danger danger danger

[JOETHECROW]

We have to remember deer hunters on late season digs...(This day I forgot my orange vest and we had to improvise.) []

 

[JOETHECROW]

Sometimes it's the local cops...We just give em' bottles.[]

 

[JOETHECROW]

OF course the ever dread poison ivy!

 

[JOETHECROW]

We have a lot of coyotes too.

 

[JOETHECROW]

And of course we have to watch out for the colorful locals! []

Even though I tried to present these in a light way,...thay all can be very real hazards of digging. Thanks for the interesting thread. Be safe everyone!

 

[cobaltbot]

When I was a kid my digging buddy Doug and I were exploring for the first time an abandoned house in a farm meadow. I can’t remember the grain but the grass was waist deep and thick. We walked around to the other side of the house and stopped in the grass because we heard a horse neighing. When we looked down at our feet we were a couple steps away from an open well level with the ground with water showing about fifteen feet down. One time we found a dump because he tripped and fell by rolling a foot on a beer bottle. I’ve poked a probe into a yellow jacket nest in a stream bank dump. Got stung twice and kept digging and made some good finds. Snakes and ticks don’t bother me but you have to respect them, that goes for any animal. Mosquitoes are bothersome and could be bad news also. Poison Ivy, if you’re affected by it you have to be able to recognize it, plain and simple. If you get it on you wash it off as soon as you can. If your wife is allergic and you know you’ve been in it wash your own clothes. Also, because of ticks and chiggers chuck off those clothes somewhere else not in the bedroom or mixed in with the other clothes. I recently smacked my right hand on the dump I was digging and felt pain but blew it off until I saw blood on the outside of my glove. Usually I have bandaids and a backpack with survival essentials but stupidly had no bandaids but did have hand cleaner and a little stream nearby. I washed out the slice on my pinky fist knuckle and wrapped a bandana around it for pressure till it let up bleeding and slid my glove back on over the bandana and was able to keep digging but no matter how careful you are its hard not to get cut. You can lessen that by common sense and maybe I need a pair of those gloves. I usually try to kneel on piled leaves, rocks, slate, shoes and anything else I can find and when I’m thinking have a small piece of backpacking closed cell pad that fits in the back of the backpack and also helps keep stuff from poking me in the back when the pack is stuffed. Cave in possibilities are something we all risk a little bit more than we should so watch out and have a few contingency strategies at least as some have said. The only animal I fear in the mid Atlantic is the two-legged kind so again common sense and how you treat people. Cell phones a must and I usually hike alone but with my four foot probe which doubles as a walking stick – very important if you are hiking, keeps you from falling, clears briers, spiderwebs, wet vegetation, poison ivy, stinging nettles, etc. Helps you climb over anything and walk logs, not to mention making a stream crossable that you wouldn’t try or successfully be able to do without it. If rock hopping or jumping creeks be confident in your moves. Walk sideways and control ski your way down slippery slopes. A walking stick comes in handy here and climbing back up. Use live, well rooted, and flexible saplings to help you get down slopes. Train your vision to be able to watch and plan where your feet are going while your main focus is watching for dump sign. Sometimes while moving fast I have stupidly tripped by running a stick under the laces of one shoe or boot. Sometimes you get hurt because being tired makes you stupid, its hard for us to quit and sometimes you don’t have a choice but I’d rather get occasionally hurt digging bottles, roaming the woods or doing something I like than lead a boring life waiting for that asteroid to hit.

 

[RICKJJ59W]

ORIGINAL: digger don

I've had the same thing happen Rick. We even took all the fill out of a 12 ft hole and I kept having dirt trickle down on me witch I know is a bad sign . I alway have an excape rout like a rope or ladder when we get in over our heads. Any how I no sooner got up out of the hole and the 1 whole wall fell into the hole. It was the back fill behind the wood wall. Pretty scary chit.

Some ONE is watching over us chit hole diggers [8D]

 

[JOETHECROW]

I’d rather get occasionally hurt digging bottles, roaming the woods or doing something I like than lead a boring life waiting for that asteroid to hit.

Amen to that!

 

[splante]

great stories and info.......sometimes even common sense can overlook something...be careful out there..I.have run across fox'es( the four legged kind) deer and swear a coyote was stalking me once..dont think they would go after a human but you have me wondering now....reminds me of a time I got the bright idea of bringing my ipod and headphones on a hike looking for bottles some dudes little dog came up from behind me and jumped on my back legs, scared the *&#@ out of me,think I screemed like a little girl, I was lucky that the owner was a little to far away to hear me...I dont take my ipod anymore......

 

[JOETHECROW]

some dudes little dog came up from behind me and jumped on my back legs, scared the *&#@ out of me,think I screemed like a little girl, I was lucky that the owner was a little to far away to hear me...I dont take my ipod anymore......

You just made me laugh pretty darned hard...[sm=lol.gif] That would startle the bejesus out of you!