We had a recent windy-rainstorm come out of the North. This is what it did to us when it took out a 24″ diameter tree limb.
Here we see my truck and the tree limb. The truck was shut off and the tail-light glow was from the flash. Note the wires draped across the tarp. Those are live 200 amp service wires. The ground is broken at the pole so there is no return path/no power to the house.
This is how close the limb came. It fell and rotated away from my truck only moving (not breaking) the passenger side mirror and putting a small nickel/quarter size dent in the top of the fender. It didn’t even break the paint.
Here’s the dent. It adds character. 😀
We had no idea the limb was rotten at the core, That’s good wood all the way around. The part that we cut up had approximately 12? of rot. Without this limb the tree is unbalanced and if the other, larger ?fork? is rotten too and we get another wind storm coming in from the North that tree is going to take out power for everyone on our road as it overhangs the mains line.
I estimate somewhere between 2,000 and 3,500 pounds of wood, leaves and work ahead of me just for clean up. Yayhoo. I’m sure that some of the 16? chunks we cut weighed at least 100lbs. or 50 kilos for you oddball weight measurer types. There were 24-26 16? long chunks. The biggest one was a nutbus… errr… ballbus…errr… it was heavy. Of course it was the only one to fall off of our small yard trailer I pulled with my lawn tractor when I was moving them so I had to load it twice.
Our local firefighters weren’t happy until they could put up, ?Fire Line ? Do Not Cross? tape. They put as much on around the front and to the other side of the yard. Shortly after they strung the tape from the pole and left was when the switch at the top of the pole arced 10 to fifteen feet into the air. You never have a camera in hand when you need one.
Note: My lawn is green, my neighbors is brown. The pine tree to the left is in my yard. His yard is to the left of the guy-wire on the utility pole. He knocks himself out dutifully mowing his yard. He mowed it today and the picture is only two days old.
Limb from the other side. You can just make out the wires in this shot. They’re about ten feet up from the left end. Still live wires at this point. Pretty exciting huh?
This is how close it came to my truck. Of course I haven’t moved it because it had 200 amps worth of live wires draped across the back. I didn’t go anywhere near it ’til they killed the power. The utility man confirmed that the lines were live when he got there. The switch failed to act as a fused switch and created a short that surged thru the power-lines to anyone who didn’t have a continuous ground throughout their homes. Most of the homes here are older and people don’t always (never) have an inspector check any wiring upgrades that they do themselves. Some people lost a computer and a TV set. That’s the only damage, close-by, that I know about besides my troubles. The storm busted several utility poles in our county.
Somebody arrest that man; he’s on the wrong side of the tape. What’s the matter with ‘im?
Oh wait… that’s my son-in-law with a loaded chainsaw. Nevermind. Like his chainsaw, he’s small but he’s mighty. (Like my daughter too.) This is the single hardest working dude I’ve ever met and THAT is saying something. Look at my profile and you’ll get the idea that I may have met one or two hard working blokes. This man takes the cake. It’s 2230 as I write this originally and he’s still out mowing hay. I thought it was make hay while the sun shines but I guess not. He started at 0530 this morning and has to be up and at ’em tomorrow at the same time. I like him. He took time out from his job to come over to work for us gratis. Nice guy and one of my best friends.
Hmm.. How’s this things go up, exactly. I can tell you what not to do as well as what to do. Now I can.
Hint: Trim the living crap out of the bush first.
That’s it. Kept me pretty busy for a couple of days. I have the yard looking like normal today. All picked up ready for the next storm.
My right knee feels it and I don’t know why. It didn’t hurt until I was all done and sat down. As far as my wrist goes, I didn’t have to bend it much to do everything so it wasn’t even a factor. THAT to me is GREAT news. The wrist is swollen like crazy but it doesn’t hurt. Much.
I think that the heaviest chunk of junk I had to move may have weighed close to 200 pounds if not more and I did it twice too. Why did they classify me as light to medium duty work only? That’s right, that was then, this is now. The wrist is swollen pretty good too. I’ve been told by a man who should know that my insurance company would make me pay back my some of my compensation if I were to take a heavy-duty job. Light to Medium duty seems to be plenty enough to pique my interest/swell my wrist anymore. I can still type so it can’t be that bad, right? If my neighbors hadn’t volunteered their labor I’d still have a ton of work left to do and I’m not sure that I could’ve done it but I would’ve tried.
It’s like Joe Cocker said, “I get by with a little help from my friends.” I know who my friends are. They’re the ones who aren’t disingenuous. They don’t claim to be something they are not!
Edited for clarity. Why am I so stiff and sore. 😐 Can’t be the age thing because my neighbor who helped with HIS chainsaw is 75 years old. You felt you had to work hard just to keep from feeling guilty watching HIM work hard. 🙂
I’m blaming Hal, Nick, TechExec2, Tigger, GG and Neil for the whole thing. I haven’t figured out how they all did it but somehow I know that it’s all their fault.
BTW-I’d like a side-order of a Life. To go please.
