I don’t know anything about the rope used in winches, but the rope we use in rigging in tree removal stores a lot of energy. Our bull lines have very little stretch in them. You can’t be lowering a several thousand pound chunk of wood over the slate roof on a multi million dollar house and have the rope stretch. But, I have seen them stretch to the point of breaking and you don’t want to be anywhere near them. They DO NOT drop straight down. I always heard chain drops straight down and that’s been my experience. But, a friend was on an air craft carrier during Vietnam. He said they hung up an anchor and broke an anchor chain and it beat the forecastle to death. But, he was known for tall tails. If they had enough pull on the chain to pull one side of the ship down, it could have whipped the chain around bobbing back to level. We thought it was great entertainment to see how far stumps could fly. But, we had giant snatch blocks so we could redirect the direction of the pull, and never aimed at the trucks. Any way, no matter what I’m pulling with, I use the Boy Scout carving rule. Nobody within your blood circle. Hold the knife out, handle first and turn in a circle, nobody inside that circle. If I have fifty feet of line out, no one inside fifty feet.
I had to go back and look at the neighbors house. That was the previous owner. They had the whole front yard covered in mulch. They had a dozen fruit trees and an all organic garden. They had weeds the bugs like planted all around the garden as sacrificial host plants. Very, very nice couple and kids. The wife sung at my daughters wedding. Every one loved them, and hated their yard.
When they built my house they graded six feet of soil off the top of my yard and pushed it over the hill to make level pads to build the neighbors houses on. I’ve put 15 tandem loads of top soil on that side of my yard to get grass to grow. I’m on all shale, as soon as we get a week of no rain the grass turns yellow. There is a line from where the top soil ended and the new rock. I think another 15-20 yards will get rid of the line and give the yard the grade I want. The rock just gives me the excuse to get more top soil.