By Henry Brenneman

Hello loggers,

I’ve known for a long time that I should get another article written. Every time another Equipment Edge came, there was still no article from me. It’s my fault! All it took was a message from Wayne a day before a rainy day. Thanks, Wayne, for your encouragement. :)

I was glad to see a few more safety articles other than just mine. Come on — we need more articles written by someone who has experienced accidents or near accidents. Logging is ever dangerous, and there are so many younger loggers starting up who should know the precautions. That’s still my desire — they need to know some of the things that can and already have happened.

Now I need to write about my embarrassing moment that I didn’t get written last time. One of the locals couldn’t wait for me to get this written, so he went and asked my brother what happened.

This big pine tree dropped perfectly down in the yard. Number one, it didn’t even reach the board fence. Number two, it fell in the section of board fence beside the one that was taken away! The tree fell where it was notched — I simply didn’t aim the notch well enough to hit that big hole in the fence. I did accomplish my goal, though, and that was to save the board fence.

Out in the woods, if such things happen, there’s no fuss. Another incident years ago in one of my cousin’s yards — I was to cut a huge pine tree. I wish I could quickly find in my diary what size that tree was. It was the tallest pine I ever cut. It seems to me it was over 100 feet tall and more or less 4 feet in diameter. It was along the main road with just enough room to drop it between the corn crib and the road. I was shy from the main road, so I notched it a little closer toward the crib. When that tree started to fall, it moved more toward the corn crib. A huge tree like that, out in midair, is totally going to go where it wants to if it’s not properly notched! It came down and smashed part of that corn crib.

I thought I had the wrong size hinge to hold it while it was dropping. My cousin figured out what happened by studying my stump. When I made the top notch, I cut too deep, and that cut had been lower than my bottom cut. That made the hinge only half as big as it should have been. That’s why it’s so important to have the right size hinge. I thought it was the right size, but it wasn’t, with so much of the bottom cut off.

I’d like to see an article written about how to estimate how tall a tree is before it’s cut. I don’t want to tear down board fences or repair corn crib roofs in my older years! Let’s prevent rather than repair.

Next time, I should write about timber felling on steep slopes.