I was out thinning some ugly trees in my woods today and got a very unpleasant surprise. Knarly barber chair. I knew it was leaning so I think I got too caught up in dealing with the lean. The tree had a very healthy crown and no external sign of rot that I could see. When I put my face cut in, a saw a little bit of rot in the center, but didn't pay enough attention to it. Started the bore cut and then I heard the dreaded crack and saw the crack going up out the corner of my eye. I was able to high tail it out of there and in the end, the tree was on the ground and I was perfectly unharmed. However, it was a very good reminder to pay attention and don't skip steps when felling trees.
That easily could have been a very different outcome. Thankfully, someone was looking out for you. Trees are full of energy until they lay flat on the groung. Glad you are ok, and yes, always good to talk about those events as a reminder to yourself and a heads up to others.
Dropping trees is dangerous work! Things happen in a instant and can go bad so quickly that you don't have time to react. Really thankful that this ended well for you and you weren't hurt!
You were certainly being watched over! Glad all went well, could've certaintly gone a different route.
Thanks for all the support. The tree actually came down pretty slowly, in the "right" direction and didn't jump backwards or to the side, so I was way out of the way when it did finally fall. However, what shook me up was the "what if's" later. This is as close to as I ever want to be to "the bad one."
I left the saw in the bore cut when I split. In the picture, the saw is right where I found it, unharmed and still idling. Better lucky than good sometimes.
