[AT] Charlie Hill

[Mike]

Farmer, I know what you are talking about, the guy that knocked over my 
Ash tree with his excavator that I mentioned to Charlie, needed to pull 
the auxiliary diesel tank from the back of his pick up. He asked me if i 
could hook up the chain. There is nothing quite as intimidating as 
watching the bucket of a 60,000 excavator coming toward you, and then 
within inches to hook a chain to the bucket. I trusted the skill of the 
operator, so I didn't have a problem with it, but it still gives you pause.

Mike M


On 10/6/2015 9:29 PM, Indiana Robinson wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 3:29 PM, Mike <meulenms at gmx.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Cecil and Charlie, you are right about that, Sunday a man was killed
>> while watching his neighbor cut down a tree. The tree spun and went in a
>> direction it wasn't supposed to go; for some reason he was only 32' from
>> the tree with his back turned. I won't speak ill of the dead, but that
>> choice cost him his life. The guy cutting the tree always has an easier
>> time adjusting his position if the thing changes direction. Mike M
>>
>>
> Years ago I had a small part time excavating business. I constantly had to
> stop digging to get people to move away, sometimes pissing them off. It
> never failed, if I was digging a trench or foundation somebody was walking
> up to the side of the hole wanting to look in the hole to watch. My old
> Deere backhoe was a bit tired and loose but it was very fast. Somebody used
> to new stuff probably couldn't have used it.
> :-)
> I used to start out across a lot or field digging a trench and in order to
> drop the bucket into the trench while digging fast I had to release the
> swing control several feet away from the ditch and let it swing past the
> ditch and rebound a bit and drop it at just the right time. Not the sort of
> thing you want to be doing with someone standing close up on the edge of
> the ditch... People just couldn't grasp the danger. Also most ditches were
> pretty shallow, like 3 or 4 feet but in a few cases I was digging 10 or 12
> feet and you don't want to be standing on the edge of a hole like that
> anytime. Good way to get buried.
> I also used to maintain several local factory lots, mostly bush-hogging,
> and I had a lot of trouble with a few bordering houses letting their kids
> come out and play at the fence line while I was chopping some pretty rough
> stuff just across the fence. Just no grasp of danger. I used to quit mowing
> there and the when they went in would zip back over and chop a pass or two
> before they came running back out. Crazy...
>
>
>
>