Yard work - to do or not to do...that is my question!

So this past weekend saw me working hard in the yard. I had several trees whose branches were beginning to interfere with power lines - both mine and my neighbors' - so they had to go! Given my propensity to injure myself to the point of requiring stitches in local emergency rooms, I've never actually purchased a chain saw. I saw it as a an act that would be begging for trouble! In fact, all of my past trimming efforts have been done the old fashioned way - with a hand saw. Some would say that is just as bad because those hand saws have really sharp long teeth on them, but I've come out of it unscathed thus far.

So, perched precariously at times on my stepladder, I proceeded to saw and hack at limbs on several trees/bushes in the back yard. The smaller ones weren't too bad. Although it kinda freaked me out the way they would fall against the stepladder, I knew when the jig was up to proceed more carefully. I had a substantial limb to cut out of my cinnamon maple and knew I'd be knocked off the ladder should I complete the limb cut while still perched on it. Fortunately this limb was close enough to the ground (hence why it was hacked off -- three years of getting hit in the head while mowing was plenty) that I could start the cuts while on the stepladder, then move it out of the way and continue cutting while standing on firm ground. I'm sure the lady across the street, the one who never seems to move, was vastly entertained by my actions. I would make a cut, then duck behind the tree trunk listening for a crack or other indication that the limb was coming down. If nothing happened, I'd make a few more swipes of the saw before ducking behind the trunk until finally I heard the CRACK and THUD as the limb fell to the ground. I had already had a substantial pile of burn material started from the other trimming efforts and this limb would double that. Unfortunately it was too big to haul in one piece so I had to cut it up before dragging it around front. I trimmed up the collar area of the tree where the limb had come down (making a clean cut and then covering it with wound dressing goop) before hauling the remaining limbs to the front for further cuts.

After a long break and several more hours of cutting the branches into 5' lengths, the truck was loaded and I was ready to call it a day. Sunday I spent a little bit of time scooping up piles of other yard depris (old mulch and sticks) but was too sore from the tree trimming to really give it much effort. My hands are still a little swollen and sore but at least my muscles have relaxed a bit. LOL. Dad and I agreed that it might be worthwhile to buy an electric saw at this point. After all, I still have the front yard evergreens to trim. *sigh*

Addendum: I opted not to buy the chainsaw. As I was standing there looking at the display model, all I could think of was a rapidly moving bladed chain and the damage it could do, even accidentally. Considering I have a whole of two trees left to trim and on those only a few branches, I think I can live with the handsaw method. lol