who's looking out for you?

[seanlarkin]

I am! Recently, after the ice storm, our local newspaper printed an article on how, when and where to cut broken branches off your trees. I thought the article had good intentions, but was taking homeowners in the "wrong" direction (away from hiring professionals). The next day, a homeowner was cutting branches in his tree, 35' up, using a ladder...(you know what's coming)...the limb the ladder was leaning against broke, and down he fell, breaking his back in 4 places, but surviving. I don't know if he read that article, but none the less, I wrote the following letter to the newspaper, and they printed it.
-Sean (protector of homeowners, and promoter of arborists)

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Thanks Sean! Well done.

Tom

 

[kf_tree]

just look what all the home improvement shows did for contractors. every one thinks they could renovate a house now.
one of the worst examples of tree work i've ever seen was on this old house. they hired what appered to be 2 migant workers to remove a tree. one guy was in the tree with no saftey gear. the other guy was on a roof holding what appeared to be a clothes line. when the guy made the cut the guy holding the rope had to let go because it was burning his hands or he would have gotten pulled off the roof. when he let go the branch crashed on the roof, and you could see the guy mouth "ah f__k it". but with a little editing you never saw the branch hit.

it was pretty sad that tree men were portrayed this way on a so called pro show. hell if those 2 idiots can do it why can't i do it?

 

[Nickrosis]

Originally posted by kf_tree
one of the worst examples of tree work i've ever seen was on this old house.

I mentioned that episode on this site a while ago - really scary. Good to know someone else saw it! And good going Sean.

People have often complained that our Pruning video is not "how-to" enough. The point was not to show people how to prune but to show the importance of pruning. That video was part of a video series my dad made in the 90s as part of his mid-life crisis. Once he got over that, his business doubled in a couple of years like he finally finished something he had long intended to do.

Nickrosis

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Good article Sean.

I wonder if that blurb at the end was a jab at you. You know, Sean writes this thoughful letter about the lack of PPE and then they add, by the way, Sean sells PPE.

I too saw the "Old House" show with the guy on the roof. If you do need to stand on a roof and hold a rope, make sure to stand on the uphill side or you won't be able to hold $hit. As the groundy found out.

 

[Stumper]

Did anybody see the show in which they were doing a remodel in Florida. They went through their spiel about hiring a pro (which I appreciate) then showed a couple of complete clowns. These guys just had to play to the camera so the "boss" goes through an explanation of how they are going to drop this snag with the help of this experienced faller. They hang a rope and the faller notches the tree and starts the backcut while 112lb dufus number 1 is pulling of the rope (anchored to nothing) . In the middle of the backcut the"boss" runs in waving his arms. "This isn't going to work -fall it over this way". So the "experienced faller" has little dufus pull at 90*(or maybe it was 70*) to the notch while he makes his backcut and they roll it right into a hangup in the neighboring tree.