Sometimes you can never be cautious enough – treestands
Boy I tell you I have been crazy busy this year – starting in Dec of 2009 my job occupation changed I’m still with the same company but my responsibilities have increased drastically – I will say it’s good to be busy then not to that’s for sure, but I have really missed not being here on this site like I used to be, hopefully in time when I am able to get things to the way they should be here in this state I will have the opportunity to be as active as I was prior.
As most of you know I have promoted tree stand safety very strongly in the past and always will continue.
But wouldn’t you know this last Sunday I finally had a chance to hang a couple stands – dang for me this is getting a little late in the season. I hooked up with a fellow hunter and friend and we had a plan for hanging a few stands and checking a few cams for pics. All was going well until I had an accident. Something that caught me off guard and something that most folks could take for granted.
I had my treesaddle on for hanging the climbing sticks or ladders as well as hanging the stands themselves I will not go up a tree and attempt to do any of this without the confidence to use both hands freely while hanging things, I love the tree saddle for this work.
So what went wrong? I was standing on the ground with both feet in the woods and I’m dang glad I had a partner there helping.
Well I was setting a tree stand on the back rack of my ATV, I had two rubber snubbers ( 2’ rubber bungee straps with steel hooks on each end ) well the stand was a little loose when Rusty went to sit on it, so I said hang on a second I’ll tighten it up a little, so as I took one end and stretched it very tight the opposite end let go and made a direct hit in my left eye, not on the forehead or face but right into the eye. Dang I grabbed or covered my left eye as I spun to the ground fearing very seriously that I no longer had something where it was supposed to be, after a few seconds or minutes Rusty opened the eyelid and said it seemed to be in tacked yet, so off to the emergency room I went, after a few hours there with a eye specialist and as of today – a day later I have about 50% of my vision back in the eye, while heading out of the woods and while at the ER I had no vision, this was do to bleeding internally in the eye all I could see was a bright yellow fog or blur no shapes or figures and that was it. Scares the hell out of you, there was no warning no nothing other than instantly feeling like someone fired a 20 gauge directly at your eye.
They have me going back to the specialist Wednesday to check for progress supposedly this first week is very important as to what will be my end result. This also means no traveling for a few weeks and no lifting or activities that builds pressure for 6 weeks.
And yes as an archer I am a lefty – I hope it stays that way
So here again don’t let these little things we take for granted at times destroy your future
Also this means missing the get together this weekend 
Jeff Heeg
Thanks for the safety reminder and I hope we can all learn from it.
Take is slow my friend and keep your mind on the future of drawing back your bow on a mature buck or zeroing in on that bullseye. 