I own a chain saw now.

We had an intense storm here Friday evening, they don't usually get this bad here. The power was off for a day, and the cable just came back on. Our house is ok, I lost half an eavestrough, a patio umbrella tried to escape but got hung up on the fence, and ironically a piece of the little weather station on the roof blew off and landed at my feet. Trees down everywhere, and power poles snapped off in our neighbourhood.
My parents lost a tree. It fell on to their neigbour's fruit trees and destroyed them, so I had to buy a chainsaw and cut that up today. It took my son and I four hours to cut and pile and we have to go back tomorrow and move the pile. My dad paid me for the saw so I got it for free, except all the work we had to do.
No one was seriously hurt here but an eleven year old boy was killed by a falling tree a couple of hours from here. I hate crap like that happening.
This is a pretty good video. I didn't shoot it. After the 1:30 mark you can see some of the damage in town.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNtCGy7K9Xw

 

Please be careful with your chainsaw, get the right protective equipment. including the correct clothing. I use one fairly frequently but wouldn't attempt anything with out my safety gear.

 

I was going to type what tonyhale just did. Don't know if you're experienced with a chain saw but they require the utmost respect. When a person becomes comfortable and starts feeling like they got 'it' is when it can show you who is the boss and the outcome is rarely pretty. Even a lifelong logger isn't above being injured. Stay safe.

Quite the storm you had there. In my area we need rain very bad but hope nothing like that comes along.

 

If it's any consolation, I feel your pain on the whole storm damage thing.

We've been having huge afternoon thunderstorms with lots of lightening in Houston the past few weeks. Last Friday (a few hours after such a storm), I noticed my house was getting awfully warm and humid.

Luckily, I have a window A/C unit as backup (mainly for use with my generator in the event of a hurricane power outage) that kept me cool over the weekend so long as I stayed in the bedroom.

This morning, the A/C tech came out - the wires going into the outside central air compressor had melted and a small hole had been blown in it! :eek

$2780.00 later, I now have a new outside A/C unit.

But wait...there's more.

The techs could not finish hooking up the unit since the wires going into the circuit breaker had also melted. The electrician is coming out tomorrow, this will easily add at least a few hundred more bucks to the total tab.

The only bright spot in this (if you can call it that) is I spoke with my insurance agent. Since it appears the damage was caused by lightening/power surge, I should "only" have to pay the first $1500 which is my homeowners deductible. :cry

Strangely, the central A/C unit seems to be the only thing that took a hit. I have UPS backups and surge protection strips out the a** on almost everything that plugs into an outlet - without them, I have a feeling the total damage would have been a lot worse.

 

Chainsaws kick ***.:major

Your probably not after advice but my advice would be get a good one from a registered dealer as there are a lot of cheap fakes about without a kickback arrestor,check it's not a fake if you have one or you'll get a chainsaw to the forehead.

Also don't a get cheap blades,they overheat come off the guide and you'll waste 20mins putting them back on.

They are fun for the the first 15mins,then your arms start hurting like every other tool.:-D

Have fun sibeer!

 

You might want to consider replacing your surge protectors, even if they show as still working.