Voices from above

I heard voices last night, or rather a voice.  We'd been taking advantage of the nice evening to do some work outside.  I was painting our fuel tank stand, to match the siding on the house, and Leah and her sister Eunice had just come out with the kids to do a general clean up.  While I had been painting I noticed that our fuel was very low so when they came out I suggested we go to the Co-op and pay for the truck to bring us fuel oil in the morning.

When we got back I swear I could hear voices, someone calling my name.  As the realization hit that someone was indeed calling my name I also realized that the person was yelling "Help!" also. About that time I noticed a couple of young men running towards the hills behind the House, and I now realized that it was one of our clients, the cinematographer, who was calling for Help.  So I jumped on the ATV and headed up the Hill where I found Tim, near the top, limping badly. 

About an hour prior to this he had headed out to film some nesting Northern Wheatear, and had almost reached the top when his ATV stalled, then rolled over top of him. His HD camera was on his back and had put his centre of too high on the steep climb.  He was able to move and righted his ATV and made sure his equipment was okay but while he was doing that he missed us leaving for the store and had to wait until we returned.

When I reached him it was easy to determine that, while he was in a lot of pain, he was able to move and was basically okay.  I drove him down on the back of the ATV (during which he very inconsiderately screamed in pain at every little bump) and while Leah and Eunice helped him into the truck and called the nursing station, returned to hill and helped the two youths bring down his equipment and ATV. We then took him to the nursing station and found that he was badly bruised, but there was nothing broken.

So he's now convalescing here at the House, his shoot for all intents and purposes over.  But it could have been much worse.  Had he not been able to call out, or was more seriously hurt, I would not have gone looking for him until sometime the next day. He had frequently been out to the wee hours, taking advantage of the light and I would not have suspected something was wrong until later.