What's the wildest request on a removal job.

1savagehunter

1savagehunter

Treehouser
Joined
Dec 12, 2010
Messages
135
Location
Alberta
I figured I'd start a thread this am as I'm still shaking my head over a job i did last summer. Got called out to remove a small stand of 6 dead poplar trees with a tree fort in the middle. Figured it would be a total breeze as they just wanted the trees dropped on the ground, tree fort smashed and they'd do the clean up. Well I quoted the job on a picture as I know the family and felt all would go fine. Well I show up to do the job and was told ..." oh ya that tree fort in the tree - ya that one approx. 15 + up in the trees ... we want you to get it out of those dead trees in the condition it is now (don't break it). Say WHAT !!!!! Well let's just say that made for one super fun afternoon. Oh by the way I nailed it. Pictures to follow tomorrow. I'm not trying to discuss my skills/tactics but rather the crazt things people ask us to do.:laughing5:
 
Once I had a lady call me to remove a dead elm. Wasnt a big deal, just had to climb like 15 feet and cut the tops into a wide open area. I gave her a price and she calls me back two or three months later to ok the job. We show up and they installed a brand new deck and pool right under the tree. I then call her to tell her its obviously not going to be the same price and she said she couldnt afford to pay more. Urghhhhhhhhhhhh some people!
 
It wasn't a tree job, but when I was on the line crew I got a call to stop at the Highway Patrol station. They had a cat on top of the transformer on a 40' pole behind the building and wanted me to get him off. The transformer was hot and all the cat had to do to be transformed into a fiery fur ball was to flick his tail into the primary bushing (7200V) a couple of inches away. I had quite an audience and was afraid this was not going to end well as I ran my extendo stick up by the cat and de-energized the transformer. I wasn't home free yet, I still had to climb the pole, somehow get hold of the cat and get him and me back down the pole alive and hopefully unharmed. I tried to not stomp as I eased up the back side of the pole, safetied off and put my rubber gloves on. Thank God the cat was agreeable and I got him off the transformer, put him in my rubber glove bag, taped it up and sent him down on the hand line. I was the hero, but could have very well been the goat.
 
Not too wild, but kinda odd...

1) Removed a trampoline from a tree after a windstorm.

2) Installed fake snakes and an owl on limbs going over a driveway.

3) Threw a tree on a house that was to be demolished.
 
:lol:

Butch he's referencing that Big Bad Wood show on Nat Geo. The company from the town next to me "accidentally" (intentionally for drama) dumped a big pine on a house in the last episode.
 
I tried too Boss...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/WJ5GenTGuQU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
I dropped a huge tulip on a big demo house, to save time. The builder told me it would be fine. The power lines to the house had been taken down and the demo excavator was parked nearby, ready to go. The owner showed up, saw the tree on the roof and flipped out, said they weren't sure they were going to demo the house. Total cluster fuk. Builder had to come out and tarp the roof to appease the custy. They demoed it about a month later. I no longer drop trees on demo houses.
 
squisher said:
Wow. That would be akward.
Click to expand...


Ha it was! And I got a bit worried when I drove by a couple weeks later and saw the house and tarped roof was still there but the demo excavator had been removed…

Thanks, Gary
 
OMG...my whole career has been one oddity after another. It would take way to much time to bring them all back. Search Burnham's Odd Jobs, in the archives, maybe :D.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #18
As I post these photos I again can't help but chuckle. That was actually a fun job ... Dead wood,rotted out tree fort floor boards but solid fort structure. The owner provided a skid steer to assist so it made the job much easier but yet trying to get that fort out was a challenge. I love challenges so ... I got one.
 
I bolted a salad bar to a 400' cliff face for an Adkins ad once......complete with food and a fake bird. Friend of mine was the model holding a sign next to it.....all in 50mph wind gusts.....WTF was I thinking.

I then earned a reputation for that and was contacted by a surgical glove company. Paid me good money to go rock climbing with their gloves on.......it rans as an add in some medical rags. Earned me the name "bio-Gel man" I did up the picture somewhere



I got to send a tree of the same cliff once......easy clean up.....blew everything to smithereens

Attempted to blow up a tree once......did not go well
 
I had the opportunity once to drop 3 24" leads from a silver maple on a small Sears and Roebuck home that was being demo'd on an old farmstead. All three hit dead center, slid off the roof, bounced off the little front porch with 2 4" decorative corner posts and landed in a pile without hurting a shingle. Did not even crack a window. The dozer slid it almost off the basement before the first window broke. He had a devil of a time getting it all in the hole to bury it. I think he finally ran over the top a few times after he got it push in the hole to finish the job. Those little house were built solid.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #24
What is it about people wanting to have trees dropped on houses? I don't think I'd complain if I was asked just sorta unusual in my mind!!!
 
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