Got lucky with my tractor yesterday

[Gary Fowler]

Yesterday my brother in law and I were using the LS to pick up some brush and small trees that we had trimmed from the fence line. I was maneuvering the tractor closer to some small tree limbs when I heard a light ping but thought nothing of it till a 10" at the butt x about 50 feet tall pine tree came crashing down beside me. I had the cab door open and the limbs smacked it closed, just missed my side mirror. Luckily my brother in law was on the opposite side of the tractor also.
I was just running about 1000 RPM and creeping forward in a turn when the outside blade on my 8 foot -3 point disc hung the big pine and brought it down. I didnt even feel a bump when it hit and the engine didnt even groan. I wasnt watching behind me, just watching my BIL for when to stop, really didnt notice being that close to that tree when I pulled in. Another lucky day for me and brother in law.

Tomorrow we will be cutting a dead pine that died from the drought last summer. We will use the LS to tie onto a larger pine to pull it over a bit and force it to fall against its natural slope. It is leaning out toward the fence and we will need to pull it back to keep it off the fence. Gonna use lots of chains to be plenty far enough away so I dont repeat the falling tree incident.

 

[texasjohn]

Glad you're OK....a reminder that things can happen, even when we're being as careful as we know how.

 

[JoeBuyer]

I have been clearing brush and canes lately with a grapple that has grown up into larger, old trees. When I pull back, the brush is hung up into the tree and I have to watch that I don't pull the tree over on myself. Have to be very careful.

 

[creekbend]

No matter what amount of planning is taken into consideration when working with trees, there will always be the chance for accidents. Diseases, wind, soil conditions are only a few of the variables to consider. That is why some trees are called "Widow Makers". Please be careful.

 

[Gary Fowler]

You dont have to be on a tractor to find those "widowmakers" either. I have been cutting vines and such from all my fence rows using a weedeater with saw blade. Several times I had dead limbs fall out of the trees when pulling vines. Those saw briar vines go everywhere and cling tenaciously. I even used my Kubota RTV to pull some of them out of the trees and sometimes the tree top would break out and sometimes the vines would be wrapped up on a dead tree that seemed to be alive with all the vine leaves. A couple of times I pulled the whole tree down with the vines.
It hard to look up with all my fused vertebrae in my neck so its easy to miss seeing those loose limbs hanging 30 feet up in the air. I just about have to be laying on my back to see that high, but then I would be in trouble trying to get up again.

 

[s219]

I think I got lucky myself, on Saturday. I was clearing brush from the back of our new property. To get my tractor back there, I have to go around the front corner of our new house under construction, and it's a tight turn on ground that slopes away from the foundation. I always keep the FEL low, and I also lowered my PTO chipper so it was just skimming above ground level.

Normally it's fine. Well, on Saturday, the outside rear tire sunk into the mud about 8" and left a big rut (ground is real wet from Sandy). I have no idea if I was close to tipping, but it sure was a *lot* steeper of an angle than I was comfortable with. Luckily I had my seatbelt on and was in 4WD, so everything stayed under control. But it made me realize how quickly something can go wrong even when you have scoped out the route. I had walked it several times, but of course the weight of my work boots was not enough to notice the soft spot. The front tire of the tractor floated over fine, but the loaded rear sank right in.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Well we got the trees cut with no one getting killed. We did have one mishap. I had put up a ladder and hooked a chain about 20 feet up on the smaller of the two trees, sawed it but it was hung up on limbs of the other tree so when my brother in law pulled it with the chain, the tree snapped just above the chain and the top fell the opposite directions right across the fence anyway. Have to fix that later. Then we tackled the bigger one. I had to saw from both sides with my 18" bar as it wouldnt go all the way thru and the chain was a little dull. I had 3 more new ones in my shop and tried them but they were all for a 16" bar and I must have a 16" saw somewhere or at sometime. I have a new Homelite still in the box which is likely what those chains are for.
Any way, we got them all on the ground, sawed off another limb from a nearby tree that was hanging way out and low, got it all loaded up and hauled to the burn pile.
Then had a bit of lunch and started putting up a 1/4 mile of net wire fencing. We got about half of it up and standing with about half of the tie points done before calling it a day.
Being retired was supposed to mean I didnt have to work any more but now I do more than when I was "working" but now I dont have a job to go to to rest up.

 

[Bob77064]

Gary sounds like a good productive day.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Thanks, sure makes you want to go to bed early though. My brother in law got all the tractor seat time and I got all the chain saw cutting, brush loading, wire unrolling and fence stapling. Good thing the post were already in place for the fencing. The fence already had barbed wire,several layers deep over the many years with some areas 8 or 10 strands with some on one side of large trees and other strands on opposite side. I am covering it with net wire to keep dogs inside and off the road and maybe keep coyotes out.