Snow Fall at Crumbly Acres – Part 5

Recovery at Snowy Crumbly Acres – Part 1!

Snow Recovery at Crumbly Acres, Part 2

Snow Recovery at Crumbly Acres – Part 3

Snow Day at Crumbly Acres – Part 4

Finally, I ventured down to the forest, figuring any branches swaying would be down by now. This is the path down to the frog pond. I shook off the snow, and pulled the branch ends out of frozen clumps of snow. If I don't do that now, the branches will stay that way, bent. (Not my first rodeo!) A total 28 cm we had.

This isn't our first storm: Ice Storm Clean-up Part 4 <= this was from February 2016. The pine at the far end of the meadow is the one above. 

Okay, back to the forest. You can see the left side of the evergreen, branches drooping where the snow hit and stuck.

I came across a tree with its bark chewed. Do you know which critter did this?! 

I figure it has to be the smaller one, the baby porcupine, I spotted in October. 

The two pines, at either end of the meadow, suffered from the storm. This is the other end.

Then, there are the bushes.

🌨 ☔ 🌧  ☔ 🌨 ☔ 🌧  ☔ 🌨 ☔ 🌧  ☔ 

Bombogenesis... it is coming. It is a Colorado Low moving in. We have been warned: 

 Environment Canada issues winter storm watch

Environment Canada calls for up to 15 cm of snow, rain, freezing rain, up to 90 km/h wind gusts.

Snow Day at Crumbly Acres – Part 4

But first, we've a fawn with a broken front right leg. Crumbly Acres, indeed. With 28 cm of snow falling, over two days – Dec. 16/17, it is difficult walking. I think this is Clover's fawn. 

 

Out in Vancouver, the kids took Cluny to a cross country ski race! They are in great shape there. They are a busy bunch and keen skiers. It was -12 C., and B.C. has had a ton of snow. Cluny texted me on Kids Messenger, to let me know where they were: "I'm at the sandman hotel in Squamish, and its been snowing here! " They have great skiing near them, of course. They belong to a club, with great opportunities for families. 

Indoors, Cinnamon is still afraid of the train when it is running, and just approached carefully. 

cinnamon's train from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The snow storm has really taken out our great white pine trees. Here they were, February, 2016, for example. We lost a lot of branches that year.

They took the brunt of the heavy burden of snow. The ends of the branches are frozen into the snow, and I have to cut them up before I can move them.

The poor tree. That hanging branch is the one that fell on me! JB watched from the house. 

These two are still snow covered, despite some warm windy days. Some of it will evaporate, thankfully. 

I'm watching myself underneath the branches. That is a heavy burden of snow.

The second hornet's nest is still up there, under the canopy↓! 

You can see little balls of snow still stuck to the trees. It is pretty in a weird sort of way.

This is what the bucks did in the snow, ate pumpkins!

Buck in snow from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We've a new storm on the way Thursday. We'll see what happens. 

Recovery at Snowy Crumbly Acres – Part 1!

Snow Recovery at Crumbly Acres, Part 2

Snow Recovery at Crumbly Acres – Part 3

Snow Recovery at Crumbly Acres – Part 3

Crumbly Acres! (<= YAM named us!) It will take me weeks to clean up the branches, more crumbling. Sunday morning we eased into the day. We watched soccer, while I poked around with plants. The taller 🥀amaryllis doesn't have any roots. The soil is too wet. 

• Dec. 14th – I measured the taller stalk. It was 28 cm (11").
• Dec. 16th – it was up to 30 cm (12").
• Dec. 19th –  It's 32 cm (12.5").

I wiggled them in the pot, and found that all the roots have rotted on the taller one. I pulled them off, and set it back down in the soil. Pulling off the LCBO bags, I set them in the window, hoping for the best. I thought I might dry out the top layer of soil with the hair dryer. What could go wrong? Dirt everywhere. I gave up, after cleaning off the sink, counter, and floor. Yes, you may laugh!

I set it on a pad of vermiculite to help dry out the roots. 

🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲 🌲

These are the climbing trees: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 

I won't be able to lift these branches until I cut them up. I tried, JB watching from the back door, and one fell on top of me. Thankfully I was wear both a ball cap and a hoodie. 

You can see the ~(‾▿‾)~ Crow's Nest if you look hard enough. OK, maybe you had to be there. That was an adventure, having the crows around that year, April, 2021.

Perhaps I ought to point it out. Even with all the loss of branches, you are hard pressed to see it.

Not only did the white pines sustain damage, but the sumac beside the shed lost at least two big branches. (Monday, I cut them off, skilsawed them into smaller branches, and set them in the forest.)

Saturday afternoon, as I said the sun came out. The shock had worn off somewhat, by then, although it makes me so sad looking out back. Out front, the sun on the fake tree was lovely, and most of the heavy snow, which bent its branches, has fallen off. 

We've four big white pine trees. They have various amount of damage. The tree that had the hornet's nest is drooping quite a bit. 

 

Out front, this evergreen is looking so dreary, and burdened with snow. I've gone around twice, shaking the lower branches off. This is where the top branches dislodge and dump the snow, breaking them right off.

The blue sky cheered me immensely.

Poor old lilacs!

I wish I could reach them. Hydro trucks were about, as there were a couple of power outages nearby. I could have used their cherry picker.

I came to the conclusion that I cannot whittle away at the dead branches this year. We're going to hire someone. The skilsaw doesn't last very long, even with a back up battery. Yesterday I took a walk in the forest. More damage. Not as serious, though.

Snow Recovery at Crumbly Acres, Part 2

Saturday, Dec. 17th Crumbly Acres! <= Read the backstory here!

We knew more was falling overnight. I did not know how much. It looked so bad Saturday morning. I've a lot of work to do. The trees are crumbling. (It snowed last night, again. Just a bit. )

  By Saturday morning we were down to 447 outages across the province and 14,257 households without power. Then, people woke up and reported the outages.

I did a short reconnaissance, not wanting to venture into the forest. Tree branches were falling all over the place. 

snowy day from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The trees looked so sad. 

Guinivere was snow covered. 

The sun was pinky where the clouds were diffusing. I kept getting distracted from my work.

I stopped here, to check out the satellite dish. Sure enough, not good. I could only see half of it. 

I made it to the road. It wasn't too bad with the snowblower.

Frosty snowman is buried:

I worked hard to get the driveway done. I feel better knowing we can get out. The soccer game was on at 10 a.m., and I had to clear off the satellite dish. The long-handled saw worked quite well. We didn't have any reception at all. I wasn't sure, so I stomped up the steps, poked my head in the door and asked JB. We were good! And the sun came out!

It was hovering around zero, rose to 5 in the sunshine. Great big clumps of snow dropped all day. Sometimes on my head.

After I was done all that, I had to go around and shake off the snow as best I could. 

The blue sky was terrific.

The climbing trees are a mess.

Sadly, this will take some time and energy. The sun came out Sunday. Indoors, we watched soccer.  My plan was to begin with the sumac Sunday afternoon.