Well, I survived. A few observations. My idea of light cutting and the manufacturer of the pole saw attachment to my weed eater idea of light cutting are not the same. I figure that cutting down the entire tree is heavy cutting-everything else is light-apparently not. Anyway I decide to trim one of my live oaks-this leads to me taking out three branches, a pair of 9" diameter and one 7" diameter. I've got a 10 foot ladder and I'm on the second to the top rung (one above the death rung they tell you not to go above-but hey if they really meant that they wouldn't have put that rung in right?). I've got a weed whacker with a pole saw attachment and an extension that I'm holding at about a 30 degree angle to reach the branches. (Wife is down on the ground and says try to make a clean cut closer to the trunk ) After I decide not to throw the saw at her I get to cutting. Actually I got the 7" and the first 9" down fairly easy-but my forearms are on fire by now. Do you know how heavy a weed whacker with an extension and an 8" pole saw at the end is? I go to tackle the last 9" and that one got me-it was about a foot higher than the last one and let me tell you that makes all the difference in the world. I get that sucker down and proceed to cut them up into manageable pieces for the wife to haul to the front and I literally blew out the head of the pole saw. I stripped out whatever gear runs the sproket of the saw head. And I'm mad because I've got 5 more cuts to make on the last branch Thankfully my neighbor had a saw that I used to finish up. But I'll tell you what-that little pole saw is going back to Lowes. Light cutting indeed! Damn saw couldn't hold up to an afternoon of bucking 9" live oak branches
In retrospect, maybe I should just consider myself lucky to have survived an afternoon of standing on top of a ladder with a pole saw at full extension and then bucking wood for 4 hours. Who says lawyers are worthless

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Forum consigliere

I thought you had minions 😁

Caj, you take the cake. Tellin' ya.

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Halfway and one more step

Hmmmm...Sounds like you have the makings for scene two of that commercial about the fellow cutting branches and falling onto his neighbors car.


WuzzFuzz

I have a Echo pole trimmer with a extension, total length of about 11' 8". Awkward to say the least when standing on the ground, I can't imagine doing that on a ladder. It is a remarkable machine though. I like the Stihl version better, and it is nearly two feet longer, but also nearly twice the money.

One of my minions is in Europe, one is working in BR and one is in New Orleans at the St. Patricks day P'rade-My other minion was on the ground picking up-the saw was too heavy for her and she is too short unless she stands on the very top of the ladder and she wouldn't do that-go figure.

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Forum consigliere

Caj, here is what you need "Craftsman 14 ft. Tree Pruner " been using mine for 20 years.

No electricity.

You probably still listen to your Electric Prunes albums.

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Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

I just recently ruptured a biceps tendon where it attaches to the forearm. I did mine in a novel way, but the orthopedic surgeon told me that one of the favorite ways to accomplish this destruction is with a pole saw. The load is so "out there" on a lever arm that it is a formidable force multiplier on the stress. Now, after three surgeries, I may be able to begin strength training on my repaired biceps by, oh, September.

Be CAREFUL with pole saws! If you stand too far out, the leverage will kill you. If you stand too close, the limb will kill you.

You are lucky. I drove down to Red Wing yesterday to visit my buddy who was on the top rung of a 10-foot ladder working on a furnace at work. The ladder came down and he got his ankles all wadded up in it. Didn't break anything, but both ankles are swole up and he is at home staying off his feet. He is 67.

The comp doc told him he was good to go for work and gave him some Tylenol. I told him he needed to see his own doc and to get some opium-based painkillers.

Ladders are for 30-year-olds. I try to stay off them.

p.s. Remind me never to loan you any of my tools.

Ah, memories.

In late summer of 1988 a huge branch on a eucalyptus tree that is my responsibility cracked and fell against the second story of a house that is also my responsibility. And there it lodged.

After carefully -- I thought -- doping out the situation and determining a trim order for pieces of the branch to reduce it safely, I leaned an extension ladder up against the house and went to work with a chain saw. I dropped three or four large pieces successfully when -- shock! -- the entire rest of the branch slipped and pushed me, along with the running saw, off the side of the ladder.

I had the presence of mind to toss the chain saw while I was on the way down -- I certainly didn't want to land on it -- but I didn't have the presence of mind to think, "Hit the ground rolling." So I hit the ground vertically with stiff legs like every bad paratrooper landing you have ever heard of. And with the predictable consequences. Oddly enough the long bones mostly stayed together, but my right heel bone was reduced to gravel. I did end up with a short crack in the upper end of my left tibia. When the doctor figured out what was wrong, he cast the one leg to immobilize the knee and said there was no point in trying to do anything about the heel. Since all the pieces were still in alignment as a result of all the tendons and sinews attached there, he just told me not to walk on it until it stopped hurting, at which point I could resume careful -- he emphasized "careful" -- use.

Earlier that year my wife and I had been on a marlin fishing day trip during a camping vacation at Cabo San Lucas. In rough seas she went down a companionway and shattered her ankle. The next 24 hours were pretty dramatic, but I got her back to California and into a US hospital and went back for my truck and camping gear, which I had left on a beach with some friends and relatives. Then it was a power drive back from the Cape. This didn't spoil our appetite for Mexico, but 1988 became enshrined in family lore as the year we broke 75% of our legs.

Somehow we just never made it back down there. Maybe that's not a tragedy. I have looked at the area on Google Earth, and it is overbuilt and unrecognizable compared to what we used to enjoy there.

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David Wilson

Congratulations on surviving St. Paddy's day Caj! Next time hire it done!

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Even older, even crankier....

I hear real men don't need a saw - they use an ax.

But then I really don't get out very much...so that could be wrong.


Pete

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Don't tread on me

The last time I trimmed trees involved detcord. No strain. No pain.

ECS

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

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CPT, Armor (Ret)
Luke 22:36

Caj; When I worked for the phone company I trimmed a lot of trees. Always with a Fanno saw on 6 ft. extensions you clipped together to reach the limb. We had armstrong power then. Sure as Hell a branch would come down & either hit you or go thru the neighbors window.

A few years back I was visiting family in Georgia. My cousin who was probably in kindergarten came running into the living room screaming for help. She was saying "the man's gunna fall!".

My brother and I followed her to the window where she pointed to the guy across the street who was pruning two trees that grew out over his driveway, one on each side. The branches intertwined in the middle.

He had a 24' extension ladder that was fully closed leaning against a branch. He was standing maybe 9' off the ground. There were a few branches around that he had cut with a handsaw, and he was going to town on one thicker branch maybe 6" wide.

The problem.... Yep. He was cutting the branch his ladder was leaning against... and he was cutting on the wrong side of the ladder.

We ran over and yelled for him to stop.... Boy was he flustered when we pointed out what he was doing. He got confused up on the ladder and thought the branch was growing out of the other tree.

Let me remind you that my cousin was only 5 or 6.

My brother and I still reference "pruning like a Georgia boy"

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- The Federalist #46 -

It is much cheaper in the long run to pay a professional tree trimmer than it is to pay a professional orthopaedic surgeon. Now, get back up that ladder and paint those bare spots where the limbs used to be. Also, remember: Lawyer=$200 hour. Tree trimmer=probably a lot less.

Cajun- I took one look at the title and I thought this was going to be an Allstate commercial! Seriously, you would be amazed how many men get hurt every year trimming a tree. I have a polesaw attachment as well and know your pain. Now for the good news- you, hopefully, won't do that again! Remember you aren't 19 anymore! We don't want anything to happen to you as you provide us with some very interesting thread topics!!! BTW- remember you are a lawyer and NOT my lawyer and not a stuntman as well. Be careful out there and go self medicate with some liquid beverages.

No, that really was Caj in that commercial.

He was just waiting for the royalties check to clear before he told the story.

When I read the title of your post, the first thought that went through my mind was "Darwin Awards"! You survived relatively unscathed, sounds like. I wouldn't put my self in that kind of situation, & I'll be honest & say it wouldn't be due to intelligence. I have just enough awareness in this worn out thing called a brain that I listen when the alarm bells go off. Past memories & such. I'm better off without a portable device with steel teeth in my hands. And ladders? Just not a good idea for me.

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Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire

I'm glad you are ok. Last summer a cowboy shooting friend of mine retired at age 60. About 2 weeks into his retirement he decided he needed to trim a few branches that were getting close to his garage.

His wife begged him to hire someone to do the work. He was always a little stubborn and didn't listen. His wife was standing there and watched him fall to his death.

He was only 60 and only 2 weeks into his retirement...........

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Big Fred

Well, I just came in from viewing my handiwork. I looked at the height of the cut branches and then looked at the ladder underneath together with the size of the now logs lying under the tree and thought ARE YOU %&^$# CRAZY!!!!! Think I dodged a bullet yesterday

But it does look nice Think I'll wait until a hurricane blows something over before I crank up a chain saw again-my forearms are still on fire and I hurt in places I have not hurt in years. I sure hope my wife doesn't hurt herself getting all that wood stacked up.

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Forum consigliere

apparently the only thing that saved you was not asking anyone to hold your beer.

Can't you get a deal on prisoner labor?

I'm 63 next month. Last fall (Sept-Oct) we decided to remove an aspen (30' tall with another 15-18' tall sucker). My nephew the fireman came over and said "No way". We had already started to piecemeal the tree ourselves. Well, we continued with an 18" chainsaw and a 10" pole saw (electric). Took us several weeks to "whittle it down to size". At one point, the wife was sawing with the pole saw while I pulled the limb to one side (with a rope) to avoid the phone line.

We dropped everything where we wanted (well, at least we missed everything we wanted to). We left about 6 feet of the trunks up to provide bee houses for solitary bees.

I hope we killed the roots. We used 100% Round-up, heavy duty Spectricide, girded the trunks, drilled holes into the heartwood and added chemicals (and Holy Water), drove a hawthorne stake into the heart, hung garlic on it, cut as many roots as possible, and dosed it with paint thinner. It's either playing dead or I might have killed it.

Chipped the smaller branches and twigs into mulch and bucked the larger pieces into firewood. Found out a month later, the wood smoke irritates my wife's sinuses (back to man-made logs!).

Anybody want abhout 1 1/2 to 1 cord of aspen wood-free for pick-up?

Well, the nice thing about retirement is I can play "site supervisor" and pay someone else to put his life and "limb" on the line when I need that kind of work done. Who says retirement sucks, and what about those lawyers....you know what they say?

Keep your old self off of those ladders! At your age (well our age) you don't heal so fast. Those extra rungs are there so you can hold on to something or lean on the ladder for a little stability. If you needed to stand on that particular rung you needed a 12 foot ladder, and those are a pain to store, move, and only a circus acrobat should be on them. Looking back on a 32 year career in safety; some of the worst injuries were falls from ladders. Most were from a lot lower height than where you were working.

Sounds like you have cheated death. Be careful of doing this because, eventually death will cheat you. 9" limbs are not "light" cutting. So, who WAS holding your beer? If you need trees trimmed, and aren't finicky, there are plenty of saw hacks ready to whack away. If you love your trees, look under "arborists".

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

Ah Caj,

Stop yur bellyachin'...........There's worse places to be,

Like being up **** creek without a paddle!



.

Everyday, Is One Day Closer

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

Not a whole lot less. I think I paid $2900 for two climbers and a ground man for 4 days. If had bid it by the tree it probably would have been $6000.

I have about 10 years on Caj and I would say that it was between his age and mine that I decided ladders and chainsaws had best be left to the pros. I still use a chainsaw on the ground.

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Luke 22:36

He's starting to whine a lot, isn't he?

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

I have promised my wife I will toss all my ladders on my 60th BD in 2 years but I'm keeping my chainsaws.
Mark

I thought that ladders and bicycles served mainly to push firearms accidents down to the bottom of the list. What's the point of taking up a safe hobby like guns if you're you're going to keep your ladders and bicycles?

Been there-I now have a very reliable tree trimmer, who employs a troupe of sinewy young men that are made out of rubber.

....and are fluent in spanish

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Forum consigliere

Next weekend i am helping my buddy who has a 110 acre farm.
Yep, we are trimming trees. Around his farmable fields of corn
and soybeans about once every 3 years he has to go around the
edges and trim back trees that have grown out over the fields.
He built a "safety cage" that attaches to the bucket of his backhoe
so someone drives the backhoe and someone climbs into the cage
of death, (Me) to do the chainsaw work. I will be sore for a week
afterwards and just hope no big limbs i cut come back at me.
I'm a spry 52 years old so i'll survive. Love getting to cut with my
Stihl saw but i do prefer to do my cutting on the ground.
Glad you cheated death Caj. Next time find a true Pole Saw like
the one made by Stihl and stay on the ground .

Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

Do you ever wonder why the fifty something's were having us do the hairy stuff when we were young,but now that we are the fifty something's we are still doing the hairy stuff?

57 year old on top of a ladder with a pole saw...

Well, I guess you are way too young to have learned this so I'll give you a hint on something that you could learn the hard way...

Sometimes it's cheaper to hire brains than it is to own them!

Bob

I remember when I hired an arborist back in '99 to trim my 2 huge water oaks. He had a crew of about 6 or 7. He told me that "They may not look like much, but everyone of them has a college education and everyone of them drives a new truck." They went up and down in those trees like monkeys. When they were through, the trees were gorgeous and fertilized. Then that winter, the big ice storm destroyed it all.

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

Now at age 73, I will not even venture on a 3 step kitchen stool! That is what sons-in-law and grand sons-in-law are for! I cheated death by falling off two ladders, one in the yard while trimming trees and one in the kitchen while stripping wallpaper. Both were my fault as I decided to get a little fortified with some of the good stuff before climbing the ladders!

medxam

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Doc Garrett
Dead Man's Doctor

I have a long history of near death experiences cutting trees. Far and away the best one was upriver about 1975. The boat harbor owner needed to go to a lumber yard and asked me if I'd go along. Sure. We got the wood we wanted and there by the one outdoor shed was a trash barrel. I saw an electric cord hanging out and looked inside. It was an electric chain saw. Lets call it a trimming saw. So no one was around and it was a trash barrel. So I hauled it out and we took it with us. When we got back and plugged it in, I discovered why it was in the garbage. The switch sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. OK, it was good, you just had to get on the trigger until you heard noise.

Well, we had some high water from rains. Boat harbors on the river don't just sit. When the water goes up you haul it in toward shore. As the water goes down, you let the thing back out into the river. This one time the trees near the front of the harbor had grown enough we couldn't get boats between the shore and the docks. So one of the captive monkeys, aka harbor boys, decided he could climb out and cut them back. High water and all. Remember the electric part of the chain saw?

Ok, well Duayne was pretty agile. He managed to run extension cords from the barge up on the bank, then out to the tree. Yes, he used a ladder to get up on the one most substantial limb. Then using another higher but parallel branch. And away he went, cutting when the saw wanted to, grumbling when it wouldn't. To his credit, he was out there for a fair amount of time, like over an hour. And as he cut each branch it would fall into the water and come downstream. The on lookers would then either use a pole to push it under the gangway, or drag it up and over. Releasing it to the downstream Gods.

So Duayne was about finished. He'd been getting some catcalls from the bar area, telling him to stop while he was ahead. He even started cutting the branch he was standing on, on the outside. Of course we called him everything in the book, but mostly stupid. He had the power cord tied to the extension cord as a recovery thing. So he moved to the inside of the branch to continue the cut. It was substantial, to say the least. Lots of small branches off it out over the river and this was the one that was causing the most grief to boats coming it. So standing on the branch you're cutting can be interesting. He had the cord tied to a higher branch, but he had a bunch of slack.

As the cut went through the wood the big ole heavy branch parted ways with the foot support. Off came a couple of hundred pounds of branch. What happened next was just great. All that weight had kept the branch weighted down. When it separated, it allowed the inner part to spring upward (willow will do that). Duayne was holding on to the saw with one hand and an upper branch with the other. To his credit, he let go of the saw when all the fun started. That allowed the saw to dive straight down into the river. The water seemed to short out the saw and blew the breaker before he followed it. Of course the branch hit first, followed by the saw. The Duayne that had been standing on the attached part of the branch went up about 3 feet toward the sky but he let go of his grip on the upper branch. Then falling and flailing with his hands and feet, tried desperately for something to grab. Sorry Charlie, nothing to reach. So into the water he went, yelling.

All the riverbank kids swam like fish. There were maybe a half dozen of us considering going in after him. It wasn't needed. He surfaced about 5 feet down stream from where he went in. We hauled him out at the gangway. Someone found a dry towel to hand him and into the bar/food area we all went. A bunch of people were giving him grief for the stunt. I think is dad was crying. But I took his side (he was a good kid and worked really hard). I told them they're the fools, that he was hot and tired, the work was done, so he just dove in to cool off. Wow did I make a friend with that claim.

We went out in a boat and used a hook to recover the saw and cord (after unplugging it up at the beached barge. It never ran again.

I even owned another electric saw, a genuine pole saw. I loaned it to my oldest son and never saw it again.

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Dick Burg

Just keep this in mind counselor. While a crafty and capable attorney can appeal the law of man, there is no appeal from the law of gravity.

I'm glad you escaped unscathed. I'd hate to be reading a bunch of posts that start out, "Remember CajunLawyer...".

Leave that climbing and tree trimming stuff to the young guys.

No one here said that. But I did hear necessary evil.

My wife's only brother is a lawyer. He does stuff like this all the time. He too bought an electric contraption to cut limbs.

He actually gutted his house and remodeled it. It only took 20 years.

I own real power tools, gas powered saws and such.

I can remodel fast, my wife and I have done 4 or 5 houses in 20 years. I have a big rough in pneumatic nail gun, last fall I was standing on the 2nd step of a ladder because I was in too big a hurry to go get a taller ladder so I could get closer to my work, every phone guy knows better.

I hit the trigger to drive a nail which glanced off a knot, went through my left thumb just above the last joint closest to the thumbnail and came out the end of the thumb. Since it had gone through a 2x4 it stopped in my thumb, a couple of inches hanging out on each side. I have a pic of it on my cell phone. Some guys pale up and get weak kneed as they gasp and turn their head.

I pulled on it with a pair of 9" lineman pliers but it was wedged in.

Hospital ER and about 8K later the nail was out.

My wife will not let me use the nail gun, the basement wall is not finished. I feel useless, almost like my brother in law.

Caj, I have a thing about ladders. back when I worked for a living I had to go on board barger that had finished pumping #6 fuel oil and guage out the tanks. While climbing a 36 foot extension ladded that had been tied off to the barge. A tug came alongside the other side of the barge. Well that 36 foot ladder went from a 45 degree angle to straight up. Guys watching me said they never saw me move so fast. And that is why to this day I hate ladders. If I have to cut branches I'll get a line on them and use a come a long to pull them down before I trim them. And yes the line will be on the tree side not the cut side. Frank

Geez, I can't believe I Missed this! Had I known in advance,
I'd have hitched my way down there just to watch.
Caj, your tale brings back a lot of memories. Luckily,
I can't stand straight enough to use a ladder, much less work overhead.
Actually, you and your "minion" did great, and should
sit around with a "bit of the Irish", and bask in the glow of a job well done, and lessons learned. I salute you, and all the others who
have had the guts to attempt dificult projects. Doesn't matter if
they were successful or not. It's the "can-do" spirit of America,
coming out in all of us.
TACC1

My sides hurt from laughing. Thanks. I needed that.

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THIS WE'LL DEFEND ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

My sides hurt from holding that pole saw over my head.

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Forum consigliere

When I was in my 30s I used to have a 24' extension ladder that I used to get up the roof of my home to hang xmas lights. I remember having one foot on the ladder and the other against the eave of the house to steady myself as I leaned way over to reach a spot that I couldn't just set the ladder against. My neighbors were in the driveway with their cell phones out and ready to dial 911. Nowdays I can't even step onto a curb because of back and leg problems so I hire it done by those wirey young lads.

Part of the wisdom that comes with age is knowing when its time to defer to the younger more agile to do those tasks we used to once do without fear or hesitation.

I can't let Caj and Burg get away with thinking they are the only foolish kids here.

Back in my youth, deer hunting in my part of Texas was done from tree blinds. No one under 70 would be caught dead in one of those sissy box blinds on the ground! They were for old men or guys who couldn't get away without their girlfriends.

My hunting buddy, "Birdie" (actually his name was Burdette..who in hell would name a boy that?...but since hunting and fishing was the most important activities in his life, he was forever "Birdie") and I were cruising our lease looking for likely spots for new blinds before opening day. We came upon a virgin part of the ranch that had a very promising, very large, oak tree sitting on the edge of a nice clearing with a tank (that's a pond for you yankees) to the side. Analysis of that old oak showed a large limb about 20 feet off the ground that stuck out at right angles in the direction that we needed. Even better, there was a nice fork in the limb about 10-15 feet out from the trunk.

We hauled 2x6's and 2x4's up and spent the morning building a seat that the 'Lil Rascals would have been proud of. Only thing was that the forks in the large limb extended about another 10 feet out and the foliage there blocked our view so that had to be dealt with. At this time it's important to know that this happened long before the advent of chain saws and the only saw we had was a rusty and dull old bow saw. We had also used up pretty much of our muscle in our earlier endeavors and we were running a little low on beer by then. But Birdie volunteered to crawl out toward the ends of the limbs with the bow saw while I stood on the ground and pointed to the appropriate limbs (supervisory position). After considerable effort and only cutting partially through the limbs we were about to rethink the whole effort when a light bulb went off in my head.

Parked a ways back was the four wheeled love of my life at that time...a long wheelbase Toyota Land Cruiser! And on the front of that old TLC was a 9000# Warn Winch. To what better use was a winch ever applied? I stood on the roof and handed the line up to Birdie and he attached it to the unyielding limb while I backed a respectable distance away. At his word, I locked the brakes and showered down on the winch! That sucker had some pull!...but it wasn't the first rodeo for that old Oak tree either. It had withstood winds that would make that winch line look like an evening breeze. The winch pulled and pulled, the limb bent, and bent, and bent...but it didn't break. Frustration!!!

Birdie, in fear that the limb would separate between him and the trunk, hollered out "Wait...wait...cut it loose"! Being one who always follows directions, I did what he asked and threw in the clutch on that big Warn. That line shot out, that limb rebounded, and no rodeo bull ever threw a cowboy any higher than old Birdie flew.

Fortunately, there were no lasting damages. Attributable mostly to young bones adequately marinated in Budweiser, I suspect. But forever after that blind was known as the "Slingshot Blind".

Bob

CajunLawyer - this is what you needed - they were out here today cutting limbs around power lines:

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Semper Fi

Someone should have had a video camera. Just in case. lol

Light cutting these days means five two-inch branches, then throw the saw away!!

I bought a new, small sized Homelite saw to dispatch a mulberry tree about 7 inches in diameter that had been terrorizing my backyard with untold confounding **&^(**&% berries that finally needed to GO with extreme prejudice.... anyway....

I wasn't half-way done before that thing up and quit and that was that. I didn't want to buy the $400 Husqvarna because this was the only job I needed to do.... The $100 I spent on the Homelite was a waste of cash... I ended up having my lawn-minions finish the job for another couple of Benjamins.

I should have bought that Husky....