Bad Day...Tree House Demo

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Bounty Hunter

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The Mountains of Los Padres Forest
Okay…You know how it is...bad days start out with the best of intentions...it began as a favor for a friend of a business contact…seemed like a good idea at the time, even though I really didn’t want to do the job. But you know how it is…ya got to keep your name in the game, right? The work involved removing an old treehouse…not my typical job but my friend knew I climbed trees and did demo work.
The home is in a REALLY exclusive area that backs up to the Huntington Gardens…I like working in bizzilionaire neighborhoods. So I get to the job (driving “Old Grumpy”, for the demo scrap) and introduce myself…luckily my buddy had told the guy what I looked like beforehand, so at least nobody called the cops.
He takes me down to see the tree house, which is down a pretty steep slope and in a big, squat Black Alder. The dilapidated treehouse had once been pretty cool…but it was now a product of 20 years of neglect. The Alder was actually quite nice, about 2 feet in diameter. The tree house was positioned about 10 feet up the tree, in the lowest and heaviest branches. The old ladder looked sound enough to support my weight, so I climbed up and looked around. No Problemo…This will take less than ½ day…
The guy’s got to go to work, so he leaves me to take care of business. The housekeeper, a nice Latin lady, is there in case I needed anything, so I go an collect my gear. I unloaded a 200T, a 260 Pro, a big framing hammer, climbing harness and rope. This is about the time I met “Kimo”

Now don’t get me wrong, I like dogs, I have two of ‘em…and most dogs are perfectly nice creatures. “Kimo” is a 10 month old Husky…classic gray and white…with that fluffy curled tail that arches over his back. Kimo really wanted to play…but I had work to do…and I wanted to get into it.
Kimo wasn’t going to wait…He grabbed my harness in his teeth and took off! OH SHOOT! Dang Dog! Git Back Here, You Rotten Mutt!
The darn dog ran…and boy was he fast…and the property is at least a half acre, and the upper part was steep slope. I tried chasing him…probably a big mistake…because now he feels it’s a game. I can run fast…but nowhere near as fast as him., even though he’s got the harness hanging out of his jaws and banging against his legs. He would stop, lay down (with his front paws stretched out and his butt in the air)…and bait me to try and run at him and attempt to grab the harness. Worse yet, he was moving his jaws, and chewing up that nice, fairly new Miller Equipment safety harness straps! Darn Dog! Come here, you stinkin’ flea-bag two-bit mongrel!!!!
This game went on for an hour…I can be stubborn to a fault…and still wasn’t making any headway at all. Kimo, as young and strong as he is, could probably run for days…but your 50 year old Bounty Hunter was getting’ winded. I gotta end this…I took an old sweatshirt out of the truck, and offered it as a substitute toy…but Kimo wasn’t going for it (It was a Harley Davidson shirt too…clearly the dog’s got no class…).
In one last desparate move, I pretended to turn my back on him…then lunged (this hadn’t worked the last 10 times)…but when he jumped up and snapped at the harness, he missed! That was all the opportunity I needed! I pounced! And I got it!
But alas…he had already chewed ¾ way through one of the shoulder straps…Shoot!...Dang!...Darn!

Okay…back to the treehouse now…the demo went easy…I cut the roof apart with the 200T and broke it up. The sides cut apart quick, and I sectioned the floor into small pieces.
After it was all down, I cleaned up some dead branches and did a little cosmetic trimming to balance the tree. All Done!...just got to load it up and haul out!

The ladder was gone…kicked off onto the slope…so I lowered the saw with the rope and then jumped down…
…And imeadiately felt a sharp pain in my right foot. I tried to take a step, but my foot wouldn’t move…it was stuck to the plywood I was standing on.
AH MAN!!! Now What!!!!????
I started pulling my foot up…definitely stuck…But by what?
A really strong yank got my boot off the plywood…and revealed a 4” nail, through the ½” plywood…that I hadn’t seen when I took my ill-advised leap down out of the tree. My soft-soled climbing boots did nothing to slow it down, and the nail had gone deep into the foot, just in front of the heel…got stuck in the bone I figured, as much effort as it had taken to git it off.

Loading the truck wasn’t a lot of fun…hauling the scrap up the slope with a sore foot, which had started bleeding quite a bit…sloshing and squishing blood out of the top of the boot and soaking the sock. Nuts…Mrs. Bounty Hunter won’t be too happy about this…Plus I gotta stop by the First Care and git a Tetnus shot…AND unload the truck…my afternoon, planned to be relaxing, is gonna suck instead.

The First Care Doc cleaned me up, and grabbed one of those 8” long “Q Tips”…I thought he was going to ram it up the puncture, so I was about to get Pi$$ed…but he just swabbed around. I got my shot, wrapped it up, and got out the door.

By the time I got Old Grumpy unloaded and home I was Grumpy too…but a kiss and a hug from my wife made it all better…

All is well…I’ll limp a little for a few days…and between the ruined climbing harness, First Care bill, and the general mess of my boots, I went way negative on the day’s work income…but I got plenty of work ahead, a good construction job as well as the firewood. My heart goes out to all you PNW Loggers who are outta work, or anyone on unemployment. Things will get better soon, for everyone…

Thanks for reading my dumb story...I'm gonna go split that 2 cords of wood sittin' out there...

Bounty Hunter
 
maybe you should become an author....nice story!
 
Awe jeeez, you had to go and do it, The humorous antics of the Dog had me off guard. Having stepped on my share of nails and spikes I was enjoying reading down to the point you said your foot was stuck and the pain of pulling it out went all the way thru my body.

letting it bleed out good is something I always try to allow so as to flush any pathogens from the wound.
 
A close one

Wow, my friend, you scared me there for a minute--I thought something bad had happened to one of your saws! Just kidding.

Reading that part about the nail made me cringe for you, plus sloshing around in your own blood while loading up the truck! A tough day for sure, but knowing you I can see how you'd just man up and finish the job. I wish you better times soon.

Getting back to saw biz, did you mod the muffler on the 260 and get a DP muffler for the 660?

Olyeller
 
That made my toes curl just reading it.

I hate nails. You must be one tough old bird to keep working after all that.

You need to carry some smokey links in your truck. lol



Mr. HE:cool:
 
That made my toes curl just reading it.

I hate nails. You must be one tough old bird to keep working after all that.

You need to carry some smokey links in your truck. lol



Mr. HE:cool:

Experience with nasty injuries has shown me that for the first several hours you can tolerate it enough to finish, (as long as blood on the workpiece isn't an issue) its much later after you stop that the swelling and pain starts to become a real issue.
You wanna talk tough Sampson Parker of Kershaw County, S.C., He is a tough hombre.
 
Experience with nasty injuries has shown me that for the first several hours you can tolerate it enough to finish, (as long as blood on the workpiece isn't an issue) its much later after you stop that the swelling and pain starts to become a real issue.
You wanna talk tough Sampson Parker of Kershaw County, S.C., He is a tough hombre.

Anyone read the comments on the youtube video?

that happened to me when i tried to sharpen my chainsaw while it was running and the trigger lock was on.

So who was it on AS? :popcorn:
 
Getting back to saw biz, did you mod the muffler on the 260 and get a DP muffler for the 660?

Olyeller

Hey Olyeller, You bet I modded the 260! after the So Cal GTG it was obvious the benefits of better breathing, especially at altitude.
I drilled 2 more holes, just like you did on yours (after removing the spark screen, to keep Smokey Bear happy).

Rather than pay for DP covers on the 044s and the 660, I enlarged the ridiculously small stock exhaust ports...per examples posted on this site. The result was a significant HP gain...dogged in and levering the bar, the saws kept the RPMs up WAY better than before, and sounded great to boot. :)

The 200Ts are the only Stihls that remain stock...they are fast little monsters to start with, so I really don't see the need to mess around with the mufflers.

Foot update: It's sore, but not swollen. Limp a little, but can still work on it. I guess there are benefits to having a high pain tolerance...but drawbacks too...like the time I fell on a timber spike and it went clear through my left knee joint (it didn't hurt much, so I didn't go to the doctor...until three days later when the swelling and red streaks indicated I had cellulitis...and had started to go into Gangrene :mad: had a week hospital stay :mad: you don't make any money flat on yer back with I.V.s in both arms...)
I won't take any pain meds...not even asprin...they make my stomach sick, I would rather limp a bit than puke...:confused:

Take Care and Saw Safe

Bounty Hunter
 
Sorry to hear that Bounty Hunter. I have had my days with the dogs. I have 5 labs. But only 1 real trouble maker, hes a runner.
The nail made my stomach feel kinda queazy.

I would say drivin ol grumpy would put a smile on your face though. :)

Some pictures would have been nice too.
 
Old Grumpy had a better day than I did...

Here's a pic...:cheers:


attachment.php
 
No, no pictures. Just reading about the nail made me feel all queasy. I heard a non gory not too detailed story today about falling an old growth DF snag major injury put him out of work for over a year, that was enough. One injury story a day....should be a limit.
 
BH, that sucks. I stepped on a 3 & a half inch nail a month ago while stretching some field fence(who leaves a 2' section of 2x4 laying in a field with 3 nails sticking UP?) Like you I felt it hit the bone. I was in the middle of the job & couldn't quit. I have read too many western novels.....so I took my chew(Red Man Golden Blend) out, peeled back the sock, stuck the wad on the nail hole, pulled the sock back up and put my boot back on.

By the time I got home I was limping pretty bad. I mixed up a whole box of Epsom salts, threw in some table salt and soaked the foot for 3 hours. You can laugh, but I used the crock pot to keep the water hot......my 13 dog barely fit. The wife was not happy, but it worked. The next day I could walk & I didn't get an infection.

So break out the salt and the crock pot.....a good whiskey is also recomended:cheers:

RD

BTW & no bull....if you even think you have an infection get to the ER asap. A nic on a bone by a rusty nail can very easily lead to amputation.
 
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Dogs & nails

I stepped on a 16 penny nail several years ago on a construction job.
Got a tetanus shot & survived.
Dogs: I have had several, none right now, but my neighbors 1/2
pit bull mix has adopted me. She tried to jump in my lap last
week and brought blood with her nails.
 

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