JoshINtrees
TreeHouser
From mishaps to bowels in one thread.
Sorry couldn't resist.
We had just had a major storm come through here and put power down everywhere. Trees broken twisted and across wires everywhere. I was called to remove a leaning pine that had come over the clients neighbors service drop. Easy fix! I limbed it out with my hayuchi and was ready to make the first trunk cut about six feet above the service. Pole pruner now in hand I took a two foot section with no problems, it hinged perfectly then dropped. The next piece same thing, but the next piece about 4'x8" popped of that trunk like a popcorn kernel and dropped directly onto the service. It stretched popped two more services on the same pole and blew an entire neighborhood out at 11am on the Saturday of Memorial day weekend. Needless to say I wasn't the most popular guy on the block that day. I wished i could have been outa there in mins. Power co came by in two hrs or so and restored all and no charge to me as they considered it storm related. Whew!
We had just had a major storm come through here and put power down everywhere. Trees broken twisted and across wires everywhere. I was called to remove a leaning pine that had come over the clients neighbors service drop. Easy fix! I limbed it out with my hayuchi and was ready to make the first trunk cut about six feet above the service. Pole pruner now in hand I took a two foot section with no problems, it hinged perfectly then dropped. The next piece same thing, but the next piece about 4'x8" popped of that trunk like a popcorn kernel and dropped directly onto the service. It stretched popped two more services on the same pole and blew an entire neighborhood out at 11am on the Saturday of Memorial day weekend. Needless to say I wasn't the most popular guy on the block that day. I wished i could have been outa there in mins. Power co came by in two hrs or so and restored all and no charge to me as they considered it storm related. Whew!
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
THAT was a lucky break!
C
Climbinfool.
Guest
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #30
bad spelling there... sorry...
One of the closest calls I remember on storm work was one night in 1988. We were working the Tuscaloosa area after a tornado had gone through. We were down in the woods on a tap, clearing trees off the downed primaries so Alabama Power could get them back up. The foreman sent us through the woods, while he stayed with the truck. Two of us held lights, while the other two ran saws. On one particular span, the primary wasn't broken, but stretched tight as a fiddle string, down to about knee-height. We slowly worked our way down the line, cutting one tree loose at a time. We finally got to the last pine trunk holding the wire down. I was holding the light for one of the guys running a saw. He didn't even notice where he was in proximity to the line. He was right in line with where the primary was heading. I hollered and got him to stop. I told him to come to the other side to cut it loose (he had already started the cut when I stopped him). When the cut was finished, it threw a piece of pine, about 12"x5', out of sight as the line snapped back up. He was somewhat shaken to realize he was almost ripped in two by that wire.
Tucker943
Bamboo Plantation Owner
Wow, I pictured that scenario in my mind. If it didn't cut him in half, I would have atleast launched him north of the mason dickson line.
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
Man, I've climbed frozen trees laid over HUGE transmission lines. If you didn't make that that last cut just right....
Cobleskill
Treehouser
Not my job, but gone wrong on epic proportion. Moose Johnson, who used to be fullback for the Dallas Cowboys is a shirtail relation of mine. His Mom was at his house in Dallas when they were craning a big dead live oak over his house. The men that were doing the cutting thought they had it cut through and told the crane guys to jerk it to make the overlapping cuts let loose.
The crane boom collasped on the house. She has the video, which I would love to see. They ended up dividing the blame, proportions I don't know.
He blamed putting a hot tub under the tree for killing it. The tree is what had sold him on the place. I am guessing it was probably disease.
The crane boom collasped on the house. She has the video, which I would love to see. They ended up dividing the blame, proportions I don't know.
He blamed putting a hot tub under the tree for killing it. The tree is what had sold him on the place. I am guessing it was probably disease.
woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
"Jerk it"....how to win friends with crane operators.
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
Yea, they love hearing that. Or, "pull it up at an angle!"
Ha.
Ha.
In my very early years of Underwood Tree Expert Co (circa 1974) I did a takedown on a walnut tree for my uncle near Berwick, IL. It was an old tree in a farmyard. After about a half dozen tries at cutting a notch (due to fence insulators, nails, fences etc.) I just hooked the 59 Dodge 2 ton to it, put a little pressure on the rope, made my back cut and took off. If I had not had to stop for the back porch of the house all would have gone well. However!!!! I did have to stop or end up in the kitchen. When I stopped, the tree went to the right just enough to catch the center of the elevated tank of diesel fuel. As this whole mess hit the ground one end of the tank opened up like a can on a can opener. 250 gallons of bright red diesel fuel went straight up in the air about 10' in a solid mass. Then it hit the ground. Luckily it all ran down the gravel drive and soaked in settling the dust. So no harm was done. (This was before the days of extreme environmental awareness on the farm.)
My insurance policy had a $250 deductible on it. My uncle figured the value of tank and fuel at $276. Rather than turn it in for insurance, I didn't charge for getting the tree down and I helped bale hay for 3 days. We called it even.
My insurance policy had a $250 deductible on it. My uncle figured the value of tank and fuel at $276. Rather than turn it in for insurance, I didn't charge for getting the tree down and I helped bale hay for 3 days. We called it even.
JoshINtrees
TreeHouser
Wow, I sure don't feel so bad about all of my friggeroos now. Nice that you veterans can look back and laugh though.
woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
Nice story, Bob.
It must have been about ten-twelve years ago that crazy priest asked me to remove a Zelkova to make way for the temple rebuilding. I went over there without my pulling or climbing gear, as usual he is always giving me inadequate information and the work has to be done right now. The tree was fairly straight, but had a long horizontal heavy limb opposite the lay. As it turned out, one of the temple members that owns a construction company was there and so was his backhoe, a pretty large one. Instead of going back to the shop to get what I needed, the guy says he will push it with his hoe. He starts pushing it with the SIDE of the bucket, and being a stubborn sob, wouldn't listen to any reasoning to the contrary. The tree slipped off the side of the bucket and went backwards and smashed the edge of the existing temple's roof, totally wrecked it. Had the temple not been scheduled to be demolished to make way for the new one, it would have cost a fortune to repair. Still, I felt like a clod. I further learned that using the side of a bucket is an omen for disaster, but I already knew it.
It must have been about ten-twelve years ago that crazy priest asked me to remove a Zelkova to make way for the temple rebuilding. I went over there without my pulling or climbing gear, as usual he is always giving me inadequate information and the work has to be done right now. The tree was fairly straight, but had a long horizontal heavy limb opposite the lay. As it turned out, one of the temple members that owns a construction company was there and so was his backhoe, a pretty large one. Instead of going back to the shop to get what I needed, the guy says he will push it with his hoe. He starts pushing it with the SIDE of the bucket, and being a stubborn sob, wouldn't listen to any reasoning to the contrary. The tree slipped off the side of the bucket and went backwards and smashed the edge of the existing temple's roof, totally wrecked it. Had the temple not been scheduled to be demolished to make way for the new one, it would have cost a fortune to repair. Still, I felt like a clod. I further learned that using the side of a bucket is an omen for disaster, but I already knew it.
SkwerI
Treehouser
If you haven't screwed up then you aren't trying hard enough.
sotc
Dormant hero!!
I'm still not laughing but the sick feeling in my stomach is a little less when I think of it now...
Tucker943
Bamboo Plantation Owner
All of these stories give me butterflies in my stomach. If the story is told right, and I read it carefully and plot it out in my mind, I get the nervous jitters in my stomach like I'm there. Weird.
SkwerI
Treehouser
Me too!
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
I still can't believe my buddy Randy is in his grave. Lordy...
My close call was as an apprentice, I was on rotation with the conservation crew. There was a big Canary Island date palm that had to be cut down on the border of a nature reserve (they self seed). It was probably 12' of clear trunk and at least 2-3' diameter. Fernando felled it across the hill with his trusty homelite, it came to rest there as all the fronds were holding it from rolling down the slope. He then directed me to pull the fronds away as he cut them, at one point I was below the trunk on the downhill side as he was cutting, then I moved uphill, just as he cut the last few fronds holding the whole thing from rolling...off it went, down the hill, smashed through a fence made of 4"x4" posts, scattered the cows and came to rest in the ditch on the side of the reserve...I would have been an apprentice pancake if that thing had rolled over me it had to weigh several tons. We just looked at each other when it came to a rest, fully knowing how close I had been to lights out! Gawd I was clueless back then!
On a norfolk pine removal I had rigging all set to drop sections and lower them, cut the top out from a bucket and watched the section sail unimpeded to the ground...the rope had slipped out of the block when I swing the cheek up to fasten it and I didn't see it! Luckily it fell on waste ground...
On a norfolk pine removal I had rigging all set to drop sections and lower them, cut the top out from a bucket and watched the section sail unimpeded to the ground...the rope had slipped out of the block when I swing the cheek up to fasten it and I didn't see it! Luckily it fell on waste ground...
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
Crikey!!!
Bodean
Cali dreamer
If you haven't screwed up then you aren't trying hard enough.
Like!
Burnham
Woods walker
Brian's wise saying there reminds me of a similar turn of phrase an old sailboat cruising friend of mine has been wont to throw out, "If you haven't ever run aground, you haven't ever sailed much of anywhere."
Usually he has observed this as we sit stuck fast on a shoal
.
Usually he has observed this as we sit stuck fast on a shoal
.
gf beranek
Old Schooler
I was in the process of wrecking out a tree between two houses and in the middle of the take down a fellow drove up fast and jumped out of his car and started screaming at me some words that should never repeated. Now I seen some mad people but that guy was furious. The paperwork I showed him was all correct. Address, name and full description of the tree. Turned out it was his neighbor that called the tree in for removal. Damn neighbors anyway. The do do really hit the fan then.
Burnham
Woods walker
Wow! That's ballsy.
