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.

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    The counter says that 2676765 have been flummelized, but I personally think it's all a big lie.

    om namay padmay om

  • [ 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.

    Widowmaker
    Can you spot the widow-maker in this picture?

    Posted by karan on 01/07 at 09:58 AM
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