...in which a Tree Limb Falls on Me

We still have major tree limbs to take care of from the Jan 28th ice storm... Pete did drag what he could to the front of the house, and they were picked up (WHOLE!!) a while back. Everything else will have to be cut and tied in bundles so it can be picked up by the city. Tuesday, the weather was great, so I went outside and started cutting up a limb. I figured if I cut up one limb every nice day, we might get them cleaned up sometime before summer arrives. I was so impressed with my progress that I wanted to do some more yesterday. Pete came out and we pulled a few loose branches away from the tree, and we decided we could saw a few more down as well. We only have a hand saw because I don't want Pete to dismember himself with a chainsaw... He was able to climb up and saw two limbs, but they were still caught on another branch and refused to fall. I showed Pete which (GIANT, 8 inch diameter) limb I thought we could saw to finish the job. He sawed through 80% before he was too tired to do anymore, so I did that last inch or so. It looked like the limb should fall in front of me.... but it didn't! There was so much tension build up from the branches being bent that it sprung backward and landed on my shoulder. OUCH! I was lucky that it didn't land on my head because it was at least 100 lbs of tree. All in all I was barely injured, just an abrasion and a little muscle soreness. We will be a bit more careful when cutting branches out of the tree though :)

Today I disassembled a rather LARGE branch, and it took me 2 hours of lopping and sawing... It's nice to see the progress though, and I kind of enjoy it! The kids played outside while I worked... you can't beat that!