Hey everyone. I wanted to share a life experience that happened to me almost 30 yrs ago.
1987 I was working on exploration drill rigs. Not a large or deep drilling type of rig but more of quick short holes all over the place set up. It was a 6 ton steel shack on ski's which we towed around from one set up to another with a 350 timber jack skidder. The shack always had to be perfectly level in both directions before allowed to start drilling the hole and many times we had to build a crib out of logs to raise the shack due to the lay of the land. we used the winch on the skidder and chains attached to the drill shack to lift while a crib could be built.
I'm 19 yrs old, I don't know better, and I hook the chain up to lift the drill shack on one end. Then I crawl down under and at several moments I'm directly under the ski or rails the drill rides on building a crib out of logs. Once job was done I signaled skidder operator to release the load and began to unhook the chain. That's when my heart jumped and I almost passed out. The hook was bent to almost straight and if it wasn't for the sliver of metal that held the entire time I was under the shack.... I would be dead.
I've kept that that hook since that day and have it hanging in my man cave as a reminder of how close I was......
