Spent the morning working on a tangle of trees which was created by a red oak dropped by one of our winter storms. The oak fell taking down a pine and a couple smaller ash. Typical New England terrain - about a 15' high, 150' long pile of ledge and loose boulders (thank you glaciers) bordering a swampish area. The oak had been rooted at the top of the pile.
Started on the tops just to get the area clear enough to work safely. Went to the top to cut away a large enough section of the trunks so that I could use the King Quad to pull sections of the tree of off the pile so I wouldn't be cutting in the rocks. That tends to be rough on chains and ankles.
Here's the stupid part. About 16' of the oak is cantilevered off of the ground at about waist height. Instead of cutting from the stump end I got lazy and cut about 14' up. I knew this section might roll towards me as it fell. Fine, a smart guy like me will position myself out of the way. Made my cut and that log showed me my first "barber chair". It split about 6' past my cut and rolled right to me.
Damn that was fast. No time to move and no where to go. Caught me just above my knee in a rolling downward motion. Log's motion was stopped by a little pine. No real damage; just swelling the size of a grapefruit and some nice scrapes.
The afternoon will be spent enjoying some of Mr. Daniel's fine product and an ice pack.
Be careful out there.
Started on the tops just to get the area clear enough to work safely. Went to the top to cut away a large enough section of the trunks so that I could use the King Quad to pull sections of the tree of off the pile so I wouldn't be cutting in the rocks. That tends to be rough on chains and ankles.
Here's the stupid part. About 16' of the oak is cantilevered off of the ground at about waist height. Instead of cutting from the stump end I got lazy and cut about 14' up. I knew this section might roll towards me as it fell. Fine, a smart guy like me will position myself out of the way. Made my cut and that log showed me my first "barber chair". It split about 6' past my cut and rolled right to me.
Damn that was fast. No time to move and no where to go. Caught me just above my knee in a rolling downward motion. Log's motion was stopped by a little pine. No real damage; just swelling the size of a grapefruit and some nice scrapes.
The afternoon will be spent enjoying some of Mr. Daniel's fine product and an ice pack.
Be careful out there.