Worst Job Ever ??

[Dadatwins]

As per request I will start new thread;

Worst job I ever did was years ago working for Dad in Manhatten.
Dad had contract to remove 6 dead trees from apartment courtyard no access from street. 6 atlanthus trees all about 30" dbh x 60' everything in rear had to go up 1 flight of stairs to ground floor entrance of building then up 1 floor in service elevator to main lobby. Walk thru main lobby out front door and back down front steps of building. I was ropeman at the time and so happy that I did not have to walk out brush and logs. Happiness faded quick after all the trees were down and Dad told me to go start chipping. Everytime I hear someone complain about chipping or dragging brush I tell them 'it could be worse'

 

[PRUNER 1]

worst job ever was carrying poplar across a graveyard (100") the tree was about 65", big for these parts, and all had to be rigged and carried out. couldnt use speedline cos of others trees in way and not enough height for distance. oh yeah, there is also the many dead elm removals in graveyards. even rigging them makes a mess. either that or pulling failed willows out of rivers on wet days

 

[PRUNER 1]

just remembered, worst job was two of us crown cleaning and raising 29, 50-85" lime trees, 1 climber, 1 groundsman taking turns, on the dog walker route and full of cak. mind numbing and soul destroying

 

[treeman82]

Working for my old tree boss. He got a job clearing pricker bushes, poison ivy, and saplings from a rock wall. Probably over a mile of wall to clear. We went there the first day in the middle or end of August. I remember one piece of poison ivy, it was 12" in diameter. The chipper couldn't take it The vines were so bad that in one area we were clearing and found a bunch of old tractor implements... hay balers, and who knows what else? My boss quit the job after like 3 or 4 days because it was just so horrible. One part we never got to had a BIG turkey den? in it. The first couple weeks of school that year I was covered with poison ivy.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Originally posted by PRUNER 1
just remembered, worst job was two of us crown cleaning and raising 29, 50-85" lime trees, 1 climber, 1 groundsman taking turns, on the dog walker route and full of cak. mind numbing and soul destroying

I'm not sure what a lime tree is, but that sounds like good, steady work for awhile!

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Lime in England/Europe=Linden/basswood in US

 

[MasterBlaster]

Originally posted by Tom Dunlap
Lime in England/Europe=Linden/basswood in US

Well that sure cleared that up!


Uhhh, are they in LA?

 

[jamie]

lime

lime, check out Tilia, x europeans (the spelling most probably is wrong) has loads of epicormic growth....yum

jamie

 

[Stumper]

Yes Butch, Both Florida Basswood (tilia floridana) and Carolina basswood (tilia caroliniana) are native to Lousiana. Nice ornamental trees with exceptionally light wood that is strong for its weight and is very disinclined to splinter. Wood carvers and wood burners love the stuff.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Ornamental tree, you say?

I guess I don't deal with them, that I know of.

But if they get 80 feet tall, I can't believe I haven't run across them before.

 

[Stumper]

The American linden does hit eighty feet (In fact there is one herein toun that i've pruned that is about that tall) but it isn't native to the deep south. The southern sspecies are smaller-Carolina tops out at about 40 feet and Florida occassionally passes 60. They ar pretty low maintenence trees-minor thinning and the ever present clearance "problems" are the usual extent of work on them. Beautiful trees. Dark gray bark-relatively smooth, winter twigs are reddish, small white blooms, medium -dark green leaves over which drapes a yellowgreen seed pod with a maple-like 1/2 "propeller" giving a variegated two tone effect . Lindens are among my favorite tree species.

 

[Stumper]

Oh and getting back on topic. Worst job? I 've had lots of rotten ones but they all seem to get better after I'm done and paid. Then they just become fond memories of funky situations. Several pine removals in which the builder completley surrounded the trunk with roof and or decking. A white oak that they built the garage around. Grinding stumps inside an unfinished basement(Funny but a challenge to work a couple of minutes holding my breath then bail out for air and let the dust settle and the CO disperse). Dropping trees on a bluff so steep that I had to hang in my saddle to traverse the slope(that wasn't bad at all just unusual). Pruning a tree inside a small atrium inside the customers home. Driving the stump grinder through the front door and out the back to grind a stump. Grinding a stump with two 1.25 inch axle stubs grown in it.

The worst one I guess was the one where I got seriously hurt-I showed up at church with my arm in a sling and everyone asked"What happened? Did you fall out of a tree?". My answer was "No, I fell out of a yard.". I hung my boot heel stepping down off of a retaining wall with an armload of brush and went down hard. Sprained my right elblw severely and couldn't work for a few weeks. I wound up with some restrictive scar tissue that prevents me fully straightening that arm.

 

[Xtra]

We were lot clearing an acre of some dead trees piled by a dozer and also stripping a bunch poison ivy from a fence line and a few dozen trees in the rain. Then the rain stopped and it got really hot and humid and there was a terrible stench. Everyone was trying to determine what it was, then we moved deeper into a pile of ivy and brush and found out what it was . . . a deer had died inside that mess and was decomposing.
Nothing like trying to picked up a carcass that keeps falling apart so you could chip all that brush and then really spread the stench around.
About an hour later the homeowner shows up with sub sandwiches for the crew . . . funny no one really rushed to eat that day.

- Bob

 

[Dadatwins]

Originally posted by Stumper
Pruning a tree inside a small atrium inside the customers home. Driving the stump grinder through the front door and out the back to grind a stump.

I have done the tree in the house deal too,lots of fun there putting down dropcloths to protect furniture from sawdust.
I have carried 30"x50' trees through houses about 2' at a time but have never driven the stump machine through a house before that sounds like like fun

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Butch, I don't think it was the type o tree that was the problem, but the "dog walk" area that made it unpleasing work.

The seeds are the best ID part

Is that a bracht?

 

[Lumberjack]

So far my worst job has been humping wood up a hill and stacking it to burn. The only way to get to his back yard was down a set brick stairs, then across a flower bed, and then down the hill. The hill was insanley steep, we could barely walk on it, much less do anything else. This wood was some 2+ year old pine rounds that were soaking wet, and were between 2'-3'. If I was doing the job now, I woulda used a zipline, a MA, and a pull line, and do it that way.


I have a job comming up sometime removing a large pine that grows through the back porch of the local Nissan dealer. Their back porch is probably 20' off the ground, and the tree is probably 80-90'. The deck is probably 40-50' wide, so everything will have to be lowered in small pieces, and carted off the deck and around the house. A crane isnt an option because the size required to reach over the house would require an enormus crane. On that job, I think that there is 13? other pines that are to be removed, so they can make them a nice yard. However they have twin daughters that are a year younger than me, and o so fine. That will truly be the funnest job yet.



Carl