A risk of a thunderstorm?? We almost DIED!!

Today was fun. Back at work on the trees. And I even got a brand new chipper to boot. Well... it's old... but new to us. And it's a self-feeder, not a chuck and duck like what I have only ever used. The chuck and duck is quite self explainitory. You chuck said wood and then duck as it blasts all over the place and gives you a general good whipping all up and down your body.

Self feeders are fun. You can put huge amounts in the chipper and then you just crank the baby up and it slowly eats it. I was a little unsettled in the morning, though, as we went over all the safety features and there was a few too many emergency stop buttons all over the place. And there are two little wires that come down into the chipping boom that we just referred to as "the last resort" you pull those and the feeder stops. But Craig pointed out that by the time you would be at the little wires it would probably be better to just keep a going...

Morbid.

So we had fun putting huge chunks of trees through the chipper today. We also had fun loosing the chipper on the Whytemud Freeway today! Oh yes, also in the midst of a massive thunderstorm that was raining more then was humanly possible, thunder, lightning and hail. Pop goes the chipper and off we go to the shoulder of the road. We thanked out lucky stars that Chris was behind us as both Ian and I couldn't lift the chipper back onto the hitch by ourselves. Chris is a He-Man of superhero strength, plus he was excited, so I'm sure we could have just sat in the truck and watched Chris do it.

The best part of it all was Ian brought these flimsy rain ponchos from the "Maid of the Mist" which is the boat that goes to the Niagra Falls. They had them on as a joke at our last job, but when Chris came to our rescue, he still had on this nice blue rain poncho in the middle of the Whytemud Freeway. It was an interest sight to say the least.

That's all I got for now. I think I'm going to go drink a gallon of water now.