Storm damage from July 1st & 2nd

 Not to bore you with all the photos, but I do want to record the damage. It helps me to process it, and figure out a plan of attack. We'll have to get someone in, and I need to figure out what I want done. 

I'm feeling a little better today. It's a bit of a shock, and to see those majestic poor white pines... The sun brings a new day. It was a nice view at 5:30!

Tree House White Pine Tree

We spotted the fallen pine tree branches from the house, the next day, July 2nd, another big fall. These beautiful old white pine trees are susceptible to the wind. This is the tree with the tree house. It whipped off the top in two spots.

Before and after...

Pine Tree at the Frogpond

We've lost the top of one beautiful old pine, in the forest just along the path to the pond. 

Down the hill to the meadow a small job.

Deal Elm out front

That is not all. I didn't explore here until the next day. Our rescue squirrel tree is down. The 3 squirrels have moved on and out, which is good. It was an old Elm, ravaged by Dutch Elm disease. It was a perfect spot for the squirrel nest box.

2012 – the sumacs have since died, shallow soil, climate change,
lack of moisture... the original owners mowed all of this. 
The integrity of the Sumac grove was compromised.

2026 the squirrel nest box

The path down to the meadow is blocked. Glad I mowed prior to the storm. 

No one was home. 

The Five Sisters

One trunk fell a number of years ago. When a tree falls in the forest – 2016. We are sort of down to 3 sisters, plus two half sisters.

Barry's Aspen Grove out back

Barry Beaver's Aspen trees are down. In the spring photo you can see all the older Aspen trees on the right, reflecting the sunshine. They are all down. 

All gone.

The path is quite blocked. 

I think we need to wait to see how much Barry eats and/or moves. In the fall we can call in our people to harvest the wood. Burning Aspen isn't as good as other hardwoods, the BTU is very low in comparison. This is why Barry prefers Aspen and Willow. 

Barry has continued to work on it... the doe did an inspection.

From there I went on down to the point. (Maybe that's where I got my tick, a nymph!) The edge of the wetland is chaotic.

What else in the neighbourhood?

We drove to the village to get gas for my lawn tractor. We passed this sweet little church. They lost a big Maple tree which appears on Google maps from Autumn.

Looks like lots of people to help. I heard chain saws for several days from a couple km away.

Rains bring lush greens!

Sadly, the Conservatives won the provincial election. He is a premier who myopically focused on Toronto, not the entire province, and wants all disabled people off the ODSP program. People who need our support. He is on the side of big business and his rich landowner buddies want to pave paradise, through precious Ontario wetlands, creating a new highway around Toronto (#413) near underused #407, a toll highway. He is cutting budgets and privatizing healthcare, as well, while his buddies earn millions as CEOs.  David agrees with me.

The Liberal and NDP leaders have stepped down. OK, 'nuff said.

Back to Nature

It's been quite rainy over the past few days, not a lot of rain, but cloudy, buggy days. The goldfish pond was overflowing, getting water as it does from the water barrel. Everything is green and lush from the rain. 

The iris are in bloom.

After all the damage by the Spongy Moth (LDD) caterpillars last year, I am happy to see the new growth on our white pines. The photo cannot do it justice, but there are lovely soft green buds at the end of the branches.

I wanted a close up of them, but the bugs are so bad on these cloudy days!

The jack-in-the-pulpit is looking good. 

Ice Storm Clean-up Part 4

I don't mean to bore my faithful readers, but I want to feel as if I've accomplished something. I cannot clean up the mess all at once. I tried working tree-by-tree, but some of the branches are frozen into the ground. I'm trying to take a whack at it each day for a couple of hours.
P.S. Did I mention it is raining on top of the snow, again? And it is cold.

Ice Storm '16 Part 1
After the storm: I've clean-up to do! Part 2
Ice Storm '16 Part 3

Lessons learned: I'd forgotten to take my gloves and put them on the heater They were dampish. So were my boots. How dumb is that?! Also, sitting on a metal chair, while giving me a needed break, is pretty cold on the bum!
I found a bird's nest, crashed to the ground with the branches. They will rebuild.
 
I hadn't managed to trek down to the rest of the forest, down the hill and across the meadow. I thought it would be too defeating.
I bit the bullet and went down to the meadow. Sadly, I've much more work to do. Most of the trees are OK, but the White Pines were hit badly. The bonus was seeing three Pileated Woodpeckers, one working madly on the tree.


The cracked tree, curiously, did not come down. It still sways in the wind.


I went down to the meadow to check out the ice storm damage and spotted this pileated woodpecker. Traipsing around the frog pond, I cam across a pair on the other side.

Pileated woodpeckers 2016 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.