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How many of us have been seriously hurt over the years.

Started by erin, November 17, 2018, 07:01:12 PM

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so il logger

Think I can hear my insurance premiums raise while reading this thread...

Maybe not

so il logger

I just wrote a long post, can't see the point in posting it. All the guys from not out west knows what's up anyhow.

Skeans, I read on another forum that West coast is too fast paced for us normal guys.

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Ianab

Quote from: Magicman on November 22, 2018, 10:45:25 PMThe PLB is purchased and there is no monthly/yearly fee but it is for emergency use only.  No text nor OK messages.


Yup, all those do is send a SOS message with your location. Same deal if your boat sinks, or your plane crashes, or you are laying in the bush with a broken leg. Either way, someone comes to investigate ASAP. You can't tell them what the problem is, just that you have one. 
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

longtime lurker

I work by myself far more then I am comfortable doing. Because I know from long experience that working in the woods by yourself wont make the slightest bit of difference if things go majorly wrong, dead is dead after all. But being by yourself can turn a minor problem into a major problem real quick. You get busted up or pinned and it might not be fatal but stick a bit of exposure on top of that and yeah.... you got a problem.

I mentioned a busted foot in the first response to this post. It's just a cracked fibula and a couple toes right, no biggun by the standards of this industry.... you pick yourself up and limp out right? Yeah well I was alone, and I tell ya that 2 hour drive back to phone service down a range in a heavily loaded truck (with about a 5 ton clutch seemed like) weren't no fun at all. Had it been a compound fracture or other serious injury it would have been a good 10 hours before I was overdue enough for someone to go looking. Then they got to get to where I was, and then they got to find me. Assuming they found me pretty quick thats still at least 13 hours lying in the bush in the tropical sun (or snow for you guys) and by then my smallest problem might just be the original injury.  At least we dont got bear and things that might eat ya here. :D

Working alone is dumb... and I do it all the time... so yeah, I'm dumb too.

Crew Im working with on my part time outside felling gig are introducing me to new things.


 

That integrated radio with voice activated mic is good for talking to the skidder or dozer guy... but its also part of our risk mitigation plan for reduced PPE because of the risk the PPE presents in this climate. Yanno they're short range and not as good as the UHF handheld thats in my dillybag along with files and bandages and stuff.... but its kinda on my head not tossed on the ground with the fuel cans so... its a good thing, and I'll be bringing this technology into my own operation right smartly.

The quickest way to make a million dollars with a sawmill is to start with two million.

olcowhand

Quote from: so il logger on November 22, 2018, 11:58:35 PM
I just wrote a long post, can't see the point in posting it. All the guys from not out west knows what's up anyhow.

Skeans, I read on another forum that West coast is too fast paced for us normal guys.

You, sir, are an idiot.
I'm sure not in agreement that name- calling is an appropriate part of any rational discussion. I find this topic and (most of) the discussion to be beneficial. By the way, I'm one of the "Part- Timers " on this forum that definitely takes more Knowledge from here than I can possibly add, but name- calling has no place here, IMO.
Olcowhand's Workshop, LLC

They say the mind is the first to go; I'm glad it's something I don't use!

Ezekiel 36:26-27

petefrom bearswamp

What olcowhand said.
skeans by not working alone do you mean that you have someone with you watching all the time, or other cutters a safe distance away? Perhaps a skidder operator on the job  too?
Kubota 8540 tractor, FEL bucket and forks, Farmi winch
Kubota 900 RTV
Polaris 570 Sportsman ATV
3 Huskies 1 gas Echo 1 cordless Echo vintage Homelite super xl12
57 acres of woodland

Skeans1

We normally cut in pairs when the wood is big enough, one guy cutting one pounding wedges then he'll limb ahead of you well you clean the butt and tape. When it's smaller it'll be 2 tree lengths away from all hand falling. If near a landing one guy will cut well one is cleaning stuff up with a shovel either way you're never alone or more then a few houndred feet from each other. I don't like cutting well someone is yarding near me too easy to get hurt.

Pulphook

No name calling. Most of us so called "part timers", "weekend warriors", prefer to cut solo. We're retired, got the time.
My training has been extensive and intensive from professionals informal and formal. In the past 20 or so years of taking classes, working with loggers and arborists, climbing, and using my saws, ATV, brush cutters, and splitters for the 6-8 cords ( real cords ) for heating each year, volunteer trail clearing and making, boundary clearing, and helping out a few needing firewood, I've never had even a close serious call while cutting and felling. Why ? I cut solo so I need to depend on situational awareness for every fall. ( You learn about S.A. in service...ask. )
I plan. I drop where I need to. Buck up the tree, hump it into the trailer to take out to the spitter next to the woodshed.
All, not most of the dumbo moves have been away from a saw: tripping, slipping in snow or mud, getting caught in a blowdown's canopy while opening a trail, or extreme dumb: rolling the ATV into a ditch. Just dumbo moves that sometimes draw minor blood, a hill fall giving me a rotator cuff tear, a face plant that unfortunately wasn't enough for cosmetic surgery that I wanted :-[ .
Now that "coos cut" is OK for you. My cuts are usually a 90 deg. open face, again, bore or not, again, wedges or not.... DEPENDS. ( Not underwear Skeans )
Solo it is. There ain't no supervisor or bureaucrat or insurance underwriter making rules.
Each to his own....hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving !
JMNSHO
Two wood stoves ( Jotul Rangely ,Jotul Oslo ) heating 99 44/100%
24/7. No central heat. 6-8 cords firewood from the woodlot /year. Low low tech: ATV with trailer, 3 saws, 2 electric splitters, a worn pulphook, peavy, climbing line for skidding, Fiskars 27, an old back getting older.

longtime lurker

I dislike the word "professional" when it comes to chainsaws. Just do, it covers too much territory. Me, I'm a semi-retired manual production feller. I dont climb trees, I dont do yard work, I dont do tree care... I decimate stands of trees in a selective cut manner or where you cant use a mechanical harvester due to terrain or production issues. I know plenty guys that are very professional and cant do what I do... but I cant do what they do either. All of us, whether we do this full time or part time, whether we get paid or not, set out to achieve a desired outcome using a similar set of tools. Thing is those outcomes can be different depending on where you sit in the industry.

As a production feller my desired outcome looks like this:
I get paid on production and I am expected to produce. 30 ton a day is a good number, about what I average. I know guys do 50 but I dun wanna work that hard no more and at 30 I'm doing okay.
I need to present trees to the extraction equipment (dozer or skidder) in a way that enables quick and efficient removal from the forest. That involves a lot of directional felling, regardless of the lean of the tree it has to go through that narrow window there so it can be pulled out without damage to the other trees or because of terrain etc.
I am expected to present logs that dont waste wood, in terms of no big cracks running through logs etc.
I seldom get to walk away. Half rotted/ widow makers hanging out of it / half down and hung up / piped out and still on fire inside.... part of my job is to remove these hazards from the forest. A lot of what I do is classified as advanced risk, and Im paid accordingly.
I want to go home alive and have everyone working around me go home alive too.

I dont see a whole lot of difference between me and the next guy that walks into the woods. He humps a chainsaw and wedges and so do I. But my outcomes mean that my toolbox of skills is different. And how I use those skills and equipment can be different.  Give me a leaner and sometimes I do a crown cut, sometimes a bore cut, sometimes a coos... depends on the tree, the lean, the desired direction of fall in relation to the lean, the nature of the wood in terms of will it barber chair or will it hang on to the death and you got to chase it to the ground with a saw .... theres no right or wrong way to do this so far as I'm concerned. Just whats right for a given tree, and for your desired outcome.

Stick with the safety stuff guys... theres a whole lot of learning from others mistakes available in this thread and it shouldnt be personal because safety is everyones business.

The quickest way to make a million dollars with a sawmill is to start with two million.

Pulphook

Two wood stoves ( Jotul Rangely ,Jotul Oslo ) heating 99 44/100%
24/7. No central heat. 6-8 cords firewood from the woodlot /year. Low low tech: ATV with trailer, 3 saws, 2 electric splitters, a worn pulphook, peavy, climbing line for skidding, Fiskars 27, an old back getting older.

yetti462

In 2002 I was touched by a guardian angel and experienced the power of prayer.  I was asked by my brother for help with a leaning tree.  My mind was where I was going to go hunting that night and I was rushing to help him, then head to the deer stand.  This leaning tree was a Tulip poplar that had about a 45 degree lean to it.  I showed him how to cut a leaning tree, notch, bore and clip.  The lean on the tree didn't give it enough momentum to hit the ground, instead it suspended and was partially held up by a forked ash. 

I cut the butt of the log off and remember looking up at the bent over forks of the ash tree, they were under the poplar top but still attached to the ash about 12' high.  I was wearing a ball cap of course and told my brother that the situation was hairy and we needed to get away from the situation.  He turned back around from listening to me and heard something and looked back to see me on the ground. 
 
The poplar top fell on its own and pulled the ash forks out.  The pressure shot one fork back about 8' where i was standing and down the side of my head.  I remember coming to in his truck with my s.i.l. telling me I was bad hurt and we were headed to ER.  She is an er nurse btw.  Next thing I remember is waking up in Methodist hospital in Indianapolis with iv's in my arm and breathing tubes in my throat. 

I got life lined via Lifeevac helicopter.  I underwent emergency brain surgery that removed a blood clot that had formed under fractured skull.  My eye socket was fractured from the corner to my ear and from bottom down to upper jaw.  I was told by doctors to expect slurred speech, blurred vision and short term memory loss.  I walked out of there in 3 days and have had a blessed and 100% recovery.  My head is a little lumpy and I'm missing a tooth, other than that I'm ok.

Gearbox

I was falling a large Red Oak and saw a dead limb about 30 ft. up . knocked it down and went perfect . Walked over to get the skidder and when I walked under a Maple that 5 inch oak limb fell out of that Maple . Hit right on top of my head . Out for 20 min. off to the hospital ER got real excited after the Cat scan .Brain bleed about 25 MM . Then in overnight home the next day with a baby sitter for the next 10 days . That was 9 years ago and it still didn't knock any sense in me , I'm still logging.
A bunch of chainsaws a BT6870 processer , TC 5 International track skidder and not near enough time

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