What's the craziest tree fallin' story you know of? Here's mine.

[beenthere]

Coon
One would think that this guy would have noticed saw cuts on each tree, undercuts (wedges) removed, and sawdust chips from each of the cuts, thus giving it all away when he arrived.

Guess we won't try any practical jokes on you. 

One of my experiences was when asked to cut down a pine for a guy, that was about 12" diam and had a lean to where I wanted to drop it, he was back a safe distance taking pictures. I made the undercut, the wedge dropped out, and I didn't change positions but just put the top of the saw bar to make the backcut and just before I finished the cut to the hinge I looked again at the drop zone. Lucky I did, as this guy had run around directly in the trees' path, and was taking pictures. I stopped cutting, yelled at him, and as he ran the tree slowly dropped where he had just been.  I suspect I knew where that tree was going to land, but he didn't - and that could have been a real problem. I take my chances and discuss the landing spot now with whoever is with me. 

[twistedtree]

The most alarming for me was many years ago cutting firewood on a snowy day.  I was dropping trees while a friend was hauling the wood to the truck.  He went back to the house to get something and I kept cutting.  When he returned he 1) didn't let me know he was back, 2) miss-judged where I was due to the snow muffling the saw sound, 3) he walked into the work zone.

When the tree I was cutting hit the ground and the snow cloud settled, he was standing right next to the tree with skid marks on the sleeve of his jacket.  A change of shorts was required by all.

[Frickman]

beenthere,

I saw the same thing happen at a Game of Logging class I took about ten years ago. The company whp hosted the class invited a local newspaper reporter out to do a story on the class. PR thing mostly. Anyway, one of the students stuck a stick in the ground where he was aiming a tree, and proceeded to start to cut it down. We had the reporter standing behind us in a safety/retreat zone about a hundred feet away taking pictures. He gets the bright idea to walk over and stand two feet away from the stick. As he was standing behind us, and we were watching the cutter, nobody noticed him. The cutter looked up at his hopeful landing area and here's this fellow with the camera pointed at the treetop. He stopped cutting immediately of course. When asked what he was doing the reporter said "You said the tree was going to hit this stick so I'm going to take a series of pictures as it falls. I made sure to stand just to the side of the stick so I won't get hit". We didn't take our eye off him the rest of the time, and if someone was running a saw the biggest guy there held this fellow by the arm.

[asy]

Hey Frick,

I think that's what ya call a "Temporary Human"...

asy

[Gilman]

Frickman,
Wouldn't of been much of an article to read but there would of been some great photos to print.

[Frickman]

Great pictures yes, but could you imagine the article. Logging Safety Class Kills the Messenger

I had a dog in the early '90's that would go everywhere with me, including the woods. She figured out that the tree was going to fall the direction I made the notch. She'd run around like that reporter and bark at the thing the whole way down, and jump away at the last second. I had to start leaving her at home because I was scared of hitting her.

[asy]

Ya know, I reckon, there's a few reporters I could send ya for target practice, if'n ya run out up there...

asy

[james]

Its called a "Darwin Award"
james

[submarinesailor]

Back many years ago, we had a house just outside Charleston, SC.  Can anyone say “Hurricane Hugo.”  We were renting it out at the time, so when we came in to help with the cleanup.  We found a large 20”+ leaned towards the house.  After studying it for a few minutes, I decided that I could top it and the top would miss the house.  So, I put on the climbing spikes and up I went.  Everything went find until the top came loose.  Oh it missed the house and landed on the ground just fine.  But, all of a sudden I was on the end of a long limber pole.  When the top came off, it released all the weight off a leaning tree.  I felt like I was a fishing sinker on the end of a fishing rod going down a very bumpy road – bouncing and swinging all over the place.  My wife thought she was going to get my life insurance.  Here I was on the end of this pole, swinging all over the place with one arm warped around the tree and a running chain saw in the other.   Talk about a death grip on a tree.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough or the worst of it.   When I was cutting loose the next 6 foot section, it broke loose early with a large sliver on the backside.  This sliver slide down between the tree and my safety belt.  Boy did I become up close and personal with that tree real fast.  Again with a running saw in one hand, bouncing all over and fighting to get free.  This time my wife was sure she had my insurance.   Anyway, this time I dropped the saw – had a lease on it, so NO, I didn’t drop it on anyone.  After getting rid of the saw, I was able to get rid of the cutoff section.

Finally got it whole thing on the ground with no damage to anything but my pride and a few sore muscles.

That day I was a candidate for the "Darwin Award"

[woodbowl]

 When I was cutting loose the next 6 foot section, it broke loose early with a large sliver on the backside. This sliver slide down between the tree and my safety belt. Boy did I become up close and personal with that tree real fast.

That remindes me of another story that another fellow told me. The same thing happened to him except he was squeezed really tight! He cut his safty belt with the chain saw and climbed down. He was very sore for a long time.