Never had this happen before… and it was a bit on the sobering side.
Yesterday I decided to take down another big standing-dead elm that crotched into two main branches about 40-feet up. There just wasn’t anywhere for it to fall without getting hung-up, big trees and lots of canopy all around it. So the plan was to just let it fall to its natural lean, let it hang-up, and pull it down from there with the truck. I had three trees planed for the day, the first was uneventful, this was the second and largest of the trio.
My three-year-old was out with me, and as always I have him stand well back during felling (he was a good thirty-foot back). So I make my face cut, start the back cut, place a wedge and finish the back cut. When the tree starts to go I take a few steps back to watch where it’s gonna’ hang-up. It falls where the branches of two big spreading trees come together… and then it sort’a twists and one of the two main branches pushes through the canopy. The other main branch starts sliding off the branches it’s hung-up on… and I start thinking, “well, what do ya’ know, I ain’t gonna’ haf’ta’ pull it down after all.”
THEN… that main beam snaps off at the crotch… and those branches it’s hung-up in act like a huge spring. All-of-a-sudden I have a 10-inch diameter, 15-food long log launched through the air like it was sent from a catapult… flipping end-for-end and heading in a big aerial arch straight for me. I spin around and take off running… see my little boy standing there… HOLY CRAP, he’s moved closer to get a better view! I dropped the saw and scooped him up on my way by. That branch came crashing down right where he, and I, were standing… missing my running person by just a foot or two.
Nobody injured, no equipment damage, and I didn’t need to pull the tree down… but still. I don’t have any idea how long I stood there looking at that log, shaking, sweat pouring off me, clinging to my little boy… Damn scary experience… Damn scary.
Yesterday I decided to take down another big standing-dead elm that crotched into two main branches about 40-feet up. There just wasn’t anywhere for it to fall without getting hung-up, big trees and lots of canopy all around it. So the plan was to just let it fall to its natural lean, let it hang-up, and pull it down from there with the truck. I had three trees planed for the day, the first was uneventful, this was the second and largest of the trio.
My three-year-old was out with me, and as always I have him stand well back during felling (he was a good thirty-foot back). So I make my face cut, start the back cut, place a wedge and finish the back cut. When the tree starts to go I take a few steps back to watch where it’s gonna’ hang-up. It falls where the branches of two big spreading trees come together… and then it sort’a twists and one of the two main branches pushes through the canopy. The other main branch starts sliding off the branches it’s hung-up on… and I start thinking, “well, what do ya’ know, I ain’t gonna’ haf’ta’ pull it down after all.”
THEN… that main beam snaps off at the crotch… and those branches it’s hung-up in act like a huge spring. All-of-a-sudden I have a 10-inch diameter, 15-food long log launched through the air like it was sent from a catapult… flipping end-for-end and heading in a big aerial arch straight for me. I spin around and take off running… see my little boy standing there… HOLY CRAP, he’s moved closer to get a better view! I dropped the saw and scooped him up on my way by. That branch came crashing down right where he, and I, were standing… missing my running person by just a foot or two.
Nobody injured, no equipment damage, and I didn’t need to pull the tree down… but still. I don’t have any idea how long I stood there looking at that log, shaking, sweat pouring off me, clinging to my little boy… Damn scary experience… Damn scary.