Stupid mistakes you've made doing tree work

[TIMON]

Cut through the working end of my main line, (nearly new tachyon) while working my way up de-limbing a single stem leylandi. I always tie in twice, but this time rather than having my lines waist high and cutting above, I ignored that ‘still small voice’ in my head and put my line in above where I was cutting. Like I said, I always tie in twice, I’d probably be posting this from a hospital bed otherwise.
I would say this mistake definitely qualifies as ‘stupid’ [emoji31]

[TIMON]

Good old hedge reduction bank account destruction. Done it at least twice. Easily done and though I'm new to tree work I've done 100s of hedge jobs. 
 
On my own mistakes.... The list is endless up until my 30's, ....with a gradual reduction. I fear, now going slowly into tree work, the graph is going to spike quite badly. 
 
 
 

You know the saying... “the worse a tree surgeon , the better you get at fence repairs.”

It’s when you have to learn how to (re) build conservatory’s you know its time to jack it in....

[forestboy1978]

2 minutes ago, TIMON said:

 

You know the saying... “the worse a tree surgeon , the better you get at fence repairs.”

It’s when you have to learn how to (re) build conservatory’s you know its time to jack it in....

 

We shall see...

[Alex O]

Mistake I made was doing tree work for the last 18yrs [emoji849]. Should of paid more attention at school

[Billhook]

I once put a new 700mm circular saw blade on my Palax.  It had 60 tungsten teeth.   I had moved it to another place in the yard and the chap who was helping me had a degree or two but like many academics was not very practical

I told him to start processing some straight lengths of Ash while I went off with the forking lift to collect some more.

I came back with a load to discover that he had not processed anything but there was a cloud of smoke coming from the machine where he was forcing the log onto the blade.  

"Its not cutting" he says stating the obvious.

The three phase power point had the wires in a different order and the saw blade was running backwards,  By forcing the wood onto the blade he managed to remove nearly all of the 60 teeth!  And yet he was still standing there trying to force the log onto a toothless blade with the log beginning to catch fire!

My stupidity for not checking the rotation beforehand I suppose but you would have thought that anyone with an ounce of sense would have realised the problem straight away.

The blade cost nearly £250 and I think to re tooth it would cost more.

[Doobop]

I was cleaning around a big Scots to fell and there was a bit of hazel under pressure. I knew in my head what was going to happen but I still continued... I cut it off and BANG!! It sprung up hit me right on the chin and literally sat me on my Ar**

[stihlmadasever]

Funny this has come up today as i ucliped my mainline to move anchor,noved anchor,didnt reattatch the zigzag to my bridge ring,was about to unclip my lanyard and sit back when i noticed...

Done this a few times...

Still makes me angry at myself...

Dick!

[Steve Bullman]

13 minutes ago, stihlmadasever said:

Funny this has come up today as i ucliped my mainline to move anchor,noved anchor,didnt reattatch the zigzag to my bridge ring,was about to unclip my lanyard and sit back when i noticed...

Done this a few times...

Still makes me angry at myself...

Dick!

The fact you are still double checking before unclipping can only be a good sign 

[jackrs1]

Was stump grinding a row of conifer stumps next to a greenhouse... had the guards round the machine the whole time and there was no problem.Until I was finished grinding and giving it a final rake over to level the soil I decided to chuck the bucket I was using to take away lose roots next to the green house and It rolled right through it .... all that work avoiding it for nothing haha !!

[Billhook]

Some years ago I went back to collect our fully loaded Land Rover in the woods after dark with my dear brother.  The Landy is a six wheel drive V8 with a tipping IW body which holds a couple of tons of timber.

Rule number one is that it is probably best not to venture down a rutted narrow track in the woods in the dark after some heavy rain.

Anyway the inevitable happened and we slid off to the side and with all six wheels spinning were not up to our axles but just slippery stuck.

Told my brother to take the winch line from the front into a bunch of thorny scrub where we could just make out the trunk of a substantial Ash about a couple of feet in diameter with the dim headlights

Rule number two is do not forget to take a torch in these circumstances

Anyway he fixed the line around the tree and I started the electric winch again with all wheels spinning

The winch line came in but the Land Rover did not move.

Suddenly out of the thorny scrub in the dim headlights appeared the whole tree trunk complete with enough root ball for it to remain upright.  It was of course rotten and only about fifteen feet of the trunk was left but the bark was still on and it looked ok at waist level!

We walked home laughing and went down to the pub

Next day went back with a tractor and realised that if the tree had been its original height we might have pulled it over to crash down on the Landy cab.  I think it had been dead for some time and lost the top in a Winter storm and the ground being so wet meant the root ball came out easily.