I was reminded about the *widow makers* today

[General Lee]

Today I was scooping up some dirt in the woods with the FEL to fill in some areas around the house. I was scooping between two small diameter trees, maybe 3-4 inches in diameter. As I was backing out, the FEL bumped one of the trees. I looked up and here comes a small dead branch about a foot long. No sooner than my eyes got focused......SMACK! right on the head it landed. It hurt enough to get my attention and was reminded how serious the large widow makers can be. Be careful out there gentleman.

 

[Mousefield]

About 2 years ago I had a big branch come down on my head, I was about 20-25 feet away from the tree. Got a concussion from that, not a good thing. Now if I go into the bush I wear a hard hat, fair amount of dead alder trees/branchs on our place, on some of the trees just the tops are dead.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Yeah I don't think about widow makers on the tractor as much as I do when I am climbing or felling tree's. That could be a mistake. I do wear my helmet when ever I am doing tree or chipping which has saved me many serious thunks on the noggin.

 

[texasjohn]

Another reason I'm glad I've got a cab:thumbsup:

 

[Egon]

Falling things can hurt. I started wearing a hard hat whenever I used the tractor some years ago.

 

[TripleR]

Another reason I'm glad I've got a cab:thumbsup:

Me too.:thumbsup:

I don't use our open station tractor anymore, but we put a steel canopy on it for working in the woods.

 

[Onthesauk]

For those of you who might not wear a hard hat in the woods, might also consider your age. Those over the age of 60 are especially susceptible to a subdural hemnatoma's In my case I slept 20 hours a day for over 2 months, lost 30 pounds and went through a great deal of grief. The easy cure is to drill a couple of holes in your head and keep it drained, not a great deal of fun either.

I now wear a hard hat often when working in the woods.

 

[whistlepig]

Widow makers can be under the grass also. Years ago I was brush hogging and ran over a 8' tree limb with a 1' root that was buried under the grass. The rear tire hit the root just right and it flipped the tree limb in to the side of my head. It split my head open and almost knocked me out. Years before that my neighbor was brush hogging and hit a similar limb with his front tires. It flipped this limb up and the end of the limb caught his shin between the end of the limb and the tractor fender. It disintegrated his left leg below the knee before he was able to able to push the clutch in with his right leg. Tractors scare me a bit. And after being on them 40 years I hope I never lose the fear.

 

[Thomas]

Does give one different out look after being tap on the head..glad your okay.

When plowing snow on windy day I've been know to wear motocycle helmet,those falling clumps of snow 30' plus up hurt.

 

[20 20]

Glad you're okay and were able to share a lesson learned.