Share your close calls!

[ralawler]

Last month I was trimming limbs for a customer, Started at 8:00am by 3:00
I was at my last tree. Got in a hurry, didn't tie my ladder off, and when the limb I cut hit the ground it spung forward and kicked the bottom of the ladder
out from under me. Took about a ten foot fall. I was more emberrased than hurt. Of course his whole family saw it. Wife said trees revenge.

 

[056kid]

damn dead locust

I was cutting in a nice stand of hardwood and poplar, good sized trees. There where alot of old dead hard as a rock locusts along with the log trees. So i am chacing some hinge wood on a nice fat poplar and then stand back to admire the fall. It seems like the second that tree landed so did the 50 lb stick of locust on my back!! Slammed me to the ground like i was a piece of spaghetty, it shut my saw off and knocked most of my wind out. One of the only times that i had to acess weather i was still here or floating on up to graceland.
Talk about a lesson learned!!

 

[ciscoguy01]

Man o' man

If you haven't been to the other part of this forum on here and seen it I'd sureeeeeeeee hate to be the one to get a beatin' thrown at me from the rest of the guys on the chainsaw part, lmao... :jester:

 

[Sprig]

Had to deliver a load of dry stuff on Thursday last and rushed outta the house after sharpening saw and gearing up to go pick up the hired hands. We get up to the woodlot and I realized I was still wearing my shoes (runners), what the heck me thinks, I'll just be more careful, stupid, stupid, stupid :bang: The pile I was working on was pretty funky and tangled, mostly fir about 10-16" diam. so its sort of cut here, cut there, move stuff around for better access etc.. Had a 6" diameter length drop outta nowhere from under a piece I was cutting and land on the tops of my toes, pain but nothing major thank the dogs that be. Invented a few choice phrases and finished the day and will not be forgetting my steel-toed boots again. Do I feel like a horse's derrière? Oh ya. No need for a whippin' guys, I have self-flagellated enough for a crew of dark-age monks to be happy. :censored:


Serge

 

[slowp]

You Missed (wedges might be a good thing)

Guess I'll post this. It was a bright and sunny day. The first weekday of sun we've had this month. (That was part of my problem) I waited for the yarder engineer to tell me where the lines were going to be. They were changing roads. He gave me the go ahead so I started up the hill to walk around to see what the cutters were up to. I am now near sighted but don't wear my glasses out in the woods, costs too much to buy cases of beer for the guys who find them, and I don't like getting paint on them. So, I hear a saw going but it is dogging down, that doesn't happen to these cutters. Hmmm, maybe they are teaching a new guy? I start down the hill to the saw noise because you always approach cutters from the uphill side. I see two orange hardhats and blurry figures working on a tree. I start to walk down towards them, it looks safe because one is standing between me and the tree. All of a sudden, he takes off. I see the tree coming my way but it looks like it is going to miss and I don't want to tear the calf muscles again so I start walking away. The tree thumps down 10 feet to my side, I get the wind and the small branches. Nothing big came off the other trees. I hadn't had my noon coffee or lunch so was very slow witted, all I could yell was, "YOU MISSED!" Got up and it was the hooktender and pimp and they were derigging the tree. The tree sat back on them and they had no wedges, did not want to walk down to the rig to get wedges (downhill skylining), so decided to go for it and cut the tree off.
They are being very nice to me now...Here's a picture of "The Saw of Doom." heading up just before they unhooked the skyline. Notice there's no bag of accessories.

 

[reachtreeservi]

Well, I really don't have any *close* calls, as they went beyond that point.

A few years ago, I was holding my grinder close to my chest when I plugged it in and did not realize that it was already in the ON position. I ended up grinding my left nipple partially off!. Amazingly, it grew back!, and thats the second time I semi chopped it off!.

When I was a young kid, I crashed my bike going really fast down the street (no shirt on of course!), and ground my left nipple off then as well.

I am now on my 3rd left nipple [sort of!]

As far as chain saw mishaps are concerned, fortunately, I don't really have any other than I once forgot my little chain saw was in the front loader bucket of my backhoe and then I started to move dirt, thereby burying the saw.

I had no idea I even did this until the next spring when little baby chain saws started popping up out of the ground. !! Okay, thats a lie!

I actually did bury the saw in a load of dirt only to realize it much later. After carefully hand digging through the pile of dirt, my wife actually found it and it was completely fine. Started right up no problems.

I have to admit that Stihls are pretty durable and seem to take anything you toss at them!.

Quote "Buried the Stihl. Dug it up much later. Started right up. " Unquote

What more could I add To that ? GO STIHL !