Stupid mistakes you've made doing tree work

[Steve Bullman]

May be my age but lately I have done some silly little things and been fortunate enough to get away with them.

Just 2 days ago I was rigging an Ash tree.  Nothing too major.  wrapped an x-ring a couple times round the stem to rig off and proceeded to rig a few bits....then I noticed that although I had wrapped around the trunk I had not actually fed the xring through the eye on the other end of the sling to choke it.  Essentially all that was holding it in place was a small bite, thankfully I had not been rigging anything bigger.

What silly mistakes have you made and got away with lately?

[Stubby]

Pulling my boots on in the morning ........

[Steve Bullman]

2 minutes ago, Stubby said:

Pulling my boots on in the morning ........

Done that a few times lately also

 

[Tree Man Tom]

Getting distracted by abit of stuff walking past and putting your spikes on the wrong way. 

[felixthelogchopper]

2 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

Done that a few times lately also

 

Thinking I might go up in a MEWP was another one.

[Steve Bullman]

1 minute ago, felixthelogchopper said:

Thinking I might go up in a MEWP was another one.

Yep!!!

[Mick Dempsey]

Spiking up a tree with a flip line and forgetting my climbing line.

[stihlmadasever]

Not really lately but awhile back,start of the year i was rigging down a poplar,had my block set up,anchored in etc and i was taking quite a sizeable chunk of a lateral.As the chunk dropped i realised the rigging rope was running against my rope.

Shit myself but i got off with it cause i pulled my lanyard tighter to take the strain off my mainline.Could easily have burned through my mainline if it was a heaver chunk of wood and run for couple of seconds longer..

 

Still cant quite understand how it happened.Ive noticed all the little near misses ive had are in the afternoon later in the week- tiredness is a major factor

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

 
.Ive noticed all the little near misses ive had are in the afternoon later in the week- tiredness is a major factor

The 14:00 factor!

Definitely something to keep an eye on!

[the village idiot]

Last week I spent a couple of minutes yanking on a hazel branch that hung itself up in an Oak. I walked away admitting defeat, only to turn around to see my apprentice sprint towards it and dive (superman style) into the offending stick.

 

He successfully freed the hazel but the landing was somewhat less impressive than the dive. He came down on a freshly cut hazel stool, bruising several ribs. Thankfully I cut my stools flat so we had a painful laugh rather than a punctured lung to contend with!