Brad,,, I know you understand how blessed you were today,,
What Im about to laydown,,,,I havent talked about much,,,,,
After Hurricane (late fall 2008) Ike we had a ton of work,,, 3 stumprinders working and 3 sometime 4 removal crews getting the blowdowns off of houses and out of peoples driveways, yards, etc,,,, 3rd day evening into it We lost one of the best arborist I ever worked with,,,, 20+ years of experience falling/climbing all sorts of Hazard trees,,,, after work one evening he had mentioned to some of us about a large 30"+ red oak tree with some widow makers hanging in it by the back door and driveway of his house and he wouldnt let his wife and kids come home till he had it on the ground,,,, he was by himself except for his youngest 5 year old son.. the wind damage in the canopy had really rearranged the trees natural symmetry and it must have been pretty lopsided ,,, he got it on the ground ok but looking at his notch and where it ended up he must have misjudged the trees balance as evidenced by the location of his face cut and the direction it layed,,, consequently it rolled on the stump guess how much,,,, 90°,,,, Well.... while he was pushing the now cut top/limbs with his tractor/front end loader to clear the driveway a 3" sprung forked limb unloaded and sprung back and hit him square in the throat/temple breaking his neck and crushed his skull,,, he died 30 minutes later with paramedics trying to resuscitate him,,, The five year old was riding in has lap and narrowly escaped injury,,,, Never tackle any problem tree with a lean or deformity that has unsymmetrical structure by yourself,,, another set of experienced eyes during size up are invaluble,,, thats what they make good bull ropes and arborist equipment for,,, Johnny made a good living doing professional arborist work as long as I knew him,,,We had ground a many a stump behind his work,,, I cant tell you how all of this has affected his family,,, complacency and getting in a hurry got him....
Life is very fragile,,, If you remember I cut through one side of the hinge of a 30+" butress flared yellow pine with my ported 390XP, about october of 2011 only difference it rolled 90° on the stump but still fell pretty much where we wanted it,,,, but as soon as I went through the hinge the butt set down on the bar and snatched the saw right out of my hand, all I could do was scat and squint back over my shoulder,,, the saw was dogged in the butt of the spar and all I could do was watch it sling/twist off of the stump riding the butt,,, I was blessed that I had the presence of mind to let go and run the other way,,, and luckily we had just raked all the saw briars away fron the stump with the track hoe so the sandy soil was soft and the saw made it ok with just a smushed muffler and twisted dogs,,, rule of thumb,,, dont go on any falling jobs without an extra set of experienced eyes,,, We can always replace a saw,,,,,,
Oh,,, and cutting through your holding/hinge wood is not good bussiness no matter what the trees disposition is,,, ever,,,, as it is what controls the tree as it slides off the stump and your stumpshot is what launches the spar away from ya
Glad you are some what OK and hopefully as you stated,,, the positve here we all learned a valuble lesson,,, Dont go cut any more trees for us when you are alone,,, we all know you can build a really good runner,,,
Knowing some of the reaction ya might get on here. But, I'm glad ya did. Hope the healing goes quickly, with no lingering side affects. :msp_smile:
