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What Did You Do Today?

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Pat B:
I was cutting firewood today on the far side of our property. It was getting close to lunch time and I was about to make the last cut of the day when something hit me in the head. The tree I was cutting is one I started a few days before.This, an 18" red oak, got hung up in other trees so I studied my options. I could safely cut a few of these other smaller trees and get them out of the way and continue reducing the tree into firewood sized logs from about 2" diameter and up. Well, this thing rang my bell and once I felt stable enough I drove home. My wife saw my head and we headed to the hospital.
 This was about 1pm. During the next few hours 2 PAs, one on one side, one on the other side started cleaning the wound of bark and wood chips and after about 3 hours the two of them put about 200 stitches in the crown of my head. The cat scan showed no skull damage and no bleeding inside, the wound actually didn't bleed much on the outside considering what happened.
 Considering the damage I'm not in much pain. Definitely a headache but Ibuprofen and Tylenol are handling that pretty well. I may have a different opinion tomorrow. I go back on Friday for a follow up and get the stitches removed in about 10 days.
 Please be safe out in the woods whether you are cutting firewood or hunting or just hiking. I'll go back to the scene of the accident in a few days to see if I can figure out what happened. I was aware of the situation and thought I was being safe but obviously I must have overlooked something.

Eric Krewson:
I had a similar thing happen out of the blue; I was going downhill to my food plot on my tractor to till some ground and passed by a big oak. My tiller scraped against the oak and caught a 4" poison ivy vine that was running up a dead tree that I didn't see behind the oak. I felt the tug of the vine and the next thing I knew the vine pulled the dead tree down on top of me. The dead tree was about 15 ft' long and weighed about 200#.

I didn't have my roll bar up; I did have a hard hat on. The half up roll bar deflected the falling tree slightly but it still glanced off my head and hit my shoulder pretty hard. The hard hat saved my head; my shoulder took it hard but nothing was broken because it was a glancing blow.

If the tree had fallen just a few inches to the right and I would have been killed, this stuff happens so quickly there is no time to react.

It sounds like a widow maker got you Pat.

I have a tree I want to put a ladder stand on. It is a large double trunk tree, one of the trunks has been dead for at least 10 years. To put the ladder stand up I would have to cut the dead trunk that is about 24" in diameter. I can see all of the widow makers hanging by a thread 30'-40' up and haven't figured out how to cut the tree safely so I have to let it go.

JW_Halverson:
Good Lord, brother Pat, don't go making a widow of that good woman so soon. That goes for all the rest of ya'll, too!

I'm of an age that I felt I needed to buy a good dark suit for those inevitable somber gatherings, but this is one case where I hope I DON'T get my money's worth out of a purchase.

Pat B:
Eric, the tree hung up in other smaller trees. It was last week I cut it down. Since then I've been studying all my options. I did successfully remove most of the smaller trees letting the big tree settle more. There were a few widow makers left but I thought I was clear of them. I'll go back up there in a few days to see if I can figure out what happened.
 John, good thing I have a hard head.  ;D I do have a bit of a headache today and a few sore muscles and get a bit dizzy when first standing but I guess that will pass in a few days. I go back tomorrow for a check up and redressing the wound and get the stitches out in 10 days.

PaulN/KS:
Glad it wasn't worse Pat. Hope everything heals up quickly.

Guys, remember, the most frequent cause of injuries to us old men is our thinking that we are still young men...
Be safe out there.

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