Get the Ricochet app
Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.
We were paged out yesterday evening for a huge live oak tree limb that had fallen into the road. It was only a little way from our home so I got the chain saw out while a couple of other firefighters went to the station to get more equipment. I was at it for maybe fifteen minutes when a guy stopped and said his excavator was being hauled to his nearby home/business and asked if we wanted some help. The excavator cleaned up the debris in about 20 minutes versus the couple of hours it would have taken us. We have our big annual fundraiser tonight so I’m inviting this guy and his crew to come and eat on our dime. During the work a half dozen people passing by offered help, and this is a fairly quiet country road. You can see another large limb that has been worrisome for a long time - our road and bridge crews are coming out soon to take these big limbs down as they give almost no warning before they come down. The base of that limb was so heavy it lifted one track off the ground a few times while he was pushing it.
Discussion (8)
CONTRIBUTOR
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
About a year after I moved to Palestine, TX (pop 20K), I blew a cooling system hose in Montalba (pop ~3000). Biggest problem I had was fending off unnecessary offers of help, because I got plenty in the next 15 minutes. One person stopped with duct tape, and showed me how to patch up the hose with it. Two others got water to refill the radiator. A fourth and fifth escorted me back to Palestine (about a 15 minute drive) with one ahead of me and one following (in case I broke down). The sixth, seventh, and eighth that stopped seemed disappointed they could not help. None of these people knew me. They just wanted to help.
I love rural Texas.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
The guy said thank you for letting him help. At big brush fires we can usually scare up a couple of tractors until we can get the big dozers on scene.
CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
But, but, but…. You act as if the race didn’t matter!
We live on a country road and get the same problem where trees from across the road will fall across the road. Pretty soon, a pickup truck will stop, two guys will get out and manhandle it across the road. If the branch is too big, the chain saw comes out.
I’ve learned that “Good ole boy” is a compliment, not an epithet.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Tonight we had our annual dance but before we renamed the fire complex for one of our founding members. Picture is one of his sons speaking to the crowd.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Great story.
Danger trees are no joke. They're the first to come down in a storm. This may not exactly apply, but utilities spend time and money on pruning back or taking down trees that threaten power lines. It's never a favorite expense from a regulatory point of view because there's no asset there that gets installed and benefits a customer, which is how a straight (ish) line can be drawn from their perspective.
The result is the pruning is always underfunded, and we all pay for it later during the inevitable storm that knocks a tree down, and takes the power offline for X number of hours or days.
You're seeing five of eight comments. Sign in, or join for just $5 per month, to read them all and add your own.