One mistake that could have been my last

[hitekcountry]

Trees can be full of surprises. I had a strange thing happen to me. I had a dead tree that I was afraid was going to fall over on its own so I decided to push it over with my tractor. I first dug around the base with the backhoe then I took the loader bucket and began pushing against the tree. I was surprised it didn't just fall over, it was resisting but it was moving. At first it was moving straight in the direction I was pushing and it was bending. Then all of a sudden it slid to the right completely off the front of the bucket and was now on the right side of the bucket pushing up and to the left.
This was now tilting the tractor over to the left side. It wasn't enough to push the tractor all the way over but it was enough to scare the You know what out of me

 

[First one]

Had my heart pounding hard for a min. today. The pulp truck that I use at the job came back from having some work being done . Little cold starting out this morrning, and was told that I only had a short time before my boss was going to show up. I was picking up a couple of 20' logs from the side of the road and was swinging them around to put on the truck when one end of the log caught on some branchs ,as I turned them to clear them the boom came up slow then fast all at once. Let me just say I could count the rings on the butt when I stoped it .I had no problem touching the butt sitting in the seat. leason learned don't hurry for no one-- slow and easy--- for awhile after that one.

 

[The Haymaker]

Had my heart pounding hard for a min. today. The pulp truck that I use at the job came back from having some work being done . Little cold starting out this morrning, and was told that I only had a short time before my boss was going to show up. I was picking up a couple of 20' logs from the side of the road and was swinging them around to put on the truck when one end of the log caught on some branchs ,as I turned them to clear them the boom came up slow then fast all at once. Let me just say I could count the rings on the butt when I stoped it .I had no problem touching the butt sitting in the seat. leason learned don't hurry for no one-- slow and easy--- for awhile after that one.

I'll never forget my sister telling the story of a rescue call she responded to involving a self-loader. The main pin for the boom failed. When everything quit moving, the end of the boom was sitting in the operators lap. He couldn't move, but only had a few bruises on his thighs once they got him released. I'd be willing to bet that boy spends a bit more time inpecting and maintaining his equipment now.

E

 

[etcallhome]

Glad to hear everyone is safe from our new knowledge of trees,, same here !!!

Years ago older brother and myself was cutting firewood. I was pulling a 30-36" red oak ,using his dozer and not long enough cable, while he cut the tree. Windy day, tree leaning the wrong way , Well he finished the cut , I see the tree coming my way and then this 6 or 8" branch comes across the cab of dozer . Lucky for me the cab on tractor held up the branch , a couple of smaller twigs got me nothing serious.....Same day we were cutting down some trees one fell over and wedge in the tops of the other standing trees. Wagon was loaded with cut wood hooked to tractor Brother says just leave it alone and we'll get it after lunch. Both of use forgot about this tree ,,a few days later he is on the hill cutting more trees from his fence row. He hears this loud noise about 30' from where he is standing. You guessed it ,our tree finally fell down.

Have fun and be safe !!!!

 

[dodge man]

What was an eye opener for me was when I cut down a tree, not very big, maybe 24". No problems and after I cut the limbs off and started to cut it up, I couldn't move one piece of the tree. It had a branch, maybe 2 inches in diameter inbedded in the ground over a foot. I got to thinking what would have happened if that was a person or some piece of equipment. Scary stuff.

 

[Jeepnford]

One time I was helping a co-worker cut down some oak trees for firewood in preperation for a pond. I dropped one fairly large one and when it fell a 6" limb loaded up. While cutting it off the trunk it unloaded and came straight for me,thankfully relatively slow. I put my left hand on the limb while the idleing chain saw was in my right. The ground was soft so I was kind of backwards skiing with this limb propelling me along. About the time the limb pooped out I fell backwards. The other guy about 50 ft. away missed it all.