We're trapped in the house!

[Frequency]

A hedge has fallen in front of the gate and we cannot get out of the front garden. And Amazon cannot get in to deliver the chain saw we ordered a couple of days ago when we noticed the hedge was starting to look a bit out of control and the branches were too thick for the hedge trimmer.

I'm thinking if we use the hedge trimmer on the smaller branches and try a normal saw on the thicker branches we might be able to get it small enough to climb over/through but we cannot start until it is light and it doesn't get light until after DD leaves for school.

I can't tell the school the truth can I? They won't believe DD cannot get to school because she can't get out of the front garden, will they?

When we use chainsaws at work each operator carries an army issue wound dressing which are impregnated with crystals to basically form a mega clot for catastrophic injuries. The aim is to get the dressing applied in less than a minute.

My stepson is a tree surgeon, and my late DP used to really worry about him having an accident when working alone somewhere remote. I'll ask him if he keeps anything like this in his truck.

They sound like a very good idea.

Because of the way the gardens are laid out the only neighbor adjoining my back garden is the one who hates us. I've had many a thread on here about her. She's as mad as a box of frogs. She complains to my landlord if I cough too loud and she would have called the police if I'd started trying to do gardening at 10pm. She thinks we shouldn't be allowed to use our garden after 8pm because that's when she goes to bed. We also shouldn't be allowed to smoke in our garden because she doesn't like brand I smoke and she can smell it from her garden when she's outside smoking. There's no way she would have let us climb into her back garden.

All the other gardens belong to people who live on other streets and I don't have their contact details to reach them.

Ah. What is it that you're smoking?
So there is literally no other fence or hedge around the property that you couldn't have got over or through?
This calls for a diagram.

oh look, another thread where OP posts about an annoying inconvenience, and people go in for a kicking.

WTF is wrong with MN right now? Why are people being so vicious?

Its in Chat, the OP wasn't panicking.. their OP is perfectly reasoned, calm and just asking a question about how to handle their kid being a bit late for school.

Yes in the morning light they've realised they CAN get out with the aid of a handsaw, but there is still a bloody great hedge that has collapsed on their pathway, they've just cut a hole through the one end to get the gate open.

I'm sure if an unknown neighbour saw you climbing over, they may have been sympathetic to an emergency situation.

I'm sure they would have been sympathetic but it wasn't an emergency situation. We were safe and warm in the house. We were hardly going to starve to death in one night and DD missing first lesson is not going to cause her to fail school.

A 2 sided ladder one each side

OP, if you are a tenant then your Landlord should have sorted this out, did you report the initial damage to him? He should be sorting out the cutting and removal of the remains of it now.

@kittensinthekitchen I have a friend who is a tree surgeon. They are used to being called out at all hours. Trees have a habit of coming down at all hours and they are needed to keep roads clear etc

Ah well, it sounds like it wasn't too bad after all.
Hope you can get it all cleared up.

I love the way people ask the OP if she likes drama.

Followed by other posters being dramatic about dd being late for school, OP being trapped if a fire breaks out.

The ones I like best are the, “you don’t think the same way as I do and that is outrageous! Why don’t you think like me? This is what I would do, why didn’t you do that?” crew.

did the chain saw arrive? after all that?
did you call a gardener?

Oh chill out people. Those who are having a go at OP for being dramatic or lazy or whatever, get a life, sorry! As if people are getting this angry with OP for posting a casual thread on the Chat forum about something they consider unusual and interesting to discuss 😂do you get this outraged all the time when things aren't handled in exactly the way you think they should be? Must be exhausting.

Blocked roads are often an emergency situation.

Being unable to open your gate at 10pm but having a plan to tackle it during daylight hours isn't.

I wouldn't be best impressed if my neighbours (or had someone do it on their behalf) fired up a chainsaw that late at night just because they'd be lax on their garden maintenance.

Ladder?

Then I'm guessing you've never used a chainsaw? You might be ok if it's a really little one, but they're really not something you should be using if you have no idea how to use one safely. I know experienced users who have been injured by chainsaws. You'd be better off with an electric pruning saw. You can also get electric pruning saws that have extension handles so you can cut much higher up and much more safely.

i'm exhausted just reading some of the replies on here.. like.. good god, calm down people.

I enjoyed your mini saga OP! Clearly going out with sharp tools in the dark wouldn’t have ended well and I’m glad you’ve managed to break free this morning.

What I didn’t enjoy was the relish people laid into you with for not reacting as they would have or not reading the reasons you couldn’t go through a neighbours.
Or the very lovely PP who so piously admitted to AS-ing you to prove their own theory that because you admit to drinking wine, you must surely be an attention seeking drunkard.

It really seems that for many women on here, the only outlet they have for their rage or superiority is to lay into strangers on an internet chat site. If that was where I got my sense of validation or superiority, I’d have bigger problems than a fallen hedge.

It’s not the OP who has an issue with drama or attention.

Gosh the people getting so angry with this thread, why? Did it need a "light-hearted" disclaimer? Time was someone would post a threadlike this, get some sensible advice and also some amusing suggestions and we'd all enjoy ourselves. Now the OP is accused of being dramatic and ridiculous.

This is why Mumsnet just isn't fun anymore. You either can only post life and death stuff or you have to put a million disclaimers up.

It’s been a lot more interesting than the tedious parking threads.

What IS the matter with posters in here ? So many getting riled up and angry while the 'trapped' OP has remained calm . 😂

on what level is that appropriate? Why do you think its acceptable to AS a poster who is just posting a light hearted thread about a minor inconvenience.. what do YOU get out of trying to discredit someone or imply they're a drunkard?