A VERY close call...

[SpyderNut]

I still can't believe this happened...

Several hours ago, my wife and I came home from work at the same time per our usual. Please note that the weather here in NE Indiana had been truly atrocious all day long: severe gale-force winds mixed with freezing rain. Anyway, we pulled into our driveway at the same time and noticed that our house was dark. "Great, the power is out" I muttered to myself as I hopped out of the truck and manually opened the overhead garage door. My wife drove her truck into the garage while I sat outside in my truck. After a few moments, I drove in also. No sooner had I turned off the ignition on my truck, I heard a tremendous *CRASH!* directly behind my truck. I heard my wife scream and my first honest thought was that she dropped the bags of groceries that she was carrying. I jumped out and ran to the back of the truck to see what had happened. My wife was standing motionless staring blankly outside the garage. There, sitting directly where I had been parked a scant two minutes prior, was a huge tree limb that had fallen off our mature silver Maple tree that is positioned next to the garage. :eek: Obviously, that limb would have crushed or severely hurt either one of us had we been standing or sitting there. If it had fallen two feet to the South, it would have crushed our garage where we were standing.

Do you believe in miracles?

I know I do.

[awa54]

Whoa! that's some good fortune for sure.

[Dr. Snubnose]

Glad you two are alright...Could have been a nightmare as opposed to a miracle...Doc:)

[DRKBC]

Nice miss, that story certainly could have had a much different ending. Glad your safe.

[Liquid Cobra]

Glad it worked out and was just a close call.

Unfortunately I don't believe in miracles or luck.

The same thing happened up the road from my house a few weeks ago except the branch landed on a lady's car. She wasn't inside it at the time but it crushed the roof of the car and most of the windows. Yikes!

[DRKBC]

I was hiking in our beautiful province and a fairly large branch snapped,I didn't even hear it but hit me right in the back of the neck, knocked me right to the ground. Fortunately the damage was repaired with a few visits to the chiropractor. That said I have had a few very close calls with much larger trees coming down that were similar to your story ... right place at the right time.

[David from NC]

Glad you guys are okay.

[Doc Dan]

I'm glad you two are okay. Some do not believe in miracles and they have that right. Some do and for good reasons. Some things are just to unreasonable for "chance", which was a pagan god and the rational do not believe in those, do they :)

[SG89]

Buy a lottery ticket!

[Johnnie1801]

Glad you're both all right, trees can be dangerous. Time to get one of these

[SpyderNut]

Thank you all for the kind words. :) Call it luck or Divine Intervention, I think God was definitely looking over our shoulder last night.

Hey Johnnie! That is hilarious because I just a few minutes ago told my wife that we probably needed to get her Dad's Stihl to use on the limb. :D Great minds, no?

[SpyderNut]

P.S. Stihl's are basically the Spyderco of chainsaws in my humble opinion. :)

[JD Spydo]

Spydernut first and foremost I'm thankful to GOD above that both you and your wife are safe and didn't get hurt or even killed for that matter :eek: A few years back I was in the tree trimming and tree removal business and did that type of work for about 15 years. I can attest first hand just how dangerous and destructive falling tree limbs are. The Silver Maple variety of tree you speak of is widespread here in Missouri where I live and every time we have an ice storm it's the Silver Maple and Elm trees that seem to get the worst damage of any of the many species of trees we have here in the great state of Missouri.

The G-Force of a falling limb even a smaller one 3 inches in diameter are potentially lethal and the potential for destruction is great. Also Elm and Chinese Elm are terrible in ice storms as well as Bradford Pear trees :mad: . But I've seen Silver Maple limbs exceeding 14 to 16 inches in diameter ripped off trees like toothpicks in Missouri ice storms. I do thank the Good Lord that both of you are safe and neither one of you got hurt. I've been hit by small tree limbs on the job when I was doing that type of work and I can tell you that one of MiKe Tyson's punches have nothing on a free falling tree limb ( even a smaller one) :eek: If you can afford it or it doesn't destroy your souces of shade in the summertime I would recommend getting rid of any Silver Maple in proximity of your house or garage>> that species is a curse in my opinon

[SG89]

P.S. Stihl's are basically the Spyderco of chainsaws in my humble opinion. :)

Yes indeed.
Also weedeater. Also tiller.

[SpyderNut]

Spydernut first and foremost I'm thankful to GOD above that both you and your wife are safe and didn't get hurt or even killed for that matter :eek: A few years back I was in the tree trimming and tree removal business and did that type of work for about 15 years. I can attest first hand just how dangerous and destructive falling tree limbs are. The Silver Maple variety of tree you speak of is widespread here in Missouri where I live and every time we have an ice storm it's the Silver Maple and Elm trees that seem to get the worst damage of any of the many species of trees we have here in the great state of Missouri.

The G-Force of a falling limb even a smaller one 3 inches in diameter are potentially lethal and the potential for destruction is great. Also Elm and Chinese Elm are terrible in ice storms as well as Bradford Pear trees :mad: . But I've seen Silver Maple limbs exceeding 14 to 16 inches in diameter ripped off trees like toothpicks in Missouri ice storms. I do thank the Good Lord that both of you are safe and neither one of you got hurt. I've been hit by small tree limbs on the job when I was doing that type of work and I can tell you that one of MiKe Tyson's punches have nothing on a free falling tree limb ( even a smaller one) :eek: If you can afford it or it doesn't destroy your souces of shade in the summertime I would recommend getting rid of any Silver Maple in proximity of your house or garage>> that species is a curse in my opinon

Thank you for the kind words, JD. As you said, we were truly fortunate last night. :) Thank you also for the recommendation on the Silver Maple. I'm beginning to think that taking it down may be the right thing to do. Last night scared the h*ll out of me... If the wind would've simply blown a bit more from the NE, the limb would've certainly hit the house and most likely us too. It's a beautiful tree when in full foliage, but the little "whirlibirds" in the Spring are a real pain in the bum to clean up--especially from out of the gutters. :rolleyes: We used to cut a lot of wood for our wood stove as a kid. I remember my dad always cautioning my brother and I about the dangers of tree-trimming. One can never be too cautious when it comes to that stuff.

[SpyderNut]

P.S. Stihl's are basically the Spyderco of chainsaws in my humble opinion. :)

Yes indeed.
Also weedeater. Also tiller.

You bet! :) My Stihl weed-trimmer is eight years old and still runs like new. And I have beat the living poo out of that thing too.

[Johnnie1801]

Thank you all for the kind words. :) Call it luck or Divine Intervention, I think God was definitely looking over our shoulder last night.

Hey Johnnie! That is hilarious because I just a few minutes ago told my wife that we probably needed to get her Dad's Stihl to use on the limb. :D Great minds, no?

Yup, your father in law's Stihl will do the job nicely but one day you're gonna have to buy your own :D I have 3 chainsaws, a Stihl top handle saw T192, a Husqvarna 345 and some electric machine I haven't used in a looooong time, lol, but I really want another Stihl like a 261 or 362, I need that extra power :D

How big is that branch? It might be a good idea to cut it up for firewood, here where I live you can easily get $100 for a cubic metre of wood. As God doesn't have any money maybe he thought he would reward you with some wood to sell so you can buy a new Spydie for New Year :D

P.S. Stihl's are basically the Spyderco of chainsaws in my humble opinion. :)

Stihl's tools are very good. I have some Husqvarna tools that are good too but the Stihls just seem to be designed better for hard use. Just don't buy any of their knives, I bought one and after 2 weeks it fell apart in my pocket, on the plus side it led me to buying my first Spyderco. God, Mother Nature, karma etc work in mysterious ways :)

[SpyderNut]

Thank you all for the kind words. :) Call it luck or Divine Intervention, I think God was definitely looking over our shoulder last night.

Hey Johnnie! That is hilarious because I just a few minutes ago told my wife that we probably needed to get her Dad's Stihl to use on the limb. :D Great minds, no?

Yup, your father in law's Stihl will do the job nicely but one day you're gonna have to buy your own :D I have 3 chainsaws, a Stihl top handle saw T192, a Husqvarna 345 and some electric machine I haven't used in a looooong time, lol, but I really want another Stihl like a 261 or 362, I need that extra power :D

How big is that branch? It might be a good idea to cut it up for firewood, here where I live you can easily get $100 for a cubic metre of wood. As God doesn't have any money maybe he thought he would reward you with some wood to sell so you can buy a new Spydie for New Year :D

P.S. Stihl's are basically the Spyderco of chainsaws in my humble opinion. :)

Stihl's tools are very good. I have some Husqvarna tools that are good too but the Stihls just seem to be designed better for hard use. Just don't buy any of their knives, I bought one and after 2 weeks it fell apart in my pocket, on the plus side it led me to buying my first Spyderco. God, Mother Nature, karma etc work in mysterious ways :)

I agree with you, Johnnie. Husqvarna makes an excellent product too. I guess I've always just preferred Stihl's chainsaws ever since I first used my father's vintage 028 (which was the predecessor to the 029 Farm Boss). My brother owns three Stihl's--including an Arborist's saw. Sigh. I have wanted to get one too, but I guess I don't have a good enough excuse. Lol

[OldSarSwmr]

Happy to hear that you both are okay.


Dan

[bh49]

Michael,

Thanks G-d you and your wire are all right.
I am happy for both of you and your family.