Thanks for all the replies. I had a good laugh reading through them this morning. I have a pretty nice gun collection and would have had fun blasting away and, in hindsight, should have probably done that.
You guys are alright.
First the good news. We got it done with no injuries.
I'll address a couple questions. The ice was not slippery, we had about 4 inches of old snow on the ice so there was plenty of traction. The canal is only 2' deep, but a very muddy bottom. You cannot wade in the canal and trying anything by boat was eliminated immediately before I even started the saw.
Now the bad news. I got my bar stuck 3 times and my saw is now out of commission. I must have damaged something since the chain came off twice even though it was adjusted properly on the bar.
Now the worse news. I got the first 2 limbs off pretty easily and cleared up the area for the final cut. I saved the biggest one, that was straight in line with the limb, for last, thinking it would be good to have that one stabilze the whole thing as I cut the first 2. That seemed to work, but the last limb now had a massive amount of weight/tension on it. I figured the tension was on the top of the limb, so I started there and cut ~15% into the limb. Then I went underneath to finish the cut. I had my gettaway route planned and a rope on the limb to keep it from kicking towards where I was standing. As I made the final cut, the limb pinched back down on my saw. So the limb was 'free' but in the same position with my saw blade in the closed gap. So, I get another saw and the SAME thing happened. It just slammed closed so fast I couldn't react fast enough. So now, there are 2 saws stuck with a 24" 'free' log in between them and the whole enchilada still in the same position, with a crap ton of weight holding it in place.
We STUPIDLY gathered around wondering what to do, pound wedges in the cuts? Get the THIRD saw in the mix? All of a sudden the entire she-bang goes! I wrongly assumed the top hinge would hold. It didn't. It broke off 15' in the air and slammed down on the ice. Then it pivoted, throwing the chainsaws to the wind, and slammed to the left about 4 feet. If one of the kids had been standing there (and they had at some points in the morning), I don't even want to consider what would have happened. Certainly lives would be forever changed, let's just say that.
Lessons learned: You can never be too careful. Slow down. When you are going too slow, slow down more and study the situation. Like my Dad taught me playing pool, aim twice, shoot once. Never underestimate how bad things can go. The worse case scenario for that log happened and I made a bad assumption the hinge would hold. A tree can fall without you doing anything other than standing there wondering what the hell to do next. 40" diameter willow logs are really really really heavy. Hire a professional next time. This only cost me 4 extra large pizzas and 12 pitchers of beer, I should have spend 10X that and had an expert do it.
Anyone want to buy a Husqvarna 450?
