February 2-3, 2013

Since I was going to be working to help Jeff clean up, Sally and Tender staid back in town. It was a very pleasant mild winter week-end.

Northern Red Oak

My 5 year old Northern Red Oak in the front yard was not snapped off by wind, but was driven over. (Pictured in the last post.) It didn't make sense that the wind could have snapped this tree, and this time out I noticed tire tracks leading up to and over the tree. The vehicle barely missed the walnut I had planted next to it. I am sure it was Carroll Electric when they were out Tuesday to restore power. Why they ran this tree down I do not understand. I filed a complaint, also mentioning the road damage they did leaving (spun their tires, don't they have 4WD?), the pine the meter reader plowed into a few months back, and the power pole that has been sitting in our ditch for 3-4 years.

Pickup Debris

When I arrived I saw a vehicle and a trailer hauling some metal scraps back to near where Jeff's barn once stood. I grabbed my chain saw and headed over to help. Jeff wasn't there at the time, but two friends (Bailey and Ted) were using his (Ben's old) Kubotu buggy pulling a trailer. I joined them and we picked up the framing pieces which were scattered over the upper hill side. They had been picking up metal from the other side of the hill, the opposite direction from all the sheet metal I had seen facing us (north). Jeff arrived as we started heading toward a burn pile he had. Me, I would have salvaged as much of the framing as possible but Jeff was just going to burn everything.

Next we untangled and sorted all the metal gates and pens that were left where the barn once stood. The good ones (not too bent up) on one side and the mangled ones on the other. I think Jeff was reluctant to ask us to do much more, and apparently he didn't want to take the trailer back down the hill to pickup metal scraps because the field was still muddy from the rain. (Made me feel bad for driving my truck up after going through his gate at the bottom. I believe Ted and Bailey were heading off at that point, and I told Jeff I would go back down and work on the fence line some more, clearing trees and limbs.

Actually, when I got back down to that area I decided to drag all the sheet metal pieces (mostly 12' or 14' pieces of roofing) I could find into piles. This was quite a task since much of it was in the woods on a very steep hillside. I had to use the saw to free some of it up. Since it was getting late and I was getting tired I left a couple of pieces that were underneath some large downed cedars.

Wild Hogs

Jeff asked if I had seen any wild hogs. No, but others in the area have reported them. They are quite a nuisance and can really do some damage. Shooting them anytime of year is legal. There presence is not good news.

20 Trees Downed

The next morning I drove down but staid on our side of the fence. That's when I noticed down cedars in our groves just above the pond. One was over the fence, most had been uprooted, but some were snapped off. There were 5 here. So I spent the morning cutting the limbs from them and cutting the trunks to length for salvage. These were some large and tall cedars -- I guess which is why they blew down. They were laid over from the WNW, unlike Jeffs from the SW.

I returned after lunch to work on the fence line. But once I had driven high up on our side, I noticed more downed trees on our property over past the draw from the cave that leads to the pond. I walked over and found at least 10 more big cedars toppled. What a mess. Then I inspected the small wooded area at our SE corner and found 5 more big trees down, including these two nice hardwoods. So, we did not escape unscathed by the tornado (Jeff said someone came out and had officially declared it a tornado. He also mentioned that the Clark's lost 5 out buildings plus damage to their home, but their dairy barn was sparred.)

Clear Fence Line

I spent the afternoon going back up and down Jeff's fence line that borders our neighbors to the south. There was one large tree that was laying directly across the fence which I could not figure how to cut without the saw hitting the barbed wire. That was the only one I left. I even cleared off the stub of the large white oak which was still suspended above the fence just before our corner. To get it, I used some logs I had cut to stand one -- leaned up against the fence to keep from toppling off. Since I had 5 logs cut to length (3 white oak and 2 red oak), I backed the truck up as close as I could, rolled them down to it, and loaded them up.