So close!

[Bret4207]

So I'm on "vacation" this week. That means working my butt of 15 hours a day trying to catch up on all the work I haven't gotten to here on the farm and cutting wood. The tent caterpillers killed off a lot of my red oak over the past 2 years. So I'm cutting a lot of it lately. Yesterday I hung one in another nearby tree. I used to cut a lot of white pine saw logs. If you hang a pine you can usually drop another tree on it and they'll both come down. Not recommended practice I know, but I'd done it a dozen times without problems.

So yesterday I tried it with the oak. Well boys, oak is a lot stronger and springy-er than pine. The tree I was falling hit the first tree and the butt came up in the air instead of driving the first tree out of the hanger. It happened SO FAST! All I had time to do was throw up my arm and that was it. Fortunately the saw landed on the other side of the stump and not on my legs. The butt caught me right across the hips and I was pinned. After determining nothing appeared missing or broken I started digging and squirming and got out. Sat down for a minute and swore at my stupidity, had the shakes and thanked God for watching out for fools like me.

I would have been there at least an hour or two if I hadn't been able to get out or had been hurt. As it was my son was home sick and came along to give me a phone message as I was finishing skidding the trees out, so I figure he would have found me. Any other day it would have been 5- 6 hours. \

My wife noticed my whole left side was a giant raspberry and the back of my neck was all scratched up. Told her I fell off a rock. Ignorance is bliss.

I'm not the brightest guy in the world, but sometimes I'm amazed at what a 46 year old "kid" will try. New rule- put brain in gear BEFORE acting!

[cabezaverde]

Boy, I know how it is. I have done a few where I knew I wasn't doing it the best way, but it was the fastest, easiest, most fun, etc. If things go wrong on those and you have a close call, you half expect it and kick yourself for being an idiot.

The ones I hate is when you never even see it coming!!!!!!!!!!!

[BruceB]

Amigo Bret;

I'm very relieved that this incident didn't turn out worse for you than it did.

How many times have I said to myself. "Look, if you continue to do it this way, you're going to screw it up." Then I naturally continue to do it "that way", and sure enough, I screw it up! At my advanced age, you'd think I'd have learned better, but on occasion I still manage to louse it up, even though I know better. This is not to say that YOU screwed up, but rather a reflection on how many times I have done it.

Two days back, I had to make an emergency trip to evacuate a very-experienced mechanic from the underground. He'd apparently been beating on the bucket of a 9-yard diesel loader, and a piece of steel broke off and penetrated one of his eyes right to the optic nerve. At last report, following a Life Flight trip to Reno and a many-hour operation, he can see light from that eye, but the long-term prognosis is very uncertain. They were prepared to remove the eye during the surgery, if necessary. Did he have his safety glasses on? Dunno, and there are no actual witnesses to the event....might be a fortunate thing for him. If not, it's a prime example of an experienced hand doing the job "just this once", without the proper gear, and paying a very high price for the lapse. If he DID have them on, then he's just extremely unlucky.

My visit from the Tinsel Fairy last week caused me no harm, and I was wearing the right stuff. That incident re-inforced my determination to continue taking time to put on the protective gear.

Having spent considerable time with a chainsaw in hand, I understand just how close you came to major trauma. Again, I'm grateful that you weren't greatly harmed. A very serious and sobering reminder, wasn't it?

[bruce drake]

Simple rule we had growing up cutting trees in Maine.

Never cut alone.

Neighbor was cutting alone and tipped his skidder over and was trapped underneath for 18 hours. Doctors said he would have survived if he had been found sooner. Blood loss and exposure did him in.

Bret, I'd prefer to keep you on the forum a bit longer.

Bruce

[SharpsShooter]

You are a luck man Bret, but you know that without a doubt. Sure glad you are ok. Chainsaws, axes, hatchets, splitting wedges and mauls were all part of life on the farm where I grew up. We heated a 13 room farmhouse each winter here in West Virginia with two huge stoves and a fireplace, so naturally cutting firewood in large quantity was a normal fall season activity and we all had keen respect for the task of felling, limbing and general processing from tree to stacked firewood.

Now my grandfather was a pretty good sized fellow and strong to boot. He was a Baptist minister that started out in the coal camps of Matewan and like towns. Anyway, his job in all this firewood processing was to use a 14” Homelite to limb out the tree so that it could be cut into blocks for the splitting wedge. He was bad about using the saw with one hand sorta like it was a motorized pruning shear with a noisy muffler. We were working a large oak late one afternoon and he would cut the limbs with me following along to move and stack the ones I could lift. I was maybe 10 or 12 at the time. He was working along cutting as usual with one hand when it happened. The tip of the saw brushed against the trunk of the tree and yep, it kicked back and up. I clearly remember the saw recoiling back like a 44 mag in his hand. In a blink he threw the saw away from us both and slowly turned. The spinning chain had severed his plastic frame glasses dead center on the bridge of his nose. Each half fell to its respective side as he turned to face me and I remember the look of shock and the tiny scratch along the length of his nose. Did he know better? You bet! He taught my brother and I to have a healthy respect for power tools and what they were capable of doing. It all boils down to a couple of things.

1.He had done it so many times and got away with it that he got complacent.
2.The lord watches out for old preachers too.

He kept those glasses in a drawer in his desk as a reminder of a moment of inattention. I don’t know what happened to them after he passed, but I can close my eyes and see each half falling from his face and that was 30 years ago.

SS

[klausg]

Bret-
I'm glad you're still among us with all of your appendages, though somewhat worse for wear. I guess I'm kinda like everyone else, thus far I've been lucky and caught myself before doing any really stupid stuff. Call it my "guardian angel", "built in self-protection circuit", or whatever; I get a loud voice clamoring in my head, "HEY! Dummy this one is gonna hurt!". I think my all-time classic case was when I was working as an explosives engineer (blaster) in Washington. We were working a rather large shot, stick powder & WR, (WR=water resistant ANFO). Anyway it was raining, and WR turns into this slimy goo when wet, (I'm sure BruceB knows what I'm talking about, though they probably don't have as much use for the stuff in NV vs. WA [smilie=1: ). So I've got WR slime all over my hands & I'm trying to prime a cast booster. I've got about 1/4" of the blasting cap out of the booster, but due to all the slime on my hands I can't get enough of a grip on the thing to pull it the rest of the way out. What to do?...Grab it in your teeth of course. I had my mouth open and the booster enroute before my voice went off. Thank God for my little voice; now if I could just pay attention to it a little more. Again, I'm glad you're still with us, take care

-Klaus

[NVcurmudgeon]

Bret, glad you came out of your indiscretion with only scrapes and bruises. I have been hurt many times cutting wood. Every time it is because I invented a shortcut around doing it the right way. As time goes by there are fewer of my stupidities, but you have to watch everything. Last week I had a pile of junk lumber and small logs piled ready for sawing. every piece was stacked parallel, except for a 2" X 8' tree stake. It was perpendicular to the pile. Of course, as I approached the pile I dug my toe under the tree stake, which didn't move. I then fell prone onto the pile, collecting several scrapes and bruises. Why do we always have to hurt ourselves to learn? Hope you have a speedy recovery.

[Bret4207]

Boy! Am I coloring up nice! So far I have purple, maroon, sort of a pukeish yeller and a brown shading to black already. If I was 12 this would be worth taking pictures of and saving them to show my whole Scout Troop. Of course with my reflexes, which have been comapered to a drunken sloth suffering from adavnced alzhiemers and multiple strokes, I'm sure I'll have others to show at a later date.

Thanks for the well wishes and the assurance I'm not alone out here in klutz land.

[MGySgt]

Hey Brother - You are getting too old to heal quickly - Be careful.

I am NOT going to embarrass myself with some of the real dumb things I have done in my life and survived but some of them are real stupid.

Semper Fi!

Drew

[drinks]

Bret;
Please, please take some full monte pictues and post them here, with a touch of air brush, I personally guarantee no one will laugh, giggle or smirk!;D

[grumpy one]

I've been amazed at how much you have to think, to cut firewood and live. I was lucky when I bought my farm to have been into amateur radio for a few years, and one of the guys who was always on and talking had that free time because of a woodcutting mistake. A fair sized tree fell across his driveway in a storm, and he rushed right out there in the rain to cut it up and clear his access. He cut a big branch without thinking hard enough, the tree rolled toward him, another big branch way up above his line of vision came down on the back of his neck, and the result was instant quadriplegia.

Every time I went out there to cut fallen trees I thought about that guy, and I think it saved me a couple of times. One time the fallen tree was on an extremely steep slope, and remembering him made me cut from the uphill side, despite it being very inconvenient. Halfway through my second cut, the tree rolled downhill taking the chain-saw with it. Came to rest maybe thirty yards down the slope, with the saw still stuck in the cut and still running. Glad I wasn't under it.

[waksupi]

Widowmakers and barber chairs. Deadly in the woods. I have pretty much quit cutting firewood, as I am alone out in the woods.
I had an interesting way of downing a big larch tree a few years back. It was probably four feet on the stump, and was definitely pushing the limits of the saw I was using.
I got it to the point where it was ready to pitch, and a gust of wind came up, pinching the bar. And it stayed there. I had been cutting without wedges (forgot them at home), so removed the saw engine from the pinch, and went home for wedges. Came back, and started driving. No luck. Still pinched.
So, I went back to the truck, and got out my old Sharps business rifle, and a belt of 500 gr. bullets. I looked over the hinge, and started firing. It took about thirty shots, but I finally cut the hinge, and down it came. The bar and chain survived, and I collected the lead from the cut to recycle. I don't know how many truck loads I cut from that tree, but it was quite a few!
Be careful out there!

[Bad Ass Wallace]

I recently got a chainsaw "kiss", darn near cut my leg off but fortunately just cut to the bone and required stitches & time to heal the wounded pride.:roll: :roll:

After I limped to the house with blood filling my boot, the little lady put one of them "lady thing pads" over the wound and stopped the bleeding within a minute! Cleaned up and went to hospital without another drop being spilt.

Now I got 4 more pads in the medical box on the tractor; even the doc said these were the best thing for large cuts:-D :-D

[bruce drake]

BAW,

My Navy Corpsman in the first Gulf War used some "Antiseptic Pads" on some bullet wounds on some of us Marines and they definitely worked although the pink wasn't very tactical. We didn't want to know how he got Tampon Pads in the middle of the Saudi Desert prior to the start of combat.

Said he learned the trick at a trauma center in New York.

Bruce

[waksupi]

I believe the sanitary pads were developed somewhere in the period between WW1 and 2, for use as combat dressings. So, they have returned full circle. I always have some in my hunting pack!

[carpetman]

waksupi---when speaking of sanitary pads you might should use timeframe vs period.

[BruceB]

We were using the 'pads' as pack-strap cushioning in the Canadian Army during my Infantry days in the early '60s. However, we made SURE that they quickly got "camouflaged" with dirt etc (except in winter, when they were' tacticool' right out of the box).

Never have so many embarrassed young men bought so many "unmentionables" in the MLS (Maple Leaf Services store, i.e.: PX).

They do make wonderful major-trauma dressings, no question about it.

[DLCTEX]

In 1983 I was working with my then 4 sons cutting firewood.
there was a dead oak on the bank of a small gully that had to be cut higher than normal due to some fence wire embedded in the trunk. I told the boys where to get so the tree would fall away from them, then cut the tree to fall between two large trees. The tree fell until halted by a large grape vine, then the butt swung and went farenough to lean the tree back toward us before slipping off the vine. I yelled "RUN" and grabbed my five year old, I made about four steps before the tree crashed on either side of us with a fork of huge limbs brushing my shoulders. The other boys escaped with a light "spanking by the small limbs. The boys laughed, but I still find no humor in it, much too close. Funny how it all seemed to happen in slow motion, though. The older boys tell my late-in-life son he doesn't know how easy he has it now, but maybe he is missing some character building that good hard work produces.

[carpetman]

THIS THREAD WAS NOT HIJACKED! SO CLOSE was the title and certainly you would think it was about sanitary pads. BTW Ric I can see why you carry them in your backpack. But that elastic belt? What do you do use that for a torniquet?

[9.3X62AL]

Glad yer all right, Bret. I haven't (yet) had any thrills while running saws, but I am probably anal as h--l about safety with any power tool. I have kevlar chaps and that helmet with ear muffs and flop-down sawdust screen for cutting with, if that's an indicator. I used to cut with a USFS bunch, and they wouldn't fire up a saw without that stuff, so got in the habit and stayed that way.

[PatMarlin]

Ha!

I've been logging all week. A load pushed my truck downhill, jackknifed and almost went into the back of the house.. :mrgreen:

Can't be to careful doing that stuff, and I'm glad your OK Bret.

[waksupi]

Ray, I figured I left myself wide open on that one. My point is, it is much more convienient to use the pads, than to use a complete sheep to, uh, whatever you do with them, to stop bleeding.

[Bret4207]

We're issued ball caps with plastic bump protectors inside. So what do they use to line the plastic where it touches yer noggin? A panty shield. I thought it was my partners idea of a joke when I first noticed it. The fact I knew what it was bothered me more than the fact it was there.

[BD]

I'm with Al. I even brought my chaps and helmet on down here to the stinkin' hot south. Never know when the "swedish wind" might need to blow through clearing up some storm falls. I saw enough saw damage to other guys working in the woods to convince me pretty early on of two things: There's a better way to make a living, and that safety has to come first when you're cutting wood, even if it's just stove wood for the house.
BD

[Topper]

The big Man above must have been watching over you;-)
Glad you didn't get seriously hurt, or worse.