by Pa Rock
Land Owner
Ah, the joys of being a member of the landed gentry and having acres and acres (ten, total) of lush greenery with an abundance of large trees . . . joyful at least until the big winds blow in!
And late last night they blew in with gusto!
This morning there is small brush and assorted tree debris down in every direction, and a limb down behind the house that is literally the size of a tree. It is about eighteen-to-twenty inches in diameter at the base.The limb was ripped from the east side of an oak tree about twenty feet in the air, and it landed on the west side of the same tree with a thud that shook the ground. Miraculously, the huge limb landed between the well house and our home, a fairly tight space, but did not do any damage to either structure. (If it had hit the house it would have taken out the main bathroom, the utility room, and the bedroom where Rosie and I sleep.)
Cleaning up that mess as well as the yard in general is the homeowner's responsibility. (Excuse me while I take a bow!) Right now the plan is for my son and one of his friends to get out their trusty chainsaws and turn it into firewood. It will make quite a bit of winter fuel for someone. (I heat with expensive propane - and that huge limb could have landed on our recently-filled 1,000-gallon propane tank with just a slight deviation in wind direction.)
The large oak tree that fell north of the house managed to block one lane of the county road - and the base and trunk remain on my property - and will make even more firewood. Nick called it in to the sheriff's office during the night as soon as he saw that the tree was down, and the dispatcher told him that it was their third report on the same tree, and not to get too excited because trees were down all over the county.
Our power went out twice during the night. Lots of lightening and thunder and howling wind.
Nick left for work before daylight, and I was out surveying all of the chaos just as the sun was coming up. The county showed up shortly after 6:30 a.m. with three pickups with emergency flashing lights, a road grader, and a backhoe on a trailer. The road grader tried to push the brushy end of the tree off of the county road, with little success. Then three guys with chainsaws took over and had all of the limbs down onto the pavement in just a few minutes. The grader came back and pushed the brush over on the property owner's land to let him deal with the mess - thank you very much.
Miraculously, none of the 50'-60' pines blew over. Just one of them could have taken out the entire house or garage.
(Last month I paid my homeowner's insurance for the year - a premium that was way too high, and two days ago I paid my car insurance for six months, another premium that was way too high. So this afternoon I will call my insurance agent and tell her how much I cherished the tree that was damaged and the tree that blew over - and ask to be compensated. Then I will listen patiently as she explains ad nauseam how my policy covers everything under the sun except anything that I might want to claim! I won't give her too much grief because she will be dealing with plenty of other cantankerous old fools today, and they need time to say their piece, too!)
The neighbor lady just told me that we are going to have another round of this stuff this afternoon
One of the guys with the chainsaws this morning said that the event last night had either been a straight-line wind or a tornado. I didn't hear the proverbial freight train passing overhead, so my guess is that it was just a really big wind. Perhaps something out of Mar-a-Lago.
Regardless of where it originated, I blame Trump.
Climate change is real!
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