Nancy Finds Harry Hanging from a Live Oak Tree

Friday afternoon was a great day for a hanging - the sun peeked through the branches in the forest onto one lonely oak tree in the back yard. Bill the Builder told Harry that a long horizontal branch of the oak had to be removed if we wanted to put the workshop in that shaded location.

So Harry decided to do it himself. He had a nice Stihl chain saw - he could borrow Lee's ladder - and cut the 30 foot branch off in segments and it would not harm the fence. He could have chosen just to saw it off at the trunk - but then the 30 foot long branch extending 25 feet in the air would surely crush the fence - it weight easily 2000 pounds.

So Harry opened the ladder to its full 24 foot extension - and it just barely reached the branch. Harry climbed up - it was really tipsy and high up there - Harry tried not to look down - then he pulled his chain saw up with a rope. He started to saw - but stopped and decided to tie the rope around the branch and then around his chest under his arms - that way if anything slipped - he would be hanging safely in the tree.

After sharpening the chain saw and filling it with gas and bar oil - it fired right up first pull. He started the cut the branch that was about 9 inches in diameter where the end of the ladder precariously rested. The branch cut cleanly and swiftly. He slowed the saw down a bit to watch the branch start to fall. He stopped...the branch stopped... he started.....the branch started. All of a sudden the section of the branch speeded up a bit and pivoted around hitting the ladder with such force that it broke the ladder in two - right through the aluminum rails - ripped it off like paper. So there was Harry - hanging from the live oak tree just like Tom Dooley.

Harry was not hurt one bit - but below his feet lay a pile of ladder and tree branches. He had the perfect bird's eye view of where he would have been lying if he didn't decide to use a safety rope. A 25 foot fall could have been fatal. Instead - it was kind of humorous when he called Nancy out of the house and was just hanging there. Harry thought he said to Nancy, "cut me down," and that she said "you're not dead yet," but memories fail in times like this. He was pretty scared. Nancy steered his foot to a piece of ladder to take his weight off the rope and he worked himself to the ground.

After checking his body for breaks - Harry decided to saw the rest of the branch off from the ground - and when the rest of that 2000 pound branch hit the ground with a thud - the fence was spared.

Next on the agenda is a trip to Home Depot to buy Lee a new ladder. He wasted a $200 ladder and nearly his life to save a $10 fence section. Another wise educated decision by the retired teacher.