What's your 'almost worst moment' pertaining to a tree ?

Cypressstump · August 13, 2012, 05:04:31 PM

We've all had one (or more if yer like me. :

..) case(s) of something that coulda, shoulda gone wrong when fooling with these ol' trees but it didn't happen, and of course we all learned from our mistakes and adventures and now a lot smarter from that 'edukashun' , and certainly not now ashamed to share our near misfortunes..... ;) ;)

Here's mine –
A friend was down on his luck, jobless, bad back problems and home life issues. He had a huge dying oak tree near his house. He received a quote of more than 3500 to cut the tree down. He did not have the money for that. A hurricane was nearing and he was fearing the worst as the storm was 3 days away. The limbs were almost even with the side roof line of his house, a very nice, large brick home, the trunk was 40ish feet off his driveway, the tree was easy 100 foot tall. It had a slight lean towards his home as it were. That's where I got involved.

Went to see the tree, not too bad of a takedown I reckoned. Done deal, following day I was there ready. He was to have plenty of help available, and no one showed but me, him and his bad back. The varying strength winds were favorable, blowing away for his house and in fall path for the most part, but ever changing directions and getting stronger. Typical weather prior to a good storm.. I climbed the tree, de-limbed on the house side lowering the limbs with rope and tackle. Once most of the larger limbs on house side were dropped, I tied off a 1" rigging rope to the top of the tree to pull with. Ran that top rope off down to a snatch block across the open field area, joined up a couple more ropes, then tied end of rope to the truck, which was pointed 90 degrees away from fall line / snatch block and well away from danger zone. All is well.
I begin to make my initial first cut, a wedge towards the fall line. Had my friend already pull the line fairly tight with the truck. Then his brother-in-law shows up ready for a hurricane,,, which down here to some, that means ½ drunk. I had told drunko to get the hell out of the way, go over to his B-I-L in the truck, waaay away from me.

I had told my friend that with the line pull with limb weight on the fall side, regardless of lean, that once the tree committed to going, he really did not have to apply anymore strain on the rope, the initial pull would be enough. I began my backcut and wedging. The tree began to go as I cut and whacked the wedges tighter, all was well. I was not going to cut too deep as I was hoping the tree would hinge heavy and slow the fall allowing us time to pull tighter on the rope of needed. When I was happy that it was going, I yelled "it's going"..... Drunko began hollering at his B-I-L , 'Go,,Go,,Go'....... ? ? ? As the tree reached probably a 30 degree tilt, my friend was going forward at drunko's beckoning ,the rope broke,, the doggone tree shook, then started reversing it fall, coming back to the house. I had already backed off to the side watching in shear disbelief. At my feet were several small sections of limbs not yet toted away, 3 – 4 inches dia and 2 feet long. I grabbed one, got close enough to toss the piece into the closing cut at the stump, which stopped the backwards motion and made the tree stop coming back and go the way it was supposed to. It fell the second time. I wanted to puke. By the time I got done with his B-I-L, AND my friend for listening to the idiot, no one really wanted to be around me. I had to leave.I was sick to my stomach.

POSTON WIDEHEAD · August 13, 2012, 06:24:29 PM

My best friend went to saw a tree down within 20 yards of his house. The tree leaned toward his house and wedged his chainsaw.
THEN.....he calls me for help. So I go over there with my saw. I asked him why he didn't call to begin with so I could bring the backhoe and put pressure on the tree to fell it away from the house. Well......he's hard headed.

So I walk over to tree where is saw is wedged, crank mine, and begin sawing under his wedged saw. OH......you're right......I knew exactly where the tree was going.

It fell on the roof, rolled and went down the side of the house tearing off all the vinyl siding and came to rest on both air condition units, which were then flat as a pancake with freon hissy out of them.

He and his wife are WHITE AS A SHEET. He looks at me like......

. I asked, "Isn't your house 18 years old?" He says "Well it was!". I said , "Call your insurance company".

Long story short.....he gets his WHOLE HOUSE covered with brand new shingles. He gets brand new VINYLE SIDING. He gets 2 brand new AIR CONDITION UNITS and a brand new CHAIN SAW.

Moral of the story.....hey ya'll watch this!

My buddy is happy......it took a while, but he's happy.

petefrom bearswamp · August 13, 2012, 06:39:29 PM

Did a lot of residential tree removal with 2 friends back in the 60's and had several "episodes."
Once we hit a tall tombstone in a cemetery and turned it about 30 degrees and also cut power to about 100 families.That was the worst, but a couple other house injuring events too.
Pete

tcsmpsi · August 13, 2012, 06:54:47 PM

Man, I wouldn't really know where to begin. However, as a personal injury possibility, I reckon the most blessed I was, was whenmoving lots of brush, dirt, rocks getting ready for another home site, and though I had already spotted it and being sure to stay clear of it, there was about 60' of a dead pine standing that I was going to cut 'later'.

I was building a road across a deep gulley to get back to the homesite, got a little too canted on the incline, and in making that work, inadvertently hit that pine with the box blade. Had not realized it, when a significant portion crashed down on the tractor and myself. It was only a matter of fractions of inches that kept it on the tractor and roll over bar. I got skined up just a bit, but that was better than my head pounded a couple feet into my body.

Ken · August 13, 2012, 09:11:11 PM

We began to fall some Norway spruce trees in a partial cut while waiting for a skidder to show up several years ago. There was a power line running through the stand. While we were having lunch the wind picked up and shortly thereafter we heard the unmistakable sound of a transformer blowing. One of the "leaners" had rolled out of other trees and fell across the lines. Wouldn't have been a big deal if it hadn't been nearly -30C at the time. Took the power out to an entire community for several hours. We weren't too popular with the neighbours.

clww · August 13, 2012, 09:22:25 PM

Scariest close call: Mid-1980's cutting down a lightning-struck 24" DBH red oak in the National Forest. Tree slabbed (barber chair) as it was going over. Caught me under my right arm, took me off the ground. For whatever reason, I dropped the saw and put the trunk in a headlock, and rode it all the way up. The tree stayed together where it "hinged", about 15 feet above the stump. I was able to swing up on top of it and walk back down to the ground, where I sat down for a little break. Stupid-Scary. More so now that I'm older.
Worst accident: Broke 4 ribs, 1 finger, cracked sternum, 15 stitches in my thigh, hyper-extended 4 fingers on my left hand. I was cutting off a tree fork, 25 feet above ground when it kicked back into my chest. Drove myself to the E.R....again.

Texas Ranger · August 13, 2012, 11:42:16 PM

The ER here has me on file for the number of times I have shown up bleeding on their floor. But only once from the woods with a machete, the rest from the shop.

Woodchuck53 · August 14, 2012, 03:57:45 AM

Had a neighbor help cut a tree in his pasture. 75 feet to the first limb. Big mistake. The cable didn't break but he clutched and had it swing back. He panic and turn the tractor to the side full throttle. I'm trying to complete the cut as fast as I can when he pulls if side ways off the stump and hits an old Ford truck across the bed. He looks at me and ask if I have any use for a slightly bent truck. Took the motor out and salvaged the front spindle and 3/4 ton rear axle. Junked the rest and paid for my time. Bought some new drawers.

scgargoyle · August 14, 2012, 06:39:37 AM

At the ripe old age of 19, I decided to start a landscaping business. My very first job was to cut down a big white pine right next to a house. With zero experience, I climbed up the tree and started cutting limbs off with an axe. One limb fell wrong and peeled the power line off of the house. I then decided to just cut the whole thing down, but my limbing had made for a bad balance, the wrong way. I called a friend with a 1 ton truck, and we secured a rope to the top of the tree, and he pulled as I cut. Now, the rope wasn't long enough, so he had to keep moving once the tree fell. Skidding the rear tires, the truck (thankfully) finally won the battle, and the tree was safely on the ground, the truck buried in the upper branches. The homeowner paid me, and never said a word about the power line (which was still hot). I think he was just glad to get me out of there. It was a long time before I tried dropping another big tree!

Magicman · August 14, 2012, 08:45:58 AM

Since "almost" means that I did not get hurt and should have, takes me to an instance where my Dad wanted a limb removed from a tree. I put the ladder up and sawed the limb off. With the limb weight gone, the limb portion supporting the ladder was now higher than the ladder.

tcsmpsi · August 14, 2012, 09:04:29 AM

Quote from: Magicman on August 14, 2012, 08:45:58 AM
Since "almost" means that I did not get hurt and should have, takes me to an instance where my Dad wanted a limb removed from a tree. I put the ladder up and sawed the limb off. With the limb weight gone, the limb portion supporting the ladder was now higher than the ladder.

I can see you learned from that. ;D