One of the Many Stupid Things I've Done

Last year i was pulling out some Trees of Heaven, nasty things, grows like weeds and are shallow rooted. Pretty easy to yank out.
So anyway, I hooked up a 25 foot chain to a tree that was approx. 30 ft high....maybe you can see where this is going. As i"m pulling it out and looking back, I can see this tree is coming down on me. So I naturally speed up the tractor to get out of its way which of course only speeds up the falling of the tree.
Fortunately, it hits the fender instead of my head.
Any one else want to share?

Chuck

some people are naturally not that smart,like the fella that was cutting of a ceiling beam 20' up high with a chain saw in a church demolition while he was standing on it.

needless to say he did not need the ladder to come down.Amazingly he did'nt get hurt(that! time at least)

You might want to use a match to check the gas in that tank too.

There are soooo many ,it will take a day or two to add them up.

I'm in !

Beginning of this month, my long time friend/dairyman, was hospitalized, he needed me to show the spray applicator guy all the fields, in a rush, thinking he was on the hourly clock or some darned thing, I jump in my little car, and head out to the fields across the state road and up a secondary road, to where we used the edge of the oat field to get to the corn, 2 tracks, oats in the middle. In that middle aisle of oats was a nice round rock, bent the sway bar, cross brace, separated the exhaust at the flange, and cause I figured if I backed up it would catch or do more damage, I went forward and put a basket ball size dent in the gas tank, the gauge went from less than 1/2 to overfull !!! I figure at least $500 damage and I could have just taken his truck, thing is when he's not there, I just don't like touching anything unless he knows, just the way I am. It's no problem to borrow a tractor or use the truck, he knows I'm careful, etc., just I don't like doing it unless he knows 1st, which is always the case cause he's there. I had to take the 3/4 chevy and go back to the same fields and in about the same spot a brake line or wheel cylinder ruptured, lost the fluid and the rear brakes, but at least I finished out the day.


That thing with pulling trees over, it's hard to judge the actual height and any extra it will travel, next time I'm sure you'll use more chain !

I have given this some thought in the last couple of years. Decided I would need a pretty large database program, with fields for such things as:
Drunk Sober Naked Clothed Hornyy Sexx Vehicles involved, hospitals .... and so on, and on. And of course all the interactions of the above. I have some great bar stories, but I don't go to bars anymore, so that is pretty much worthless. I decided against any recordkeeping, as it has hazards and is too darn depressing. Seriously, don't want to dwell on it.....

How many times have we been told "don't pull stumps with a tractor and a chain"? I have many times, but of course being stubborn and stupid (more of one than the other) I tried it anyway. Fortunatly for me I only stood the Ford 3000 straight up, but not over backwards. Fast forward to last year after the hurricane took out many of our mature trees. I tell the wife I'm going out to get the tractor and a chain and yank out that tree stump by the barn. She asks if I recall what happened the last time, I say sure but I have a plan this time.
I pulled up to it forward, wrapped the chain around it and under the tractor and wrapped the rear axle. Several tugs and it started to pull out. So I pull forward several feet, get a running start and out pops the stump. Only problem was, it was about 3 feet tall and when it came out it flipped and crashed into the front of the tractor. But hey, 50 bucks to fix a radiator and a bit of bent sheet metal is better than being dead I suppose.
I still have several stumps but I've been burning them out one by one, takes a lot longer but so far it's been a lot safer!

I dropped a tree on my wifes Mazda. I moved my truck, but thought hers was a safe distance. Not realizing that the top of this tree had somewhere in the past broken off, so the very top was 4 inches in diameter. It crushed the hatchback.

I once brought home a neon sign transformer from school.Trying to see what I could do with it. Hooked two bailing wire leads to the output side. Plugged it in. The leads fell over hit the screen on the back porch blew a hole through it. Then they hit the floor and shorted together. Burned a hole through the floor before the fuse blew in the house. Mom came out through all the smoke,then beat my butt for scaring her. Dad got home and beat my butt for being stupid. Ended up with extra chores to pay for the damage. But I did find out what it could do.

Well not to much harm done, but one night I was backing up my tractor and baler toward my garage, looking over my right shoulder, I dident realize the baler tire had rubbed the left fender of my wifes suv,, I never realized it was that close. Well I rubbed the plastic on her car with my sleeve to try to remove the black scrapes to no avail. The plastic had been scratched. Well wouldent you know it 2 days later she seen it, she figured someone did it at the shopping center, I dident have the heart to tell her it was me.

Always a good idea to measure the height of the tree and get the appropriate length of chain..
and you don't have to climb it with a tape measure.. use the sun.

Noticed another entry on here with a chain attached to a tree.. wonder how he fared.

Common sense comes much cheaper.

More than I can even begin to tell..... Should have been dead a long time ago...

However, to relate to yours, there is 15 feet between our stall and the chainlink seperating ours and neighbor's yard that had an old (and dead)cherry tree in the middle. I cut the sticky out stuff then cut the trunk almost through, cut a notch in the direction I wanted (me and Ray Stevens used to be loggers down at the barber shop) then hooked a cable to the top and to the tractor. Was by myself so got out the slack then cut it almost to the point of falling, set the saw in a safe place up next to the fence and jumped on the tractor to help it fall the right way. It went right, just not correct. Right across the neighbor's fence and right on top of my new Stihl chainsaw and thankfully right beside his greenhouse.
Does that qualify???

Dave

No you didn't want to sleep with the dogs.