Ryan McFarland

Some of you might not know that I’m a bit of a fan of chainsaws. When I was a senior in High School I put “learn to use a chainsaw” on a list of 50 things to do before i die. I’m able to fall trees, build benches and tables, and do just about anything short of carving a bear with my chainsaw. Today i had a first though. I cut down a difficult tree that was leaning on another tree - over power lines and a park sign. Ira raised me in a bucket attached to the boom truck about 80 feet up and i topped the tree, narrowly missing the park sign. The trunk of the tree sprung back with the release of the weight of the top and gave me another first - my first injury from running a chainsaw. I have a two inch scratch on my right forearm from a branch grazing me. It was fun. I can’t say it wasn’t a little frightening. But sometimes fun and fright are awfully close on the emotional scale.