Oh, I'm a fence crusher

[treemandan]

I'm a fence crusher, I'm a fence crusher... become one now.

Bagged me a nice one the other day. After it was done I was looking around for someone to blame and was kinda dissapointed I was all alone.

It was one of those plastic fences around a horse farm and I did a real good job on it. I called the lady out to check it out and this is what she said: We live in this 6 million dollar house on this big ass horse farm and when you came in you gave me an honest deal to do the job, the last guy wanted 3 times what you asked but you charged us what the job was worth and didn't try to rape us cause we are rich as ####. Don't worry about the fence.
Well, maybe she didn't say it like that but that was what she said.


You know they should make little fence, light post, gutter, dog decals (like the ones they put on planes to show how many things they have killed) and we could put them on our fenders. Toby Sherrill will sell em.

 

[brokenbudget]

carp dan, don't matter how good you are or how long you've done the job. you're going to have an oops once in while.:msp_smile:
get a skull with a fence through the eye socket tattoo

 

[treemandan]

While I make light of the situation and it turned out well the whole thing scared the crap outta me if you know what I mean BB.

 

[prentice110]

I'm a fence crusher, I'm a fence crusher... become one now.

You know they should make little fence, light post, gutter, dog decals (like the ones they put on planes to show how many things they have killed) and we could put them on our fenders. Toby Sherrill will sell em.

#1, been there, done that. Happens to the best of us 'production' types. #2. I'll be the first in line to buy those stickers. Only need a few. hehehe. there woulda been more to post but a lil tied up at the moment, gota go do a lil surprise gig with the homies band. I'll get back to you vultures that aint done half of what I have and will point out that they havent broken anything. I bet your the type that would walk away from what I laugh at. Peace out to all you REAL tree killin' folk.

 

[brokenbudget]

While I make light of the situation and it turned out well the whole thing scared the crap outta me if you know what I mean BB.

i've had many moments like that:msp_smile:

 

[treemandan]

#1, been there, done that. Happens to the best of us 'production' types. #2. I'll be the first in line to buy those stickers. Only need a few. hehehe. there woulda been more to post but a lil tied up at the moment, gota go do a lil surprise gig with the homies band. I'll get back to you vultures that aint done half of what I have and will point out that they havent broken anything. I bet your the type that would walk away from what I laugh at. Peace out to all you REAL tree killin' folk.

I am the type to take very seriously what you would laugh at which is why when I told my wife about the fence she said " Wow! you don't do stuff like that" cause in reality, in 20 years all I have broken ( that was my fault) would add up to a few hundred dollars.
The only reason I walk away from the nasty is because of the price. I don't walk away, I am sent away.

 

[066logger]

lol i build those fences. lots of them. an honestly i hate them. looking at white shiny vinyl for 8 hours on sunny days sucks balls. glad ill be done with this job soon and back to what i love lol.

 

[prentice110]

Read into what I posted. I am not talking to you 'dan'. Im talking to the high and mightys that may lurk. When I 'laugh', its for a reason. Im sure your grapes turned to raisons on that. I wasnt there I dont know. That post was for any douche that trims bushes at the old folks home 3 weeks out da month and thinks there a tree person, had the corprate chain of comand holden there hand sayin take all the time you need, never had to make the i need to get out of here now decision. Oops. anyway, I hope you get ma drift..... P.S. Mad props for being a real man and posting a thread owning up to admiting that your human and we are prone to flaws and imperfection and ****.

 

[treemandan]

Read into what I posted. I am not talking to you 'dan'. Im talking to the high and mightys that may lurk. When I 'laugh', its for a reason. Im sure your grapes turned to raisons on that. I wasnt there I dont know. That post was for any douche that trims bushes at the old folks home 3 weeks out da month and thinks there a tree person, had the corprate chain of comand holden there hand sayin take all the time you need, never had to make the i need to get out of here now decision. Oops. anyway, I hope you get ma drift..... P.S. Mad props for being a real man and posting a thread owning up to admiting that your human and we are prone to flaws and imperfection and ****.

I gotcha bro and what scared me about was that my poor judgement was the cause. Actually I just didn't even use judgement on this. I tried to chop down a little tree and it went the wrong way. It was like the idiots on Youtube... like James ... like I didn't even think.
I basically acted like some jerk who had no idea what he was doing and that can kill. If you would have seen the situation you would have thought it was my first day. Its not like I knew I was taking a chance and went for it. Its not like a freak accident. Its not because I don't know how to do things.
Dude, I can't put my finger on it... I was out to lunch. I am telling you if any of you guys would have seen it you would have thought I was a first rate hack who didn't know the first thing.
I tried to pull a little side leaning and weighted sumac over to a point 90 degreess from the lean. I was using a hand crank come-a long. The hinge broke and it fell sideways. Of all things to try and hinge to the side SUMAC? Hello! Anybody home?
Add that up and you can see why I am so scared. Rooky mistake, no thought given. I was just in a simular situation the other day and when they said " cut it whole" I told them we should piece it out after thinking about it. See what I said? The thinking part? Not on this little sumac. I phoned it in and didn't even realize I phoned it in til it was to late. I can't remember ever doing that EVER.

 

[lego1970]

While not tree related, this should make you feel better. Last week while driving a semi truck, I backed into a p/u truck I didn't see come in from behind and pushed him back 20-30 feet. Didn't even make a mark on my trailer but caused $3800 worth of damage to his p/u. I had a tall load of lumber and didn't see him back there. I heard a slight tire squal but since I was hauling a spread axle while backing on a blindside turn I just figured it was the inside axle scrubbing. So now I'm out $1000 bucks give or take a couple hundred and most important my well over a million accident free miles has now been reset to zero. I still have my Top Driver Award and two Most Miles Awards from years ago, but I'd rather say I've never had an accident instead. Oh well...accidents happen and the important thing is that nobody got hurt in either situation. Good luck.

 

[treemandan]

While not tree related, this should make you feel better. Last week while driving a semi truck, I backed into a p/u truck I didn't see come in from behind and pushed him back 20-30 feet. Didn't even make a mark on my trailer but caused $3800 worth of damage to his p/u. I had a tall load of lumber and didn't see him back there. I heard a slight tire squal but since I was hauling a spread axle while backing on a blindside turn I just figured it was the inside axle scrubbing. So now I'm out $1000 bucks give or take a couple hundred and most important my well over a million accident free miles has now been reset to zero. I still have my Top Driver Award and two Most Miles Awards from years ago, but I'd rather say I've never had an accident instead. Oh well...accidents happen and the important thing is that nobody got hurt in either situation. Good luck.

Was the guy still in it?

I am always getting in and out to check when I am backing up the chipper in tight spots when I am alone.

 

[treeman82]

Yesterday I was dropping a black birch stick, dropping it uphill would have been nice, but it would have probably wrecked a dogwood that the client wanted to keep. Felling uphill would have wrecked the dogwood. Directly downhill would have wrecked the steps. I went with diagionally downhill going around the dogwood and maybe getting past a small wall. Well I knocked out 3 stones in the process, showed the client... he didn't care, masons were working elsewhere on the property anyways.

 

[Frax]

Was the guy still in it?

I am always getting in and out to check when I am backing up the chipper in tight spots when I am alone.

I know what you mean. Even if I have seen it's clear and I have been looking in the mirrors I still think some Smart Car or worse, some little kid on a trike has somehow materialized there.

 

[lego1970]

Was the guy still in it?

I am always getting in and out to check when I am backing up the chipper in tight spots when I am alone.

Yep, he was in it and went for the ride. He pulled up right as I was backing and since there was a street lamp behind me, it drowned out his headlights so I couldn't see him. He said he tried to put it in reverse once he realized I was backing up, but instead panicked and put it in park instead. Luckily the insurance company calls it a incident, not an accident since it was at idle speed and not on the street.

 

[Nailsbeats]

That sucks Dan, I know it must hurt the pride a bit. You worried you might be slippin' a bit are ya?

Don't worry about it, it's just a little wake up call that will put you back at the top of your game again.

I had a similar thing happen this year too, didn't smash anything just bumped an old railing and pulled two deck screws out of it. Screwed it back on and no problem. Point is though that you shouldn't hit anything, that's why they called you, and that's what hurts.

I felled half of a big double header Box Elder that had a very low prominent branch sticking out right in the fall direction. Well the tree falls perfectly where gunned, comes off the stump at the right time, but the limb didn't crush like it should have (or so I subliminally thought because the tree was large, hollow and top dieing) and it causes the butt to lift, hover and move over 2 feet to the side before comming down. Well, I didn't have a couple feet to spare because there was a wooden stairway and railing going up to house right there.

It could've and should've been avoided by spotting the hazzard limb, taking it off or tieing a side pull rope to the butt, tensioned away from the direction of the house. I mean, come on, there were three sets of experienced eyes on this mission and nobody says, "hey T-bag, what happens if that limb desides not to buckle?" I mean basic stuff here.

It was a simple drop the tree, cut it into sections, and leave job, just pissed me right off. I charged them I think $50 dollars because I had to pay my help. They sent me more money in the mail saying they didn't pay me enough, some really gracious people.

 

[treemandan]

Yesterday I was dropping a black birch stick, dropping it uphill would have been nice, but it would have probably wrecked a dogwood that the client wanted to keep. Felling uphill would have wrecked the dogwood. Directly downhill would have wrecked the steps. I went with diagionally downhill going around the dogwood and maybe getting past a small wall. Well I knocked out 3 stones in the process, showed the client... he didn't care, masons were working elsewhere on the property anyways.

It sounds like a miscalculation. I didn't even do any calculating on this one.

I was ready to hand the check back to the lady. If I could i would put me on suspension, probation, send myself back to first grade.

I am very glad my episode didn't involve anything worse then a broken fence.
Its one thing to say " I killed somebody because something went wrong, an error occured". Its another to say " I killed someone because I didn't turn on my brain"

I keep harping on this because I didn't even apply any thought process what so ever.

That is what has me so freaked out. I can't even tell you where I was. My Spidey Senses weren't tingling. I didn't do any double checking. Its spooky. I can't even say it was complancey, maybe it was, I am not familar with complancey only the opposite. No, I remember what complancey feel like, it wasn't that.

 

[lego1970]

It sounds like a miscalculation. I didn't even do any calculating on this one.

I was ready to hand the check back to the lady. If I could i would put me on suspension, probation, send myself back to first grade.

I am very glad my episode didn't involve anything worse then a broken fence.
Its one thing to say " I killed somebody because something went wrong, an error occured". Its another to say " I killed someone because I didn't turn on my brain"

I keep harping on this because I didn't even apply any thought process what so ever.

That is what has me so freaked out. I can't even tell you where I was. My Spidey Senses weren't tingling. I didn't do any double checking. Its spooky. I can't even say it was complancey, maybe it was, I am not familar with complancey only the opposite. No, I remember what complancey feel like, it wasn't that.

Was this your first time hitting something? I know some very experienced climbers....guys that have been climbing and doing tree work for 20,30 and even one guy in his 60's (Phil Cheatum in KC) that's had been climbing for almost 40 years and I've seen each guy mess up at least on a couple occasions. Nothing ever serious, but either a plan that went completely backwards and they got lucky, or something got torn up such as a fence, cut rope, dropped saw, hit a gutter, drop a branch on the powerline, etc, etc. If this is the first time you've hit something in 20 years I'd say your doing good. Like they say on motorcycle trackdays......."there are those who have gone down....and those that will". Learn from it and move on.

 

[treemandan]

Was this your first time hitting something? I know some very experienced climbers....guys that have been climbing and doing tree work for 20,30 and even one guy in his 60's (Phil Cheatum in KC) that's had been climbing for almost 40 years and I've seen each guy mess up at least on a couple occasions. Nothing ever serious, but either a plan that went completely backwards and they got lucky, or something got torn up such as a fence, cut rope, dropped saw, hit a gutter, drop a branch on the powerline, etc, etc. If this is the first time you've hit something in 20 years I'd say your doing good. Like they say on motorcycle trackdays......."there are those who have gone down....and those that will". Learn from it and move on.

Sure i hit stuff but monetarily nothing major. All those time I could figure out what went wrong. Usually an error in judgement. This time it was like there wasn't any judgement happening.
I guess its hard to explain, not that I didn't try.

 

[lego1970]

Sure i hit stuff but monetarily nothing major. All those time I could figure out what went wrong. Usually an error in judgement. This time it was like there wasn't any judgement happening.
I guess its hard to explain, not that I didn't try.

In that case it sounds like you just got complacent, lost focus, and put your left shoe on your right foot. Don't know what to tell you other then I hope you figure it out and good luck.

 

[Grace Tree]

While not tree related, this should make you feel better. Last week while driving a semi truck, I backed into a p/u truck I didn't see come in from behind and pushed him back 20-30 feet. Didn't even make a mark on my trailer but caused $3800 worth of damage to his p/u. I had a tall load of lumber and didn't see him back there. I heard a slight tire squal but since I was hauling a spread axle while backing on a blindside turn I just figured it was the inside axle scrubbing. So now I'm out $1000 bucks give or take a couple hundred and most important my well over a million accident free miles has now been reset to zero. I still have my Top Driver Award and two Most Miles Awards from years ago, but I'd rather say I've never had an accident instead. Oh well...accidents happen and the important thing is that nobody got hurt in either situation. Good luck.

I always told people I had over 3 million NC accident free miles. If they asked (seldom) I'd tell them NC stands for non consecutive. I learned it from listening to public officials.
Phil