The Stig
05-11-2011, 07:31 PM
So last night I was using the chainsaw to cut out some sapling/small trees and general underbrush.
I had worked for about two hours and was getting tired so I decided to set the saw down and just spend the rest of the time cleaning out junk by hand.
After 5 minutes of that I got into a section of saplings that was covered in grapevine. Having a flash of brilliance I decide to fire the chainsaw up one last time to make several large cuts of the hundreds of vines/small tree trunks.
Guess where this is going.....
So in the process of this I turn in such a way that I get my upper thigh under the blade. I just felt the prick of the blade as I pulled the saw back up.
Glancing down by sweat soaked BDU's now had an inch long tear and blood began seeping through.
Swell.
Turns out I got very very very lucky and only nicked myself. I've had worse shaving cuts.
But I won't lie...scared the crap out of me.
It was also a good reminder to:
1) Listen to yourself when you know you are getting tired
2) That had I really laid myself open I was thirty yards from the house and would have bled out before I got there
3) I was a dumbass for not having a first aid kit while working with a chainsaw (despite having $10,000 of medical gear inside the house).
4) Had this been post hurricane cleanup or some other similar SHTF event I would have been royally F'd. No calling 911 then.
So let my stupidity be a lesson to you fellow preppers.
I had worked for about two hours and was getting tired so I decided to set the saw down and just spend the rest of the time cleaning out junk by hand.
After 5 minutes of that I got into a section of saplings that was covered in grapevine. Having a flash of brilliance I decide to fire the chainsaw up one last time to make several large cuts of the hundreds of vines/small tree trunks.
Guess where this is going.....
So in the process of this I turn in such a way that I get my upper thigh under the blade. I just felt the prick of the blade as I pulled the saw back up.
Glancing down by sweat soaked BDU's now had an inch long tear and blood began seeping through.
Swell.
Turns out I got very very very lucky and only nicked myself. I've had worse shaving cuts.
But I won't lie...scared the crap out of me.
It was also a good reminder to:
1) Listen to yourself when you know you are getting tired
2) That had I really laid myself open I was thirty yards from the house and would have bled out before I got there
3) I was a dumbass for not having a first aid kit while working with a chainsaw (despite having $10,000 of medical gear inside the house).
4) Had this been post hurricane cleanup or some other similar SHTF event I would have been royally F'd. No calling 911 then.
So let my stupidity be a lesson to you fellow preppers.