Chainsaws!

Let's just start by saying that chainsaws are TERRIFYING. I'm amazed that the people I know who use chainsaws are still alive. I would never, ever, endorse chainsaw use without being trained and wearing protective equipment. I would even go so far as to say that I would not be in the presence of someone using a chainsaw without training or equipment.

The guy who trained us (and made us a mushroom) did a good job impressing that you can be completely safe, in control of the situation and experienced and make one mistake (or not even- accidents can just happen for no reason with huge things like trees and limbs under tension) and you're toast.

We spent three hours hearing about both professional lumberjacks and amateurs who had gotten a kickback by touching just the tiniest tip of their saw to something and had 50 stitches across their face, or spring poles (small trees caught under a larger tree) that threw them 100 feet. Bill (or Chainsaw Bill as we like to call him) recounted a few horror stories of his own and they seemed to all happen right when he thought everything was fine. Not in rain, or snow, or in a seemingly dangerous situation, but when he overlooked something that seemed simply normal.

So, with all this in mind, and sure I was going to drop dead at any moment impaled upon a tree limb, we headed into the woods.

We ended up learning how to fell trees (I did two!), take the limbs off and chop the trunks into firewood (or what would be split into firewood). We learned a technique to fell a tree exactly where we wanted to put it and practiced hitting a flag with the crown of branches. Very cool.

So yeah, chainsaws = scary if not used correctly. The damage it can do is not worth being unsure or untrained.