June 24, 1999
Slide at home definitely not "safe"
After work on Monday evening, January 4, Raymond Hansmann
was preparing to take something out to feed the deer in the
meadow. It had sleeted about four inches on the Saturday
before, and they had nothing to eat. With his bucket of
feed, Raymond headed around toward the back of his house,
because it’s a shorter distance (but it’s real steep).
It sleeted Saturday and then it rained very hard for about
an hour right after the sleet had stopped. It got colder and
stayed cold through Monday, and there was a sheet of hard
ice almost everywhere.
When Raymond stepped on the first little bit of hill, he
began sliding. Not being able to stop himself, he decided
he’d better sit down. Well, that made him go even faster. As
he flew down the hill, he hit a sapling and it just
flattened out as he slid over it. He hit another sapling,
same result.
At about 25 miles an hour, he finally met up with a 15-inch
pine tree that didn’t flatten. That’s when the one bit of
good luck happened for Raymond that day—the bucket full of
feed for the deer happened to be between the tree and
Raymond! It absorbed some of the shock of impact, but
Raymond still hit hard.
Addled, in pain, and thinking he had broken his leg, Raymond
lay there for about two minutes before he moved. The corn
for the deer was strewn all over the woods. Fortunately, the
only injury was a big bruise. The following Wednesday,
Raymond said, "The deer still haven’t eaten the corn!"
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