[madameshawshank]

have seen photos of the storm...

take care..

this might help:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuUhZxkr194

hugs from Australia...Summertime!
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"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

[woodstocker]

Ah summer! Called my mom in Florida today and my brother says it's "greenish" in response to my "greyish" weather report. Up here in the Hudson Valley we got some ice, but the road crews put salt down which helped a lot. My best friend, who is an EMT-i, says they got a lot of calls for slips and falls along with a couple of car accidents. Hope everyone in the hard-hit areas is doing alright! Ice is the worst.

[David]

January 2008 will mark the 10th anniversary of THE GREAT ICE STORM OF 1998! On that occasion we received freezing rain for 5 days, on and off----absolutely disastrous. I remember Dick crying as we listened to one after another of our trees breaking under the weight of the accumulating ice. It was just Crack! Crack! Crack!, one after another, the bushes and forests have yet to recover and we lost every one of our Lombardy poplars. The electricity went out on the 3rd day and we were then without electricity for 16 days. That meant no electricity, no water, no telephone, no kitchen stove. We did however utilize our two wood burning stoves and cooked some pretty decent meals in the coals and atop the stoves. Showered at friends places in the city which got electricity back much more quickly than we country hicks. Never ever want to see anything like that again!

All snowy white up here in Central Canada at the moment!
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Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

[Griffin]

[David]

When it came to the trees our biggest concern was for a huge sugar maple that had been our joy since we first moved to the property. He is an ancient fellow, gnarled and the home to all sorts of birds, and of course squirrels (just to keep the dogs exasperated) and he lost many many minor branches and twigs and bud-ends---but year after year he seems to be regaining his former magnificence. (now if only he could be trained to pick up his leaves after he drops them my life would be much easier!)
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Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

[madameshawshank]

David, you leave that sugar maple alone...leaves break down...they're fine! even squillions of them!

since we're treetalking:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7034944.stm

I imagine dear Vita walking that park...she had a rather solid lesson in gender studies with that amazing place!

tree hugs!
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"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

[Griffin]

[David]

But raking leaves here is a national fall passtime! Even squillions of them! I only managed to clean up half of his droppings this year before the first snows. Those raked made about 70 or 80 wheelbarrow loads which are piled near the barn where they will slowly muddle away and become lovely topsoil Those under the snow will, come spring, rot and get all moldy and still require cleaning up or the lawn underneath will die a horrid death!
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Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

[gingerpale]

Oh David you have a barn, how wonderful! The mental picture I have of your place keeps getting better and better..
But 70-80 wheelbarrow loads (you counted?)

In our back yard we have a silver maple, not sugar maple, (must look up maple trees, familiarize myself.) It's huge, bill to trim 2 years ago--$800!--but really too big a job for a non-professional. Some years it gets raked, and some years it doesn't--so far the lawn underneath is ok.
When the evergreen (Austrian pine, considerably smaller) gets too loaded with snow I go out with a broom and smack the snow off so it doesn't get deformed--though I have a feeling trees know what they're doing without my intervention, I should probably leave it quite alone..

[Barbara]

So a winter party then in David's barn. Your homes sounds picturesque David.
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Barbara

[madameshawshank]

David...I didn't know of the snow leaf situation...yikes!....

Barbara...seasonal parties ...what a super duper idea...

barn....that amazing scene in "Witness"...I can hear the music as I type
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"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

[David]

yes gp, I was counting--I'd go out and say "today I'll do 20 wheelbarrow loads and call it enough" and i did that with variations in numbers for about a week before the snow fell! My yard is huge and the back yard has the one giant maple and another good sized one, 3 apple trees , a blue spruce, 3 Jack pines, a row of Douglas fir and some cedar hedging. the side yard has a monster weeping willow, a smaller one, one good sized sugar maple, a manitoba maple and another pine, then the whole thing is enclosed in a 25 foot high cedar hedge.

Hee hee, the barn is a good size Barbara, but is in some advanced disrepair. I also have a wood shed and a potting shed, a garage and a toolshed, and another old building we refer to as the coach house. One day I hope to post you lot a few pictures! But dont' have the wherewithall at this time.

Oh yeah, madame, people with allergies to mold go nuts here in the spring time because of all the leaf rot! You can't but honour the pioneers of our new worlds (yours too) who pioneered living back when!!
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Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!