iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

People Please

Started by timber tramp, January 25, 2009, 09:23:55 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

timber tramp

 Be cautious when falling timber. Every tree you fall has the potential to END your life. If you've got a tree to remove and you're unsure about it, leave it and get someone more knowledgable to help. Take a class, read books on timber falling, surf the net for information, talk to loggers you know, whatever, just please be careful 
  This is one of those things where you only get one chance to do it right, so please do everything you can to stack the odds in your favor. I don't mean to rant I'd just hate to read on here about anyone being hurt or killed.  :)       TT
Cause every good story needs a villan!

Tom

That's right, Timber Tramp.  It's also important to remember that Every tree you fall has the potential to END someone else's life too.  That's something to remember, regardless of how much experience and education one gets.

You must always be aware of anyone in the vicinity of the falling tree.  People and animals, not understanding what is happening can walk beneath the tree and to their death.  Living with those images would make for a miserable life.

beenthere

Quote...leave it and get someone more knowledgable to help

I know you mean well, but this advice sounds a bit like the advice often handed out about tornado safety...." seek a safe place ".   ::) ::) ::)

How does TT go about finding the more knowledgable person?  I'm interested in hearing how.  :)

I have seen absolute greenhorns in the woods who are DanG sure they know how to fall a tree. So, when do we have enough knowledge to be unsure, and seek someone else to help?

I hear what you are saying, but want to know how you apply it.
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

LeeB

How right you are on the other people also point Tom. Just a couple of weeks ago I was dropping some small stuff that the donkey had gnawwed to death. My son Paul had been helping me by picking up the slash ang taking it to the burn pile. I checked where he was before starting the felling cut and he was well clear. In just a blink of an eye he had moved from there to inside the fall area just as the tree was falling. We were fortunate that he wasn't hit and only had a bad smell in his britches. I think we both learned a little something on that one.
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

Raphael

Quote from: Tom on January 25, 2009, 12:44:02 PM
  People and animals, not understanding what is happening can walk beneath the tree and to their death.

Amen...  I learned pretty early on to leave the dogs at home when limbing standing trees or felling.
Closest I've ever come to being crushed happened when I took my attention away from the tree (and wind) to shout at my cousin's dog.

Also be sure to check all the trees around you for widow makers, even those the tree you are felling can't possibly come into contact with (double check your escape routes).  Some of them can be like avalanches, just waiting for a little excess sound vibration to kick them loose.
... he was middle aged,
and the truth hit him like a man with no parachute.
--Godley & Creme

Stihl 066, MS 362 C-M & 24+ feet of Logosol M7 mill

timber tramp

>>You must always be aware of anyone in the vicinity of the falling tree.  People and animals, not understanding what is happening can walk beneath the tree and to their death.

Very valid points Tom. :)

>>How does TT go about finding the more knowledgable person?  I'm interested in hearing how.

  Just meant another persons perspective can be helpful. Sorry if I was a bit unclear. :) Most of the fallers I know will offer advice to new guys or casual wood cutters if asked, I 'spose it's the "if asked" part that's the problem. ;)


Cause every good story needs a villan!

DanG

Quote from: beenthere on January 25, 2009, 02:23:44 PM
So, when do we have enough knowledge to be unsure, and seek someone else to help?



Perhaps when some thoughtful soul bothers to post a reminder?  Or perhaps it is when someone who knows the dangers comes along and warns you that you're about to smush yourself.  Maybe it is when someone reads a board like this and learns for the first time that it is ok to be afraid of a falling tree.  I can't tell you how many times I've run across old ignorant rednecks that laugh at others for being cautious, or ridicule them for not knowing something.  I think it is a good thing to inform the uninitiated that they might be doing something dangerous.
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

zopi

Yeah..had one go the exact opposite direction on me awhile back...be careful..
Got Wood?
LT-15G GO chassis added.
WM sharpener and setter
And lots of junk.

The-Burl-Hunter

very good information, very true

bmill

  If you've been doing this for a long time, this post won't help you. If you're relatively new to chainsaws and cutting, it might be of some help. I've been "out in the woods" cutting for 2 years now and can tell you my lessons learned.

1. Get safety glasses, hearing protection, a hardhat, and buy the safety leggings.
2. If you are tired or in a hurry, put the chainsaw away and go for a walk.  Being in a hurry with a chainsaw is no place for an amateur to be! Probably a pro too, but I can't speak for them since I'm an amateur.
3. Look up, Look up, and then look up again to see what's going to fall when you cut.
4. If the trunk has rot in it, you'd better know what you're doing. Translated: you probably shouldn't touch it.
5. There are a lot of resources on the web for tree felling; read them. I fly military planes for a living and consider my time with a chainsaw as my "most likely to die" environment.
6. Never take kids out when you are felling trees. Never.
7. In my opinion, limbing out a big tree that you just cut down (i.e. a Burr Oak) is just as dangerous, if not more so, than the dropping of it in the first place.
8. If the ground around the tree is unstable, find something else to do. Ice and mud around where you are sawing is a ticket to a disaster.
9. See number one, get proper safety gear.
10. See number two, don't be in a hurry.


My top ten list for chainsaw safety. It is by no means all inclusive, just a compilation of what i've learned these past two years.
1 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 13 - 21 - 34 - 55 - 89 - 144 - 233 - 377 - 610 - 987 - 1597 - 2584    Kubota L3400, Loader, Backhoe, 3 point tiller, Stihl MS 390, Very hard working wife!

Frickman

bmill has a good list there. Point #3 is good, look up. Just don't ever, ever look up after you have started cutting on the tree. That's a good way to get a faceful of wood. If you have to look up, back away and look up. You should have you felling plan in place before you start cutting.
If you're not broke down once in a while, you're not working hard enough

I'm not a hillbilly. I'm an "Appalachian American"

Retired  Conventional hand-felling logging operation with cable skidder and forwarder, Frick 01 handset sawmill

Pretend farmer when I have the time

ely

i sawed down a small cedar tree on my dog when i first got him. he was apparently ignorant of the goings on with a chainsaw. as i know i was ingnorant of the dangers of a dog while felling trees.
anyway he learned real fast when the chainsaw starts he should be quite aways back, he is my best log dog now.

my kids always go with me in the woods, and we have rules that we go by, they always stay on the atv and well back while i fell trees. my children are different than most, in that they understand if we do not follow these rules we could die at any moment.

imo, if you know your kids are watching you, it will keep you from cutting corners on safety, it keeps me focused on being a good example.

bmill

 Great point on being safer when the kids are around. My son is 23 and I still do things "right" when he is around.
1 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 13 - 21 - 34 - 55 - 89 - 144 - 233 - 377 - 610 - 987 - 1597 - 2584    Kubota L3400, Loader, Backhoe, 3 point tiller, Stihl MS 390, Very hard working wife!

CLL

I remember years ago I was cutting a 16" sycamore that was leaning the way I wanted it to go, notched it, and when I went around to cut it, wife and kids had put chairs across creek to watch me. Even though they was away from the lean I made them move farther back. The wife griped and left her folding chair to prove her point. When I made the cut the tree went over about 15 degrees and a big gust of wind caught it, stood it straight up, twisted and fell on the chair. Thats how easy it is to get killed.
Too much work-not enough pay.

fishpharmer

Thanks for the warnings and advice.  From an not so old ignorant redneck that has enough knowledge to be dangerous.   Always kinda think of myself as big tuff guy, throw calves around on a regular basis.

But cutting any tree that weighs more than me (most trees) gets my utmost respect.


Built my own band mill with the help of Forestry Forum. 
Lucas 618 with 50" slabber
WoodmizerLT-40 Super Hydraulic
Deere 5065E mfwd w/553 loader

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work. --Tom A. Edison

Thank You Sponsors!