This may come as a different angle than what seems to be the usual discussion here, but I feel that it's important enough to mention.
I'm in my third season of heating with a Hardy OWB and I really enjoy the thing. I like cutting and splitting wood in the winter and knowing that my family and I control how much money we spend on heating. We get good exercise and we are all outdoors oriented (we farm over 200 acres) so in short, for us this furnace was the way to go. That said, wood must be cut and split, no matter what... Read on and you'll see what I'm getting at.
On Dec. 7, I was throwing a fairly large chunk of a pine log into the back of my truck and I smashed my left little finger between the log and the corner of the truck bed. Thankfully, I was wearing mechanic's gloves. If it weren't for the gloves, I'd have lost about half of my little finger. I knew I did a number on the finger and when I slid the glove off, the tip of the finger (about the last half inch or so) was hanging down 90 degrees from where it belongs and the broken, ragged end of the bone was jutting straight out for all the world to see. My dad had just arrived to help and he walked me to the house and cut my sweatshirt off my arm. My wife drove me to the hospital and I got the first stitches I've ever had. They saved the fingertip and now, almost a month later it has almost completely healed on the outside. I just have a bandaid covering where the nail used to be and a splint for the broken bone, which may or may not reattach and is not a big deal either way (less than a quarter inch of the end of the bone broke).
My point is this. My wife, son, and I depend on the furnace for heat and I couldn't cut wood for almost a month. We have no way to cut a whole winter's wood in advance so maintaining the woodpile is an ongoing task. My dad is 61 and in really good shape and my father in law is almost 60 with some health issues and those two bailed us out. My wife is very active outdoors and loves to farm and work outside, but her bad wrists keep her from running the chainsaw and the all-natural feeding for the baby limits how long she can be out of the house right now. I am almost healed but because of the splint I can't start the chainsaw so my dad pulls it for me and I can run it ok. One second totally mangled my ability to do everyday tasks and depend so much on others. My dad and father in law help a lot with the wood anyway, but now they were the ones working and I was stuck in the house watching them split my wood. I felt crummy about it, but neither of them minded. It's just the point of the thing.
So remember, gloves, safety glasses, steel toe boots...all that stuff is important. Even some ear plugs. I don't mean to sound preachy, but it could mean the difference between self-sufficiency and having to depend on others. I am blessed to have family around, but some may not have that luxury.
Here's to a safe 2009!
-Jason
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Topic: safety and safety gear (Read 8073 times)