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Here's what I take to work everyday, work as a tree climber but we also do some small scale forest work. so figured it was relevant to this thread
Story from yesterday afternoon:
>Called out to clean up a tree that had been blown over in the recent storms
>The map we are sent makes it look like it's a sort of small park by some houses
>Arrive to find a large dead elm has come down in a patch of waste land
>Look at it and wonder who the hell called it in as the whole area is covered in semi/fully split out willows and is a general mess, it's swampy and looks like the water should be 50% weils disease
>Call up the client (a management company who ""maintain"" the area) and explain the location and nature of the tree to them
>We all come to the conclusion that it would be fine just to make sure the tree is fully on the ground so that it couldn't fall onto anyone and we can make habitat piles with the brash
>Bonus, no clear up and we can get the job done quickly and start the weekend asap
>The tree at the moment is almost completely down but is hung up slightly so we carefully drop it the rest of the way so we can start snedding it up
>All going well
>I come to a branch to cut it
>Completely fail to register the tension it's under, bare in mind this is dead elm, it can hold some wild tension
>Start the cut
>The next thing I'm on the floor, a couple of feet from where I was standing feeling like I've been kicked by a horse
>The branch had Road Runner style booby trapped on me, catapulting into my hip and throwing me to the ground
>I spend the rest of the job limping around like I've got a peg leg getting seriously ribbed by my budyd
No bruise today which sucks, but I have a nice lump and am still hobbling. Thank fuck the branches motion was horizontal and not vertical. In my situation it wouldn't have hit my chin if it had moved vertically, but fuck me, if something like that caught you under the chin you wouldn't have a head any more.
