways as a fundamental.
 
Not all of them, but most of the guys I've worked with who 'follow the letter of the law' will be super vigilant about doing all the safety stuff exactly as they were taught but will miss lots of common sense stuff that may not always be stressed by the instructors. Things such as setting up an efficient jobsite by positioning vehicles and equipment to maximize efficiency, or planning out your work area and moving any and all loose obstacles instead of tripping over them the entire job. Move the damn bird feeder out of the work area BEFORE the climber goes up the tree. And I'm not implying anything about your foreman but most of the ultra safety oriented guys I've worked with were dumber than a box of rocks. Doing stuff like standing in the kill zone while putting on their chaps so they could make one cut instead of moving out of the way or just dragging the limb off to the side. They might get the cones and signs placed perfectly but when it's time to cut you have to remind them to gas up the saw.
 
I appreciate that there definitely are those guys, but I dont think he is one of them... He has been with Big Green for over thirty years and held almost every position there is to hold: Foreman (15+yrs), district manager (5yrs), labor, spray/fert, lawn, regional safety director for utility & residential (8 yrs).
 
I am not judging anyone boss, just sharing my opinion. You do what you like to do, get the tree on the ground, collect the check and get home to your family...

I do know this though, my wiry 6'4" 165 lb frame just couldnt handle a big saw like that without two hands, so in my case it would be extremely foolish to try.
 
I've one handed many 044/372 saws. I've one handed a 288 a few times. I'm not proud of it, nor do i make a habit of it. But there have been times that I have done it, and that's just how it was.
 
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