# Insane, Dangerous, I just about called the cops...



## Daniel (Jan 3, 2012)

I watched and photographed this series of pictures from my back yard. I've never seen such insanity in my life.

Observe, in the distance, the tree that is being stripped of its limbs...
[attachment=868]

Look a little closer, and check the dude out... in sneakers, with a chainsaw, climbing 60 or more feet of the ground... with no ropes or harness... one toe on a cut branch, one leg over the branch above, sawing the end off the branch he is hanging from...
[attachment=869]

Here he is, at it again. This time, standing in the crotch of a tree, with a full size chainsaw, cutting a main branch at chest height with the saw approximately 6 inches from his face/torso...it's a sequence:

[attachment=870] [attachment=871] [attachment=872]


----------



## Daniel (Jan 3, 2012)

The rest of the series, wherein he succeeds in cutting the main branch without gutting himself...
[attachment=873] [attachment=874]

Finally, here he is again, about 55 feet up, no ropes... just sneakers, jeans, no vision or hearing protection, no ropes... the only thing is that NOW, he's using a smaller saw. Except he had just dropped that saw 40 feet and bent the bar. It started and would run, so he just used it with the bent bar... to limb a tree... while climbing that same tree... with no protection or safety gear at all.

[attachment=875]

All in all, this whole thing just about made me nauseous. Please, do not ever use a chainsaw like this!!!


----------



## Kenbo (Jan 3, 2012)

That is crazy. Someone obviously has a deathwish.


----------



## CodyS (Jan 3, 2012)

:kenbo has panic attack:scare:: 

:Cody almost has panic attack:scare::


----------



## Mandolin (Jan 3, 2012)

Did it kill him when he fell, or just break his back? One thing I practice when I log is safety, safety, safety. When I log I am always by myself. My logging and sawmill operation is set up when one man can run it. Since I'm always alone, I have to be careful because if I get a tree on me or hit with a widowmaker, I'm way off down in the woods with no way to contact anybody. Cellphones won't work out here in the woods and it's a long way to help.


----------



## Kevin (Jan 3, 2012)

Daniel said:


> ... Look a little closer, and check the dude out... in sneakers, with a chainsaw, climbing 60 or more feet of the ground... with no ropes or harness... one toe on a cut branch, one leg over the branch above, sawing the end off the branch he is hanging from....



I couldn't imagine seeing that if I hadn't seen it. As grainy as the closeup is, it's still obvious what you're describing is INSANE. Did you have the opportunity to meet this nut job? I wouldn't have missed that chance for anything. I would have someone record my casual interview when he came down from the tree and ask him some short, simple, open questions and let him roll. I bet that would be the stuff of youtube legend. 

Poor fella, when God called everyone to receive their "brain", he thought God said "train" and took the first one out of town. 




Mandolin said:


> Did it kill him when he fell, or just break his back? One thing I practice when I log is safety, safety, safety. When I log I am always by myself. My logging and sawmill operation is set up when one man can run it. Since I'm always alone, I have to be careful because if I get a tree on me or hit with a widowmaker, I'm way off down in the woods with no way to contact anybody. Cellphones won't work out here in the woods and it's a long way to help.



RL, I have written this paragraph almost verbatim a few times over the years. I sure do have some stories I could tell. I've told a couple, but for the most part no one would believe some of them so I just keep them to myself. And I am EXTREMELY cautious while I log. 

Still, it's a dangerous thing to be doing what we do and when you're alone it's a double-edged sword. one edge of the blade is total isolation from the rest of the world. Lovely. Indescribable. the other edge of the blade is . . . total isolation from help if you ever need it. I choose the risk because the satisfaction of what we do, and the serenity of the woods even while running a growling chainsaw is something most people will never experience. 



.


----------



## Daniel (Jan 3, 2012)

@Mandolin: He didn't fall, which is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I would not wish that on anyone... and a curse because he will probably do it again and again until he DOES fall, leading by example and teaching people bad, bad habits.

@Kevin: That glorious isolation is exactly right... and frightening. I've had a pine tree 40 inches at the butt twist off the stump, hit a ledge and literally bounce 8 feet backwards while falling and rotating. It missed me by not a lot ... The husband of a childhood friend of mine was killed by something similar last year. Another friend broke all of his ribs, his collarbone, and had all the muscles detached from the right side of his back by a widowmaker.

The feeling is deepest when you shut the saw off, and there is literally no noise except the creaking of the trees in the wind. 

Watching this guy "operate" was bone-chilling. Especially since I did actually talk to him and pointed out that he was being an absolute fool (I was polite about it) and noted that there was an equipment rental shop about a mile away that has articulated 30' man lifters for 200 bucks a day, which is cheap when compared to being dead. He just shrugged.

The reason why the close-up is so pixelated and grainy is that I refused to get within splatter distance!

I showed the same pics to my dad, who just about burst a blood vessel.


----------

