I am Karan from Olympia, WA.
Almost every other name used here is a pseodonym pseudonim pseudonymn alias.
The rest of it is true - mostly - and all of it is my own.
Don't even think about taking any of it, unless of course, you want to pay me.
Random Wisdom: Don't stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed. - George Burns
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The counter says that 3219991 have been flummelized, but I personally think it's all a big lie.
[ Sunday, January 07, 2007 ]
Widow-makers
In tree country, at least in Pacific Northwest tree country, we get a phenomena known as widow-makers. Widow-makers are basically a big broken branch that hasn’t yet fallen to the ground...trapped by the structure of tree. Trapped that is until gravity wins with or without the assistance of a gusty wind and the branch crashes down on the head of some poor unsuspecting schmuck and wham...his wife is a widow. The term is a very old logging word and very descriptive of consequences of such a hazard.
As a result of our big wind storm, we now have lots of widow-makers in our local trees and it sort of makes it scary to walk through the forest or in our yard. Yesterday I was looking at a Big Leaf Maple tree growing in our front yard. It’s at least 35 feet tall and there way up near the top was a huge broken branch just waiting for the opportunity to meet the ground below.
Widow-makers are not fun. Often they are not easy to spot so even pre-scanning a walk below may provide little warning. No one wants to go get ‘em because for one thing, they are usually very high in trees and require either a cherrypicker or a fearful climb to the top. It’s dangerous...up above and down below.
Anyway, with every new wind, every big rain and with that whole gravity thing always holding court, the widow-makers are falling and sometimes in the wee hours of the night, I can hear them crashing.
Big winds are expected again and I can promise you that I am so not going to sleep in a tent in the woods. My guess that there is such a thing as widower-maker.
Can you spot the widow-maker in this picture?