Tree Men Be Here

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It sure is a stupid way to learn...seems to me that anyone with the ability to think rationally would find it self-evident. I am obviously incorrect in that analysis :).
 
Yep - I think that the part of the human brain that enables rational thinking doesn't fully develop in most males until the age of 22-23. Or 30 in my case.
 
I used to do tree work for this guy who was a retired high school shop teacher. At the end of the first day, he came outside before we left and asked if we would watch him do a demonstration. He set a grape down on the stump we had just made, and then skewered it with a small twig. He said that the human eye has the same consistency and resistance to puncture that a grape does, and not one of us had worn safety glasses all day. It was an effective demonstration, to say the least.
 
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Earliest picture I have easily at hand is from 1987. At that time that helmet was at least five years old. I didn't replace them as often back then.

1987sm.png


And there were a lot of tree folk who made fun of me for wearing it.
 
Haha im supprised that they have that nice of a truck and chipper. Most of the guys like that around here have real old trucks and crapman chainsaws. I asked a guy one time why he didnt buy a better brand chainsaw like a husky or a stihl and he said that they are too expensive and these saws last him about 3-4 months and he just goes and picks up a new one. LOL
 
HolmenTree said:
I have always worn a helmet. I remember years ago I was hit on the helmet 2 times. One was a widow maker that hit me while I was bent over in the back cut, hit my helmet so hard that it drove my head into the ground. I was stunned for a minute and was picking moss out of my mouth and bleeding from a bit tongue.
The 2nd time I was up removing a top from an old poplar ,about a 100 lb piece of deadwood broke away from about 10 ft up and glanced off my helmet. Hit so hard it knocked a filling out of my teeth.
I can guarentee you I wouldn't be sitting here today writing this if I didn't have a helmet on in those 2 occassions. Let alone have any marbles left to think with.

Willard.
Click to expand...

my hard hat has saved my life for sure on at least one occasion. guy in the bucket threw a 2' piece of wood without looking. i was bending over to pick up some brush, next thing i know im on my knees spitting out pieces of my teeth. i always wear my hard hat, and glasses, and ear plugs. ive never worn chaps, tho i should.
 
There is a guy in my town who was helping out a neighbor and was up a tree with a ladder and chainsaw. He's now in a wheelchair.
 
I was clobbered good by a crane pick once. The operator was laying down a pine and I was off to the side up against some logs. The tree shifted over on some branches towards me and a limb rolled down and hit me solid smack on top of my head. I saw it coming for an instant but nowhere to go. With no helmet on, I don't like to think about what might have happened.
 
Had a new climber drop 20-something oz nalgene full of water, It hit me square on. My helmet saved my noggin but my neck was sore for days. When the maple fell I was wearing my Petzl but I hit the tree with my face so it didn't save me from a G3 concussion. I feel wrong on jobs without a hat... but I still fail to wear it 100% of the time.
 
Great thread! Pat, I like your, "if you'd like lessons, I'll help" approach.

I have taken a, "give me a meager amount of money and I'll work with you for an hour. If you like what you see, we can talk about the rest of the day" approach and it has never worked. I told one guy, "I can have that whole top down on the ground in ten minutes for $10. I'm insured. If it takes more than ten minutes, I'll finish the whole tree for free."

He didn't like that at all!

I walked over to a grocery store that has a ton of nice ficus trees and a bunch of Canary Island Pines. There was a tree crew just MURDERING the trees AND being super unsafe about it. I talked to the foreman, asked him if he could leave one of his crew near the running chipper so that kids wouldn't be tempted to go near...or at least put some cones up or something. He basically said, "fu@& off and mind yer damn bidness."

I called Cal-Osha on their crew. They sent an inspector and issued around $8,000 in fines. I hate to be a rat, but these guys were leaving running chippers unattended for over 5 minutes at a time in a busy parking lot and the chipper was parked right next to the store entrance where EVERYONE had to walk by it going in and out. That is just a recipe for disaster. Then there was the guys 50' up with nothing more than a lanyard- oh the guy standing on the infeed shoot kicking chunks into the chipper. This whole jobsite was straight out of a "what not to do" video.

Karina asked me if I felt bad for ratting on the company. I thought about it for a second and decided that I didn't because this might be the thing that makes the owner go, "aw crap...at least we have to at least PRETEND we are safe."
 
I don't see anything odd about that at all. If you're in the field, hardhats are just the norm, in my world. And sturdy boots with a minimum 8 inch top, long sleeve shirt, long pants. Every day, every job.

I may violate the requirements on occasion, but it's still the norm.
 
NickfromWI said:
Karina asked me if I felt bad for ratting on the company. I thought about it for a second and decided that I didn't because this might be the thing that makes the owner go, "aw crap...at least we have to at least PRETEND we are safe."
Click to expand...

Feel bad...no way. You may have saved a kid's life. Lots of kids are drawn to equipment, naturally curious, without a clue about being safe. The guy needed a reality call...good on you for caring enough to get involved.
 
I can't remember all the times I've felt compelled to try to steer a "forest visitor" away from some potentially risky action that I've happened across in the course of my job...cutting firewood, putting on chains, towing a friend out of a ditch, changing a tire, driving further out into deteriorating weather/road conditions unprepared, and on and on.

Once in a very blue moon, someone even stops, hears what I'm trying to tell them and realizes they are about to make a dumb move. Not often. Mostly, I've gotten push-back and I just drop it and move on. Mostly, they manage to survive, I guess.
 
I've had a kick back cut my screen and take a nick out of the hardhat. Inertia brake had come on but I can honestly say that without that hardhat and screen I definetly would've been getting some stitches. Anyone who runs a saw and thinks that because they pay 'extra' attention they don't need the full assortment of ppe is fooling themselves. My uncle fooled himself for 20+ years until he caught a kickback to the face, unfortunately for him the inertia brake didn't engage. Month+ in the hospital more surgeries and plastic surgeries then you can count on one hand so that he could breath a bit through his nose again and looks halfway's normal. I viewed him through the portal in the door of a sealed room that they kept him in while trying to figure out how to put his face back together. They kept him unconcious for days while they sorted what went where and what connected to what. I will never forget looking through that window.

Nobody fool themselves that they are above getting bit, it's like winning the lotto. Only alot less fun.
 
Yep, paying 'extra attention' means putting on your gear, among other things.
 
Good call on the running chipper, Nick. Kids are attracted to revolving things, sometimes they want to see if they can stop them.
 
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