Some days it doesn't pay to cut alone.
http://news.yahoo.com/colorado-logger-cuts-off-toes-foot-pinned-141408642.html
I was lucky the wife was driving skidder the day i got pined, she sawed the tree off me, then went for help, it was -57 wind chill, if i would have been alone i would have froze to death.
When you run this by your brain, does it feel like your brain doesn't want to keep up, [start cutting]
Tough man
It sure does take alot of will power to do that. Had he not done as he did I am sure that he could have lost his whole foot or even worse yet...
For me thats life in the woods, I say a prayer the evening before and the morning before I get out of the truck asking for a safe and productive day. I have hired contract labor a few times but worry myself sick afraid there get hurt or even worse. The times I have gotten hurt Ive been luckey enough to have someone with me. I don't even like to think about it, just in the month of August we had had two timber cutters killed and another backed over. One was a faller for thirty plus years :( Be safe everyone Bill ;)
I've heard it said that the chainsaw is the most dangerous tool known to man. Pray for safety, be safe and don't get in too big of a hurry or take chances. Im just a part timer and work alone a good bit. There's soooo many ways to get hurt. Safety 1st.
I think most of us who have worked in the woods for any length of time have had a wake up call (or two). Too easy to get hurt without going looking for trouble. ::) I will not work alone after a small rotten poplar went the wrong way and pinned me on my keester. Fortunately a guy was with me.
Every time I've gotten myself hurt, so far, I was alone. Nothing as major as self-amputations, but a few breaks and some stitches. The worst was when I had a ghost limb come down on me while I was dropping a tree and break my back. I couldn't move or feel my left leg but I drove home. That hiker that amputated his own arm still makes me shake my head in amazement.
I cut everyday buy myself. Folks are always telling me how dangerous it is, like you dont know . If you thought about how dangerous it really is you would stay at the house. I know I have used up my nine lives and have had to many close calls . Every time I have got hurt I have been alone but was always able to drive to the hospital. To all you guys working buy yourself never let your gaurd down, everytime something bad has happened to me it was totaly unexpected. We have to love it or why would we take the risk.
Thought about this thread today ...cutting chestnut and white oaks killed by drought this and last summer...prayer helps....but don't forget hardhat ...and go slow
Today I read in the paper a story about a farner who tried to move a tree with the bucket on his front loader. The tree apparently had some tension and jumped the bucket pinning the man in his seat killing him. His daughter found him a day later.
I work alone every day. You TRY not to think about the bad that can happen.i was sittin on a rock filling my saw yesterday, as geese flew over.i got to thinking i have the best office in the world.Hiring help is getting harder all the time most young people last a day or two. I get more done alone. Nobody to bother me.I have one eye thanks to a springpole didnt see it coming.Now that was a bad day but i didnt have to cut off any body parts.That guy is tough.
nothin is worse, when you have help, you notch the tree.. back cut it a little bit, starts to crack, when you turn around after you run about 10 ft, and yell at them.... GET Out Of the Way.
Meanwhile he is standing about 4 ft from the tree ready to drop.
Not shure if he dosnt understand, if that butt comes back, its gunna get ya.. and best case is lay you on your behind, worse its goin to break something or kill you.
I dont like cutting alone, but sometimes Its Hard to find good help! atleast when you are alone.. you dont have to worry where your helper is when you get a hanger.
I would rather work alone.I keep a cell phone in a secure pocket of my overalls.My son used to work with me but bought wood when he had a high paying job.Im 74 now so dont worry much about a tree getting me.I looked over a lot a friend and I had cut in 6 years ago.Roads have grown up.Still plenty of wood in there.
I don't know I could have done that. I probably would have tried chipping away at the road where I was pinned and ruined the blade trapping me indefinitely.
You never know where danger will come from.
I was out working in the woods today alone. I can thank the dozer roll cage I am here to type. A 12" Sugar Maple I wasn't messing with and wasn't dead, broke off at about 20' up and came crashing down on top. The vibrations from the machine and some wind must have come together to break it at some pretty severe sap-sucker damage I hadn't noticed. I might not have survived even with the tractor's roll bar or even the roof of a pick-up (I sit pretty tall). I certainly would have been a goner if I was walking when it hit. I expect dead limbs to be shed from time to time, but not half of a live tree.