The Ice Storm Cometh

      So it rained on Saturday, what else is new.  Then sometime in the middle of the night, the ice hitting the side of the house woke me, and it takes a lot to wake me.  Andrew was called in to plow at the Agricultural college around 5 am.  He nearly tripped over the dog who sneaked upstairs (she is not allowed).  She doesn't like thunder and lightening and apparently ice storms too.

 

     All the branches are touching the ground.  Little bits of branches can be found every where. Most of the perennials I left standing are flattened.  I really hope the wind doesn't pick up.

      I looked out the front window this morning and saw my English Oak snapped off.  A good friend of mine gave it to me after my father died this spring.  There is always life after death, no one should forget that.  Even if there was a low branch I was going to nurse that tree back to life.

     But I was very happy to find it was just bent.  I may need staked for a year to straighten it up but it was fine.  Now I will need to dig its head out of the snow and ice.  That is the only problem with Engish Oak keeping ther leaves all winter, they are just a magnet for the ice.

     I found out in what direction the freezing rain was coming from. North, and a bit to the west.  All the windows on the back side of the house had a shear coat of ice on them and all the clap boards had a row of  tiny icicles.

I like it on the house, not on the trees.

     We lost a good healthy spruce tree. A dead one or dying one could have dropped but no, it had to be a living one.  At least it fell towards the woods and not the play set and the power lines.

This young spruce is also leaning.  Got to find another stake.



     The old birch at the side of the drive way is leaning further into the elm tree that was planted 15 years ago.  Andrew has been threatening to cut it for the last few years because it has been dying back and the Elm has been getting bigger (they grow fast - the Elm). 

I guess Andrew will have to sharpen his saw.