Loading…
13
Swore I'd never climb with a pole saw, then a water oak in Gulfport humbled me in one morning
For years I said pole saws were for homeowners and guys scared of heights, and I'd climb anything under 60 feet with a handsaw and a top handle. Then two weeks ago I got a call about a water oak in Gulfport with storm damage hanging over a driveway, and the only safe spot was way out on a limb too thin to trust with my weight. I stood there sweating for maybe 20 minutes trying to plan a climb that just kept getting dumber, and the homeowner's neighbor, an old guy named Ray who retired from a utility crew, watched me from his porch the whole time. Ray walked over with his own Stihl pole saw, extended it to about 12 feet, and had the hanger down in maybe 90 seconds while I stood there feeling like a rookie. He said, "The tree don't care how you get it down, it just cares that you don't get hurt doing it." I went out that afternoon and bought one, and now it rides on the truck on every job. What opened my eyes was not the tool itself, it was realizing I'd been climbing stuff I didn't need to climb just to protect my pride. So now I'm wondering, what's the one tool you guys used to turn your nose up at and then ended up using all the time?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
the_elizabeth8d ago
Reading this felt like looking in a mirror, except my mirror moment was a little giant pole pruner I called "the lazy stick" for about three years. I finally grabbed one when a sweetgum had a branch hanging right over a customer's gutter, and I could've either climbed 40 feet or stood on the ground and been done before my rope even hit the tree. Now it lives behind the seat and gets used on almost every job. Pride is expensive and my knees already sent me the bill for those dumb climbs. Ray sounds like the kind of guy who should charge tuition.
2