Briar Joines’ future farming could have been cut short when she lost control of a chainsaw.
Briar Joines
The Growing Future Farmers student was working on Owen “Bart” Bartlett’s and Liz Robinson’s Kāwhia Harbour 1600-hectare sheep and beef farm last October.
“The chainsaw kicked back and leaped up and bit me on the face,” Joines, 18, said. She was wearing safety gear, including a visor.
Stock manager Sam Shaw drove Joines to Kāwhia doctor John Burton for the injury to be cleaned and stitched before she went on to Waikato Hospital in Hamilton for a check-up.
“I got 16 or 17 stitches,” she said.
The accident happened on a Wednesday, and Joines took the rest of the week off as well as the following week.
“It wasn’t very long because she was bored,” Robinson said.
“I would have come back three days after it had happened, but Mum said no,” Joines said.
“I didn’t want to come down and get an infection by being in the woolshed or getting dirt or stuff like that in it,” she said.
“I’d done two chainsaw courses through Growing Future Farmers, but accidents happen,” she said.
“I think that would have been Sam’s worst phone call since I have been here.”
Briar Joines with farm dogs
