Trees in the Wind

We had a major windstorm the Saturday of President's day weekend.  There were consistent windspeeds of 30 mph and gusts up to 48 mph, according to the website Ryan checked periodically during the day.  The giant tree in the driveway/parking area always loses branches during windstorms.  Always.  We have various piles of branches drying to burn once the wood is no longer green and smoky.  We do have a compost pile, but mostly burn piles.  Ryan does like to make a good bonfire.

This windstorm was the cause of two major branches breaking off the big tree.  We were indoors playing games in the afternoon when we heard a loud crack and then the sound of debris hitting the windows.  One branch down. But not really, it was high enough that it only sat on top of another branch.  Later as we heard more suspicious noises, we watched at the window as another big branch came crashing down. We couldn’t park where we normally do.  In fact, I haven’t parked next to the house in months because we have been worried about the tree falling and hitting the van, so we’ve been parking between the not-garage and the pig pen.  But we couldn’t even park there with the branch in the way, and I disliked walking under the standing part of tree to even get to the front door.  We listened to the tree creak, crackle, groan, and pop.  Elizabeth’s bedroom faces the front, and she couldn’t sleep with all the noises she heard.  I had her turn on a fan to provide some white noise, frigid temperatures or not.  Out of all of my kids, Elizabeth is the most scared and worried about natural disasters, and here was proof that something bad was going to happen.

To be clear, knowing that we were going to have a windstorm and our tree likes to shed, we had parked as far away from the house as possible as to not get stuck behind the tree should it fall down.  We almost always do that for windstorms.

Sunday night, Ryan decided that he just needed to cut the front part of the tree down.  It was going to fall over sometime, and it might as well happen now.  Monday was President’s Day, and therefore a no school day.  What a perfect time to cut giant hunks of wood and move them off the driveway.  Monday morning dawned clear and cold.  Our expected high for the day was 34 degrees.  At 9 am, Ryan went outside to get our 16 inch chainsaw running.  Around 9:30 I put jeans over my pj pants, and snow pants on top of the jeans, a sweatshirt, a coat, wool socks, hat, winter gloves, and my snow boots.  It was mid-20 degrees outside and I don’t like being cold.  I told Ryan to tell me before he started cutting down the tree.  I wanted to be outside in case of trouble, being the worry wart that I am.  Emma was the only one who watched from the house.  The rest of us braved the cold.  We made sure the cars were WELL out of the way.

Ryan cut a V in the front of the tree trunk, and then sprinted away in the opposite direction.  We watched in some suspense for several minutes, listening to the increased creaks and pops.  Ryan said he could feel rumblings in the ground, but the tree refused to go down.  I can only compare what happened next to a game of Chicken.  Ryan had the chainsaw idling during this time, so he got the chain going, stabbed the tree, and ran away.  More noises, but no visible movement.  Again, stab and run away.  Nothing new.  Once more, he stabbed the tree, ran away, and the tree came down.  The top of the tree hit the flower garden space in front of the house, but the house was unhurt.  (Our driveway is a different story.)

Now, it was work time.  The girls and I hauled the branches Ryan cut into two giant piles, one on either side of the tree.  Emma got out of some of the work because of some excuse about the Grease dress rehearsal… blah blah blah.  😉 The other three petered out after lunch, but Ryan and I kept going and pretty much got the driveway picked up.  Don’t get me wrong, there are HUGE piles of branches and Ryan wasn’t sure how to get the last branch completely disengaged from the tree with his smaller size chain saw, but we could get to the front door.

(Ryan pulling the top branch off with his truck) 

As cleaned up as we could get it on Monday.  It doesn't look like much, but this was hours of sawing and hauling wood.  

The next plan of attack was to see if we could borrow The Dog to haul the branches away.  It was going to take about 50 trips (give or take) to get them hauled away in Ryan’s truck, and the truck affectionately known as The Dog was sitting alone and available.  The tabs were expired, and the battery was dead, but would we let that stand in the way?  Never!  The owner had been our home teacher before he passed away from cancer, and his wife hadn't taken it with her when she moved away late last year.  Wednesday, Ryan walked in with the registration and cash (and permission to do so), and walked out again with tabs.  No one asked for ID or his name, and so no one was the wiser.

First load!  

And no, we are not going to wait months for this wood to dry so we can burn it.  Besides, I'd be worried about starting the field of winter dry weeds next door on fire.