Why write about this in mid-May? Because we this is what we do in May – clean up winter debris. The feature photo is what we have left of a 16-foot cedar hedge that was like a thick, green privacy wall. Here’s what it looked like on December 15th:
It was the most extensive winter clean-up in our ten years of this rural experiment largely, no, ENTIRELY due to a freak ice and snow storm on December 15, 2022. The ice storm started on the 14th, continuing into the night, then switched to heavy, record-breaking snowfall early on the 15th, complete with thunder and lightening… my first-ever winter thunderstorm. See National Weather Service account of the storm.
The result: that “Why-did-we-buy-this-property?” feeling again and…
48 hours without internet, power or running water in our home and more horizontally bent trees, broken limbs large and small, as well as fallen timber than any of my native neighbors ever witnessed in these parts. Limbs, once arching over the lake path, touched the ground under the weight of the ice and show. Poplar branches, 2-6 inches diameter, snapped. The trail to the woods was impassable. We could only imagine what the woodland trail looked like…
Not so fast…
On December 15, 7:30 am, “Bob, let’s quickly remove the branches from the circular driveway for the snowplow service”. Not the 15-minute job I imagined. More that half of the 16-foot cedar hedge was horizontal, blocking the entire driveway at the street. Yes, there is a driveway somewhere underneath those fallen trees:
We shook off the snow and whacked the ice with a snow shovel to relieve their burden. Bob had 9 fallen cedars to carve into moveable parcels for me to haul away. My de-icing effort left a four-foot high tunnel to the large-brush pile behind the teahouse.
To the left, making the tunnel. For orientation, vague view of the pine tree in the icy picture background. To the right, the trail restored, pine near middle. I hauled about 1000 pounds of debris, hunched over in my tunnel. By 11 am, we heard the plow. Three hours later, … we quickly removed branches from the circular driveway!
After a coffee break, it was the 40-foot trees in the back gardens that took our attention and creative tools – the longest apple picker from a neighbor and our fully extended limb saw. We knocked off ice from the highest reaches of the trees with remarkable lift from the branches. I imagined sighs of relief from these giants with their load lightened; they survived.
That’s where our effort ended…
…until we could get help. To our city-dwelling kids home for the holidays, it is a novelty to use the saws and clear debris on such a large scale. That spirit of adventure restored the path to the woods in about an hour with five helpers. In the woods, our oldest maple tree was toppled and another on split in two pieces… for our handyman to rendered into 4 – 5 cords of nice firewood this summer.
Why write about this in mid-May?
Because we know our limits as amateur foresters, we hire a professional arborist for the most dangerous removal of tall trees. Which could not happen until the snow melted and the soggy sod dried out … in the second week of May!
Looking on the bright side…
Lots of trimming that needed to be done was helped along by Mother Nature! Wonderful winter workouts in the snow-covered beauty kept us nicely toned. We have home-grown cedar posts ready to reconstruct the arbor that was crushed by fallen trees in the back garden. More sunlight to the trails and woods gives way to new plants and animals.
