Netzingers -- Explicit coquina que est optima medicina.

I came home today frustrated from a hard day at work and decided to clear out the hickory tree behind the house.  After all, I figured, there was still plenty of light left, and I had thoroughly mapped out the cut.  This was to be the "practice tree" to prepare for taking out the bigger broken trees in front of the house.

 The cabling went fine, and the wedge cut - where I had gotten stuck on previous jobs- was really clean.  I was able to lean the tree over nicely with the winch and we were fairly confident that it would fall away from the house.

 Then I made the mistake of angling the toppling cut.  When the tree started to go, it skidded on the stump and fell down on the opposite side of the stump from me.  Thankfully, the tree did not come down straight at me, but it did pivot and fall toward me.  Diana started yelling and I looked up and saw it coming and ran, but it came down fast - close enough for the branches to sweep me off my feet and send me tumbling. 

I bounced up and immediately started yelling "I'm all right, I'm all right," and Diana was next to me, trembling with tears.  Amazingly, all I came away with was a couple of scratches on my forehead from the hardhat headband, a twig stuck behind my ear like a carpenter carrying a pencil, and a mystery tear in my pants.  

The chainsaw bar guide was crunched, but the engine was running, so I picked it up and switched it off.  These darn hickory trees have a habit of crunching up the bars.  Even the small tree was far heavier and far harder than I had realized.  

I felt nothing until I was getting ready to go back into the house.  The day's work was done.  I summed up the experience in three words: "Thank You Jesus."  

A lesson was learned.  I would never again pick up a chainsaw in anger.