Just want to take a moment to remind everyone to be safe out there. I made a stupid mistake yesterday while clearing some storm damage & will have a 6" scar to remind me of it forever.....but it could've been much worse.
Mistake #1....I was cutting alone. My wife had flown to Texas to take care of her dad and my parents (closest relatives and my regular cutting partner) were in Maine for vacation. With my primary contacts in opposite ends of the country, I had no one close to hang with all week. I resisted the urge to cut all week knowing how stupid it would be to do it alone so I spent a whole lot of time splitting some by hand from the pile I already had cut (is there anything more fun than splitting ash by hand?). But then the remnants of Ike rolled threw and knocked down several trees and knocked out the power. Now, with no TV, computer, etc for 24 hours and with my regular conversationalists gone, I got bored and decided to go cut for a little while.
I've been cutting firewood for 20 years and until last winter we've relied on wood as our primary source of heat each and every winter, so I've logged hundreds of hours behind a saw. I'm always careful in how I approach a given situation, particularly in blow-downs, and I always wear steel toed boots, saw chaps, helmet, face shield, gloves, etc. People give me a hard time for wearing "all that stuff" but I know that if you repeat any action enough times you're bound to make a mistake so I prefer to be cautious.
Mistake #2.....I ALWAYS start cutting up a tree from the small end and work down. But in this case, that end of the tree was in the neighbors yard on the opposite side of an old fence. I only had about 30 minutes to cut before having to go off to the airport to pick up my wife. I didn't want to go over & bother the neighbor because I knew he'd feel obligated to drop whatever he was doing and come out to help. Knowing that I wouldn't be there that long, I decided I'd just cut what I could get to from my side of the fence.
All was going well for about 10 minutes until I got to a small limb that was under a little tension. Approaching from the small end could have eliminated this tension, but for whatever reason, knowing full well that it wasn't a good idea (I mean really, who does this?!), I started to make small cuts on my end. As soon as I finished the cut, the limb rolled toward me and drove the saw right back into my left upper arm.
It really didn't hurt. Felt a little like I had been punched in the arm. I knew it was the saw that hit me, but I figured that since it didn't hurt then maybe the chain hadn't been spinning and maybe I just had a little scrape or maybe some small puncture wounds from the teeth. Then I looked down & noticed that my shirt was shredded. Not good. I lifted my sleeve and then saw how bad it really was. It wasn't bleeding much and didn't hurt so I called a friend to drive me to the hospital.
Fortunately, I missed any critical components. The chain brake caught before I got any deeper than 1/2" to 3/4" or so. I still have full use of the arm and still have no pain. I did get 18 stitches and will have a 5 or 6" scar to always remind me how quickly a momentary lapse of judgement can turn ugly. It could have ended very differently, but since it didn't, I'll not dwell on the what-if's and will treat it as a lesson learned.
I've always read stories like this and thought I knew better than the "idiot" from the story. But hopefully all of you who read this will take something from this idiots story & slow down & take a moment to think before cutting the next time. Be careful out there!!
Mistake #1....I was cutting alone. My wife had flown to Texas to take care of her dad and my parents (closest relatives and my regular cutting partner) were in Maine for vacation. With my primary contacts in opposite ends of the country, I had no one close to hang with all week. I resisted the urge to cut all week knowing how stupid it would be to do it alone so I spent a whole lot of time splitting some by hand from the pile I already had cut (is there anything more fun than splitting ash by hand?). But then the remnants of Ike rolled threw and knocked down several trees and knocked out the power. Now, with no TV, computer, etc for 24 hours and with my regular conversationalists gone, I got bored and decided to go cut for a little while.
I've been cutting firewood for 20 years and until last winter we've relied on wood as our primary source of heat each and every winter, so I've logged hundreds of hours behind a saw. I'm always careful in how I approach a given situation, particularly in blow-downs, and I always wear steel toed boots, saw chaps, helmet, face shield, gloves, etc. People give me a hard time for wearing "all that stuff" but I know that if you repeat any action enough times you're bound to make a mistake so I prefer to be cautious.
Mistake #2.....I ALWAYS start cutting up a tree from the small end and work down. But in this case, that end of the tree was in the neighbors yard on the opposite side of an old fence. I only had about 30 minutes to cut before having to go off to the airport to pick up my wife. I didn't want to go over & bother the neighbor because I knew he'd feel obligated to drop whatever he was doing and come out to help. Knowing that I wouldn't be there that long, I decided I'd just cut what I could get to from my side of the fence.
All was going well for about 10 minutes until I got to a small limb that was under a little tension. Approaching from the small end could have eliminated this tension, but for whatever reason, knowing full well that it wasn't a good idea (I mean really, who does this?!), I started to make small cuts on my end. As soon as I finished the cut, the limb rolled toward me and drove the saw right back into my left upper arm.
It really didn't hurt. Felt a little like I had been punched in the arm. I knew it was the saw that hit me, but I figured that since it didn't hurt then maybe the chain hadn't been spinning and maybe I just had a little scrape or maybe some small puncture wounds from the teeth. Then I looked down & noticed that my shirt was shredded. Not good. I lifted my sleeve and then saw how bad it really was. It wasn't bleeding much and didn't hurt so I called a friend to drive me to the hospital.
Fortunately, I missed any critical components. The chain brake caught before I got any deeper than 1/2" to 3/4" or so. I still have full use of the arm and still have no pain. I did get 18 stitches and will have a 5 or 6" scar to always remind me how quickly a momentary lapse of judgement can turn ugly. It could have ended very differently, but since it didn't, I'll not dwell on the what-if's and will treat it as a lesson learned.
I've always read stories like this and thought I knew better than the "idiot" from the story. But hopefully all of you who read this will take something from this idiots story & slow down & take a moment to think before cutting the next time. Be careful out there!!
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Be safe.
