Be Careful Out There!

CaveCreekRay

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RANT ALERT...

Yesterday, around 3:30 p.m., a helicopter slowly flies over the house and lands on the street where a few firetrucks sat. Turns out they were air medivacing an 84 year-old tractor operator who was seriously injured after an accident occurred running his machine. It was 107F.



No blame. No pointing fingers. Just don't be this guy. Yeah, 107F sounds hot. It is. But 97F in Atlanta with 100% humidity is about the same. Use common sense. Work when its cooler. Drink lots of water. And don't be working for extended periods in the peak heat of the day. Enjoy your summer.

Rant OFF

(Thanks to Bob Hughes for the photo above)
 

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shootem604

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Stay safe everyone. Dehydration (and just plain heat) sometimes makes folks do unwise things.
 

D2Cat

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Ray, I understand the point of your post, but I do find it interesting how the weather folks make such a big deal when the temperature gets a few degrees higher than it's been. They go on and on about the comfort index.

I remember working on construction crews. Once loaded into the back of a PU, rode there for 60 miles, worked putting steel forms up for a poured concrete wall, and the temperature was 103 that day, and we worked an 8 hr day. I also rode in the back on the way home after the days work. Many days were like that. Start out at 70 deg at 7AM and easily get to 100 by mid afternoon.

How did we ever make it to this point in life? I believe our body can take much more than we believe. If we constantly hear about the heat, and all they declare we soon believe the heat is REALLY bad, and we don't go out in it, or stay inactive and soon the heat really does effect us.

It's like mind over matter. If one knows it's hot, stays hydrated, when in good physical we will be fine. Like going out in the morning and working all day is easier than going out mid-morning after setting in AC and then facing heat!

We're mentally and physically soft, and the media is largely responsible! Because we tend to believe them.
 

Lil Foot

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I think age has a lot to do with it also. When I was younger, heat did not seem to affect me nearly as much as it does now.
I'm just not as tough as I used to be.
Sigh.
 

bikerdib

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Conditioning also plays a part, IMO. If working in the heat like that is something you do every day, I think you are better able to cope with it, that and youth of course. In my 20s through early 40s I was an iron worker. I was the foreman but a working foreman, I usually worked as hard as and often harder than the 25 guys I was over. SE Texas temps and humidity can be brutal. There are days when you can't pick up a piece of iron that has been in the sun without gloves. Now at 63 it really hits me.

I wish the best for the fellow in the OP's post.
 

Daren Todd

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I think age has a lot to do with it also. When I was younger, heat did not seem to affect me nearly as much as it does now.

I'm just not as tough as I used to be.

Sigh.
I agree. Age and amount of exposure to heat have quite a bit to do with it. Also the amount of times you have been over heated in the past. Each time you get heat exhaustion it makes you more susceptible to it.

I can say from personal experience that the heat never used to bother me. But I've come down with heat exhaustion several times over the years. Actually once this year so far and borderline a couple of times. The heat and humidity this year is kicking my butt!!!!

We also moved to a new location for work. The old shop was a wind tunnel, and by mid afternoon you had to close doors down or anything under 3 lbs ended up being relocated by the wind.

New shop, there is barely a breeze, and is surrounded by 7 acres of asphalt.



Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 

CaveCreekRay

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One handy thing I learned in survival school was, it's VERY expensive, physiologically, to sweat for long periods. You lose water that must be replaced. Replacing it screws up your electrolytes and that kills your energy. If you screw them up too much, you can kill yourself by stopping your heart or doing something completely stupid. People think water poisoning is a myth, but it is very real.

My solution for out here: Hose your shirt down sopping wet. In low humidity, that will keep you from losing too much water. It works!

Yesterday morning, I was hosing some new plants down at the mouth of my driveway and two neighbor ladies walked by. They got a later start than usual and were looking slightly overheated. I offered to hose them down and they took me up on it. In ten seconds, they were sold. It's like having an air conditioner on your upper body. I told them, tomorrow try wearing a wet shirt over the top of their regular walking clothes. Sopping wet, don't wring it out.

Just because you are doing work on a tractor, don't think it's not exposing you to heat stress. I always cut my water with Gatorade powder 1/2 the normal amount. That keeps your electrolytes balanced and that keeps your mind functioning properly. Accidents happen when you aren't using your noggin.
 

lugbolt

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Out here in the southeastern part of the US, it's a VERY real deal. I've had heat stroke once and heat stress a couple times. Stroke when I was playing ball in school, just being a stupid nothing-can-hurt-me brat kid. Well guess what...you still have to take care of your body no matter how good of condition you're in physically.

I work outside daily, I mean every single day (even days off now that I'm doing a little fishing guiding). The heat and just as importantly the humidity are VERY real. I've seen what water poisoning will do. With the humidity, you sweat but it doesn't evaporate very well so you're thinking the entire time (among other things) that you need to drink more water. Too much is not good either so you have to be mindful of what your body is doing. I find myself actually really slowing down during the afternoon heating at work. Yes it affects my ability to think clearly and to perform a physical job efficiently. It does everyone, well everyone but those who have the blessing of a/c in the workplace. I don't have that luxury. We go in at 0800, its just nasty humid. Not hot but it feels about 90 by opening time. By noon the heat index is generally well over 100. By 1600, it's 110. The highest heat I've evern worked in was actual air temp (in the shade) of 114° and a heat index of 127°. Great right? Go to the parts dept or showroom to cool off--but the big metal building will only cool so much, even it gets up around 82 or so on hot days like that (from 65 in the morning). But 82's better than 110+.

I've had occasions where I was working on something and completely forgot where I was at, and what I was doing...disoriented from the heat. It happens, and in my line of work, can be real dangerous. It can creep up on you & you don't really know it. We've had machines dropped off where folks have gotten heat stroke on them while using. Had one guy a number of years ago that died due to heat stroke. Guy was push mowing his yard (small yard mind you) out in the hot summer heat and humidity. His wife said she thought it was weird that he was mowing part of the neighbor's yard but wrote it off as him being 'nice'.

Trust me...this stuff happens.

Another thing that happens is carbon monoxide poisoning. I've personally coded when I was 9 because of CO. It happened OUTSIDE, me floating around in a raft behind dad's old Carver boat. He had just changed the oil in the old Chevy 250 6 cylinder that powered it, started the engine and it was sitting there idling. That was the last thing I remembered until waking up at a place I wasn't familiar with, having a big bubble plastic thing stuck over my face and my mom standing over me crying her eyes out--and I barely remember that. There was no wind, so CO just kept building up until my young body couldn't take any more of it. Those of us who live in areas, particularly here in the South where there is NO wind during the hot summer evenings should really be careful with running engines. Just because your tractors have a DPF and emit nice clean exhaust gases doesn't mean that those gases are safe. There's still CO being blown out. CO has no odor, no color so you can't see, smell, feel, or taste it. But you know when you've had too much. In my case, the damage is permanent with the right side of the brain experiencing some damage, mostly in the eyesight department. One shop I worked at, during the winter months you HAD to raise a door to let the CO out. They had those Nat Gas infared heaters, they were ventless. If you were to start a machine up in the shop for any length of time, say a minute, with the heaters running, you'd die. I don't see how those things got an OSHA approval but the boss said that they were approved and they had a sticker on the back of the gas valve. Many times had headaches and disorientation. I absolutely despise those things.
 

torch

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Turns out they were air medivacing an 84 year-old tractor operator who was seriously injured after an accident occurred running his machine. It was 107F.
Ok, I'm a little confused. Is there any evidence the accident somehow a result of the heat?
 

CaveCreekRay

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Not yet. No details on his condition either. But anything more than a few minutes in this heat even for a 60 year-old in great shape is disorienting. Just touching metal in the peak heat of the day risks burning your hand. But the mere fact that he was running his machine at this temperature is a bad sign.

I have coffee with a guy who is 84. Getting off his Indian takes him a couple minutes when the weather is nice. I don't know how long he'd last at 107.

Last year we lost nearly 50 people to heat-related deaths. Granted, some of those folks were mentally ill. But, most of them were careless. I swear, I see 50 year-old guys dressed in black at high noon riding their bicycles uphill towards my house. What are we proving here? Other guys are out running near 100F. Like that tiny water bottle you are carrying will do anything to save you...

Just sayin'.
 

SidecarFlip

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Sure am glad my M9 has air conditioning. Hard to beat climate control when out in the field and I can really tell the difference when using the open station that now has a canopy (Tuff Top) versus the climate controlled cab tractor.

Hot here too, very hot for Michigan. In the 90's with a heat index of over 100 for quite a few days now.
 

Bmyers

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We are under an excessive heat warning for the next few days. Already have been sending out notices to the different job sites about the extreme conditions due to the high humidity and temperature.

HEAT INDEX VALUES...Up to 110 due to temperatures in the upper
90s, and dewpoints in the lower 70s.

An Excessive Heat Warning means that a prolonged period of
dangerously hot temperatures and high humidity will occur. In
addition, nighttime conditions will remain warm and muggy
providing little chance for relief.
 

skeets

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I wish we would have had that back when I was a kid baling hay :rolleyes:
 

SidecarFlip

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I wish we would have had that back when I was a kid baling hay :rolleyes:
it is nice to have...

I started out haying with a International M wide front gas tractor, a sickle bar mower a very used side delivery ground driven rake and a New Holland square baler that was ancient when I got it (and needed constant attention as in 2 good (well somewhat good) bales and then a miss. You had to walk behind it and take the miss, pick up the string and spread the miss in the next row...

Those were the days and hay was cheap then, but so was fuel and fertilizer. so I guess the profit margin was as good as it is today, factoring in all the associated costs of machinery today, it's probably less of a money maker. In fact, it's really just a hobby any more.

Sold the M and the baler to some Doctor that want to make hay on his little plot for his goats. I bet he had fun with that old tempermental baler and the M, with it's updraft carb and magneto ignition.

Quit running squares 5 years ago but kept my 575 NH in the equipment barn. Paid for long ago and don't cost anything and I bet if I sold it, I'd need it, so it sits under a cover in the corner and the chute makes a good cat bed...lol

Hard to beat a climate controlled cabin tractor in this heat. That and my cooler with cold drinks inside. At my age (69), heat stress can become a life or death issue quickly. My preferred thirst quencher is Power Aide, grape flavor. The wife buys it in 8 packs. Tried Gator Aide before but I find it to be salty. I prefer my sodium intake to be tasteless if possible.
 

motionclone

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Yeah we are just getting soft as a society/nation. DANGER!! DANGER!!! DONT GO OUTSIDE, TOO HOT!!! Its always been hot and humid all over the world and work still needs to get done. Ive built many chimneys in August in 90 degree 100% humidity weather. In the attic then on a roof. outside, all day, everyday. Yes it sucks but like have to tell my millennial, frail workers, you got to suck it up buttercup.

For older people I realize its a health issue but with all the "safety warnings" it just enables/empowers people of all ages, especially the young, to make excuses to not do things.
 

skeets

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flip we had an old massy harris then a case then a ford 8n I think all open cabs all hot, with a case square baler loaded in to the back of a 57 ford pick up, hauled unloaded and stacked daily. Only good thing was the spring house was up the hill from the barn
 

SidecarFlip

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I don't miss the OS tractors at all and I've gotten a 'flashback with my open station M9. Just raking with my rotary rake and the canopy overhead, I'm sweating like a pig from the heat rolling off the engine...

granted, it's not working very hard with the rake but it's still hot in the seat.

At least both are parked until September 1. Hopefully this hot humid weather will be past us by then.

They are communing and yes, it's hot in there.....:D

Just run rounds now. My sole customer only wants them and that is fine with me. Small squares are like firewood, warms you twice. Once when you cut it and again when you split and stack it.

When I run hay in September, I'll initiate a thread with pictures so people can see what it entails.
 

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SidecarFlip

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It's hot and humid here, supposed to be close to 100 tomorrow and just think, in 6 months it will be white and slushy.

I'm getting taken to dinner tonight for my birthday, wherever so long as it's cooled by air conditioning...
 

SidecarFlip

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Well happy birth day flip
Thank you Skeets. Just glad I'm alive and some what productive at this point in life. Had Chinese and Amy paid. Sweet and Sour pork with white rice, Won Ton soup and an egg roll and it was quite comfortable in the dining room.

We have an excellent Chinese eatery close by, next to Cabelas.

Headed for a cool shower next. I'm sweating doing nothing. Wish I could can this heat and unpack it in January.