Branch catches Idaho Gov. Otter’s eye

BOISE – Idaho Gov. Butch Otter is sporting a shiner after a tree limb he was cutting over the weekend snapped back and hit him in the face.

“With those windstorms that came through, I can’t tell you how many trees I’ve lost,” Otter said. “It was a cottonwood tree, and they’re pretty springy.”

His chain saw had stopped working, so he was cutting the limb with a bucksaw when he got smacked. “It was under some tension, and bingo, she snapped and hit me in the eye,” Otter said. He added, “I should have spent some time making up a more romantic story.”

Among the trees and limbs that came down on his ranch near Star during a series of windstorms that moved through the area, Otter said, “We did have one fall on a horse trailer.” But the 70-year-old governor was disappointed to find that the damage didn’t require any of his newly developed aluminum welding skills, honed in a community college class this spring. “It was just a dent,” he said with a chuckle. “So I have to take a class in removing dents from aluminum now.”