If you lost one arm what would you do?

[GDinMaine]

I was not quite sure where to post this.  Man running a chainsaw, cutting down trees with only one useable arm. Amazing, scary, exemplary, crazy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bKJIAzydUo

[shinnlinger]

I would like to think I would make the best of it like that fella.   I once played against a one armed fella in a lacrosse tournament.   Kinda felt sorry for him so I went easy on him at first but he scored a quick goal and tossed my 6'4" 230 butt on a clear so the gloves came off pretty quick and we had a game!   He was a solid player and his teams high scorer.   His story was he was coming back from a game and the van flipped and took most of his right arm.  Didn't phase him at all and he got right back at it. 

[Ken]

I had surgery on my left arm last week to repair a severed nerve.  Never noticed how many things you need both arms to accomplish.  Certainly not up to running a saw.

[beenthere]

That was a pretty remarkable feat, to saw with one arm that way. Sure makes one appreciate having two.
A good technique for making the notch, sighting it in, and the plunge cut to establish the hinge. A bit high on the first tree (seemed like) and for sure he had a sharper chain on the second tree.

Made good use of his added T-bar and must have some awesome strength in that left arm. Thanks for posting.

[pineywoods]

 8)   8) I certainly admire that guy. That's from the perspective of a wife who has one usable arm and 1 leg only about 10%. Notice he has a couple of attachments to help the situation. We have a few also to help with things that you would not normally think about, example, try tying shoelaces or blow drying hair with one hand. pic of wife tending one of her raised bed flower gardens


 

[tmarch]

Bless her and you, much better than giving up and quitting, altho at times I'm sure it doesn't seem so tho.

[GDinMaine]

Pineywoods, Your wife has my respect.  I sure hope I would not give up, but that requires far more then physical strength.

[boxygen]

There is a guy in the next town over that operates a small commercial sawmill pretty much solo with no hands. He lost them many years ago as a lineman. He has hooks on both arms. He has a woodmizer, a kiln, moulder - all in all a pretty nice small operation. Beats sitting around feeling sorry for yourself collecting disability payments I would guess. I wouldn't want to trade positions with him but I certainly admire his fortitude to make himself a living.

[shinnlinger]

That reminds me there is a local portable sawyer around here who lost most of his fingers and thumbs when he was pulling on a dozer winch to try and free it when the operator pulled in the cable instead of letting it out.  Doesn't seem to slow him down much either.

[pineywoods]

Thanks guys. I will be the first to admit, I married a VERY stubborn gal.Over the years, we have devised solutions or work-arounds for most of the "can't do that with one hand" problems, but there are a few that just defy solutions... HHmmm, there's a bunch of intelligent, innovative guys on this forum, maybe I ought to start a thread....

[redprospector]

My Dad lost his right arm when he was 8 years old. Growing up I saw a lot of amazing things. I can't was not in my vocabulary.
When he was in his 40's his left arm was bigger than my thigh, and my thigh wasn't too small. And he could knock a fella silly with that little stub on the right, and never leave much of a mark. He had a 15000 sq. ft. wood shop when I was growing up, he wouldn't ask anyone to do anything that he couldn't do. Problem was, there wasn't anything he couldn't do.
Thanks for letting me reminisce a little.

[Nemologger]

I used to work with a guy that only had his left arm, other was a hook. He could cut trees as well as any 2 armed guy. He could drive a truck and split the gears without any trouble. Wasn't much he couldn't do.

[Okrafarmer]

I don't let my kids say "I can't." So they start trying to say "I'm not able to." So I don't let them say that either. I tell them to say, "I haven't figured out how yet."

[LeeB]

I don't let my kids say "I can't." So they start trying to say "I'm not able to." So I don't let them say that either. I tell them to say, "I haven't figured out how yet."

"Can't never could, couldn't wouldn't, and ain't has done been sent home." This used to be a pretty popular saying in the oilfield many years ago. We were taught that no was a bad word. Times have changed and much needed safety focus has been introduced. Part of that focus says we will not do it if it's not done safely and I fully agree and support this premiss. Unfortunately all too many of the guys take that to mean we simply can't do things and a lot of the can do attitude has disappeared from the industry. I always try to make the guys understand that we can do, we just have to figure out how.

[Ianab]

That elusive middle ground between "Can't do that" and "Hold my beer and watch this"   :D

[timberlinetree]

It amazing how some people can overcome obstacles! My hat goes off to them! My neighbor has a hook and is always breaking it.

[goose63]

A buddy of mine we call him lefty aint much of any thing he cant do run a back hoe bob cat drive truck helps me with the mill when he needs lumber out work most people with a chain saw and farms 

 

[LeeB]

I've know a few guys in the oilfield that had been through amputaions and got right back in the saddle. One guy had both arms lost. He was a drilling superintendant when I met him. He could out roughneck any of the crew, run the rig better than any of our drillers, and kick your butt for you. :D Worked with one welder that had lost a hand. He had a bunch of different hooks that he had made for himself. DanG good welder. Picking up hot iron didn't phase him. I always got a kcik out of watching him take a grinder to his hook. I always said those guys were outworking the rest of us. They worked short handed all the time. I know, bad humor.

[Leigh Family Farm]

I'd go ask Logboy how he does all that he does. He runs a swing mill with one natural arm and seems to be doing better than most people with two! .

[sawguy21]

I met an 11 year old that lost a leg in a boating accident. All he wanted to do when he got out of hospital was ride his horse, he excitedly told me about a custom saddle being made with a pocket for the stump. I really admired his can do attitude, told him him he would do just fine. He looked me square in the eye and said "I know". It's all in the attitude.

[kjjehnzen]

I can't decide if his set up has substantial kickback risk,  or if he has better leverage than I would, using that add-on brace.

[ozarkgem]

There was a local guy here who fell on his circle mill and got his arm cut off. Not sure how it happened but he made his own hook and didn't slow down.

[pineywoods]

You wouldn't think so, but there is a big difference between  an arm that isn't there and one that's there but unusable. The human body is sometimes a strange creation.

[Okrafarmer]

I have a friend who has two arms that don't work. It was a birth defect. They basically look like the nonusable arm of the guy in the video. There are things that he can't do, but he has learned to work around them. He uses his mouth to do many things, and his feet to do others. He actually earned a black belt in at least one martial art. Probably Karate, I can't remember. He is a fine artist too, and holds the paintbrush with his mouth. One way or another he also uses the computer and internet. I'm not sure just how. But he lives a useful, meaningful life and is a big inspiration to others.

[barbender]

My Grandma lost an arm when she was 9 years old in a car accident. I don't remember her ever saying "I can't". I forgot she was missing an arm most of the time, she was a very capable woman. About the only thing she couldn't do is drive by a casino :D (without going in, she loved gambling).

[pineywoods]

I spent a lot of time around rehab hospitals with the wife. Some of the things you see are amazing. We saw one little old lady who could tie her shoe laces in a perfect double bow, with only one hand. She would draw a crowd demonstrating...I have trouble using 2 hands  :

[JohnM]

I'd go ask Logboy how he does all that he does. He runs a swing mill with one natural arm and seems to be doing better than most people with two! .

That was my first thought as well Kil.

There's a guy that lives in the area (or did last I knew) and he was missing both arms at the shoulder.  Can't imagine he's still doing it but when I was in high school he was a soccer referee.  Did everything with his feet, take his whistle in and out of his mouth, reach in his pocket for yellow/red cards (that's the extent of my soccer knowledge :D) and he drove a big old Suburban (not sure it was modify in any way but don't think so).  He had/has amazing balance.  I'm always impressed with people that do more than most with 'less'.

[barbender]

I also know a gal that was born with no arms, and only one leg. She raised 5 kids, no doubt her husband is a one of a kind as well, as he did a lot to make life easier for her.  She also has the most beautiful "hand" writing you've ever seen, she writes with her foot and does calligraphy.  On a lighter and more practical note, a neighbor is missing an arm, and another fellow in town is missing the opposite arm. They take turns buying gloves :D

[starbits]

I saw a video once of a guy born without arms shooting a pistol with his feet.  I thought that was interesting.  Then he popped out the magazine, put the gun down, grabbed a box of bullets and reloaded the magazine with his toes, put the magazine back in the pistol, chambered a round and continued shooting.  I was blown away.  It is amazing what the human body can do with the right incentive and lots of patients and persistence.

Starbits

[redprospector]

I also know a gal that was born with no arms, and only one leg. She raised 5 kids, no doubt her husband is a one of a kind as well, as he did a lot to make life easier for her.  She also has the most beautiful "hand" writing you've ever seen, she writes with her foot and does calligraphy.  On a lighter and more practical note, a neighbor is missing an arm, and another fellow in town is missing the opposite arm. They take turns buying gloves :D

Haha. Taking turns buying gloves made me laugh. My Dad was missing his right arm, which is the glove I always wore out first. He would just take my left gloves. I asked him once if he wanted to buy some gloves? He said no, I have plenty.  :D

[sawdusty1]

Sometimes when I go fishing there is a elderly lady with one arm fishing off the bank by the boat landing where I put my boat in.  She puts the cricket between her toes and hooks it.  I always give her all the fish I catch.

[barbender]

I often forgot that my grandma was missing an arm, because she really wasn't limiter in her abilities. I remember as a kid, I liked riding with her on trips because she was the best driver. She drove a bit aggressively but confidently, you felt like you were in good hands, or hand as it was. She really was something. I remember when I was trucking, hauling wood, I would see grandma at the gas station early in the morning. She had taken a job driving for the state, working for social services bringing people to Dr's appointments and such. She would ask me where I was hauling, I'd ask her the same People would look at us funny, she was an Ojibwe woman, maybe 5' tall, I don't look Indian at all, and I am 6'6" and 275. They couldn't figure out how she was my grandma, I don't think :

[BargeMonkey]

 I worked with an ex-fisherman from MA who still had both hands, but was missing about 2.5 fingers from each hand. He would buy new gloves, sit down in the galley and cut the fingers to length and sow the gloves back up. It was creepy,he looked like the penguin from the batman movies out chewing on a cigar on the barge.

[Paul_H]

We had a guy run our hyd log loader that lost his leg at the hip in a logging accident several years before.He was caught in the haulback drum while spooling line.

Good logger and a good loaderman.