CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
That coffee shop got OWNed..... 
sotc
Dormant hero!!
Minding its own business when it was violated by my boom. I was just leaving the parking lot to bid a job and then take my family out of town on my wife's birthday. I actually cursed, even before I looked, my ears hadn't deceived me
Old Monkey
Treehouser
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2005
- Messages
- 8,764
Maybe you could find some sort of sheath for that boom so the next time it violates something there won't be any long term repercussions.
sotc
Dormant hero!!
Just gotta be careful where it gets put
SoonerFan
TreeHouser
Always best to use protection...
Mesquite
Treehouser
this seems like it needs a bump!!!
flushcut
TreeHouser
Digging deep!
flushcut
TreeHouser
Yeah, lots of good people!
Treeaddict
Treehouser
I haven’t been doing it long enough to get any super serious whoopsies. Brushed a brother in law’s Japanese maple when dropping a top. Took off a few branches. The thing is about 3’ tall. Kicker is: it’s variety that is no longer available as the grower died and his stock got burned up in a fire. Can’t make this stuff up.
I've admitted to my biggest career blunder years ago at TB or AS, but involves crane work on the weekend at a public school.
We had an in house 30 ton crane at Atlas, and their CO was an expert in terms of small cranes. However a family emergency on the CO's part required Atlas to substitute for Dave that weekend.
The job consisted of setting up on a large flat playground above a steep embankment, with a two way road winding below the embankment.
Now we only had a quarter of that embankment left to do, and both Dave the CO and I, were both very conservative about never reaching a small cranes capacity, having rocked a few outriggers over many decades.
So this new CO shows up, and the remaining trees to cut down are all small enough to take in one pick, except the last one.
So I rig the last tree for two picks, but the young punk new CO from Alabama starts yellin at me to descend and take it too in one pick.
I told him to humor me and follow my lead, at which point he called me an old know it all with no balls.
Something clicked in my head, and calculating the distance to the street from the the tip of the crane, I decided to oblige the punk, knowing full well the chances of tipping over the crane was high.
So I descended, pulled my body line out, shed my saddle, grabbed my 365 Special, cut a pie to steer it straight at his King pin. But once the weight settled onto the crane it began to tip over.
I vividly remember grabbing my 365 and running from the crash zone, actually laughing as I saw the young punk CO hit the front windshield of his crane, breaking his sunglasses in half.
We made that evening's newspapers. It took a 120 ton crane to come in and clean up the mess, lasting late into the night.
Surprisingly the young punk CO came clean about how the mishap occurred to his boss, the manager of the crane company Sam, who I knew well. Sam apologized to me for sending a new hire out on what he thought a routine n straight forward easy crane removal.
Which made me feel all the more guilty for giving a chit about an early twenties Alabama punk's opinion.
It was a very brief satisfaction I got from watching that punk's lips n face smear that windshield.
Didn't cost Atlas a penny though, other than a few days of bad press.
Definitely at the top of my career fug ups without doubt.
Jomo
We had an in house 30 ton crane at Atlas, and their CO was an expert in terms of small cranes. However a family emergency on the CO's part required Atlas to substitute for Dave that weekend.
The job consisted of setting up on a large flat playground above a steep embankment, with a two way road winding below the embankment.
Now we only had a quarter of that embankment left to do, and both Dave the CO and I, were both very conservative about never reaching a small cranes capacity, having rocked a few outriggers over many decades.
So this new CO shows up, and the remaining trees to cut down are all small enough to take in one pick, except the last one.
So I rig the last tree for two picks, but the young punk new CO from Alabama starts yellin at me to descend and take it too in one pick.
I told him to humor me and follow my lead, at which point he called me an old know it all with no balls.
Something clicked in my head, and calculating the distance to the street from the the tip of the crane, I decided to oblige the punk, knowing full well the chances of tipping over the crane was high.
So I descended, pulled my body line out, shed my saddle, grabbed my 365 Special, cut a pie to steer it straight at his King pin. But once the weight settled onto the crane it began to tip over.
I vividly remember grabbing my 365 and running from the crash zone, actually laughing as I saw the young punk CO hit the front windshield of his crane, breaking his sunglasses in half.
We made that evening's newspapers. It took a 120 ton crane to come in and clean up the mess, lasting late into the night.
Surprisingly the young punk CO came clean about how the mishap occurred to his boss, the manager of the crane company Sam, who I knew well. Sam apologized to me for sending a new hire out on what he thought a routine n straight forward easy crane removal.
Which made me feel all the more guilty for giving a chit about an early twenties Alabama punk's opinion.
It was a very brief satisfaction I got from watching that punk's lips n face smear that windshield.
Didn't cost Atlas a penny though, other than a few days of bad press.
Definitely at the top of my career fug ups without doubt.
Jomo
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Ok, I'll check in.
An easy job it was- take down a large multi leader maple in front yard with the bucket, leave all for the landscaper to clean up.
When I pulled up to the site, I noticed the tree was very 'over cabled', probably about 6 up there, and knowing these things can happen, I said to myself "be very careful not to cut anything that is still cabled". That happened to a skilled, experienced arb in my area a couple years before, he got hurt and the story left an impression on me.
I set up and started hacking away with razor sharp Husky and 0200. I kept repeating that mantra as I progressed, and used bolt cutters to remove each cable as they presented themselves. The two groundies were keeping warm in the cab of the bucket, as in, no extra set of eyes on the work.
About 30 minutes in, making good progress, I'd taken all the tops off and was now taking down the wood. I boxed and back cut a big leader, probably 18"wide x 12' long, As I finished the back cut and looked up to watch it tip.....I saw it was cabled to an adjacent leader.
I was like holy F.
It was cabled kinda sideways to it's lay so it tipped over a good distance before the cable came tight and when the butt of this massive log came off it's stump, it swung upward like a pendulum. I thought it was going to swing all the way up and around the leader and come back down at me and absolutely smash the upper boom and send me to tree guy heaven. There was no time to react or move away, the whole thing took less than 3 seconds.
Well the good news but also the bad news is that didn't happen. Instead, as the max force in the swing was exerted on the cable, it broke which caused the log to shoot like a torpedo directly toward the living room of the house. It smashed the exterior wall and made it partially inside.
Bad accident and damage, no one hurt, just a big insurance claim and a homeowner who thought I was a complete idiot.
An easy job it was- take down a large multi leader maple in front yard with the bucket, leave all for the landscaper to clean up.
When I pulled up to the site, I noticed the tree was very 'over cabled', probably about 6 up there, and knowing these things can happen, I said to myself "be very careful not to cut anything that is still cabled". That happened to a skilled, experienced arb in my area a couple years before, he got hurt and the story left an impression on me.
I set up and started hacking away with razor sharp Husky and 0200. I kept repeating that mantra as I progressed, and used bolt cutters to remove each cable as they presented themselves. The two groundies were keeping warm in the cab of the bucket, as in, no extra set of eyes on the work.
About 30 minutes in, making good progress, I'd taken all the tops off and was now taking down the wood. I boxed and back cut a big leader, probably 18"wide x 12' long, As I finished the back cut and looked up to watch it tip.....I saw it was cabled to an adjacent leader.
I was like holy F.
It was cabled kinda sideways to it's lay so it tipped over a good distance before the cable came tight and when the butt of this massive log came off it's stump, it swung upward like a pendulum. I thought it was going to swing all the way up and around the leader and come back down at me and absolutely smash the upper boom and send me to tree guy heaven. There was no time to react or move away, the whole thing took less than 3 seconds.
Well the good news but also the bad news is that didn't happen. Instead, as the max force in the swing was exerted on the cable, it broke which caused the log to shoot like a torpedo directly toward the living room of the house. It smashed the exterior wall and made it partially inside.
Bad accident and damage, no one hurt, just a big insurance claim and a homeowner who thought I was a complete idiot.
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Bodean
Cali dreamer
As a Company owner I told the crew to remove a 24” Oak save tree…. On a big urban construction job.
The prime called me the next day and Said “ I think you took an extra tree” my heart sank, i was so sad with myself.
I took a deep hard look at stress and managing jobs etc, this mistake was a self realization that I was losing it.
So I fessed up to the prime and their architects and the city as well.
Ultimately the response from this city was we are only 2 arborists for the whole city and this is a relatively minor case of “ no permit removal”
So, I ground the stump and planted a new tree and called it good.
Anyhoo, check yourself before you wreck yourself… measure twice cut once… don’t be friggin' stupid and all that….
Back as an employee I barrel rolled a large loader side hill, that was pretty embarrassing too.
Thank god for seatbelts, my bad, Thank Ralph Nader for seatbelts.
The prime called me the next day and Said “ I think you took an extra tree” my heart sank, i was so sad with myself.
I took a deep hard look at stress and managing jobs etc, this mistake was a self realization that I was losing it.
So I fessed up to the prime and their architects and the city as well.
Ultimately the response from this city was we are only 2 arborists for the whole city and this is a relatively minor case of “ no permit removal”
So, I ground the stump and planted a new tree and called it good.
Anyhoo, check yourself before you wreck yourself… measure twice cut once… don’t be friggin' stupid and all that….
Back as an employee I barrel rolled a large loader side hill, that was pretty embarrassing too.
Thank god for seatbelts, my bad, Thank Ralph Nader for seatbelts.
FireFighterZero
Captain Zero!
You were unsafe at any speed....
Bodean
Cali dreamer
Agreed.
FireFighterZero
Captain Zero!
He had some missteps...but Ole Ralph did some good I think.
Such as the "Nader Pin".
Such as the "Nader Pin".
Bodean
Cali dreamer
Very cool, looked that up. Seen them a hundred times but never knew.
About a month ago was at a clearing job. Day one was a Monday. Was teaching my two other guys about felling and everything was going great. Decided to go over to a tree away from them to fell it. Had some slight sideways lean but leaned in favor of the fell. One of my guys left to run some errands for the boss and Ofcourse he didn’t leave my axe. Notched it, poorly set some wedges with a piece of wood. Continued my back cut. Lost sight of my hinge wood, storms/wind were coming and going at this moment. Cut off all my hinge, husky of wind came and blow the entire tree towards me, 90 degrees of the intended lay and went over top of all the power lines. Much guilt, anxiety, and loss of sleep that week.
Attachments
SeanKroll
Treehouser
If you didn't start a fire, that's something.
You can make a mallet if you have a suitable sized piece of wood with a suitable branch. It's no ax, but I think it would work.
You can make a mallet if you have a suitable sized piece of wood with a suitable branch. It's no ax, but I think it would work.
Treeaddict
Treehouser
I feel for you Matt. That sucks.
