The Gate Disaster and Ice Storm Damage

 Two days before the ice storm, I was taking a load of freshly sifted (by Johnny) compost to the garden to top off the raised beds that always sink over winter. The gate I have to go through is a huge and heavy twelve foot long, metal gate made from 72 lineal feet of one inch water pipe (these dimensions from Johnny) and 72 square feet of heavy duty chain link fence and 12 feet of rebar, a monstrosity six feet high. I always have a terrible time getting it open far enough to drive my EZ Go or garden tractor through. 

This time I could not get it open at all, so I retrieved a shovel and started digging out the grass and dirt that it was mired in. I made good progress and was hopeful I'd soon be able to swing it far enough open to drive through. However, I never got the chance. Quite suddenly and unexpectedly, it fell on top of me. Heavily. I was flattened to the ground and did not see how I could get out from under that monstrous, heavy thing. 

Johnny was in the house, waiting for the phone to ring to tell us we had a vaccine appointment. We were on a waiting list. I had stayed indoors in the morning and it was Johnny's turn in the afternoon while I got to work outdoors. I knew he would not come looking for me until dark. I was good and truly stuck. But I had to get out. So I squirmed what I could squirm and managed to get partly on my left side and eventually wiggled my way out from under the gate, I staggered to the house to get Johnny. By the time we got back, all the goats were in the garden, naturally. Navigating over the top of the downed gate was no problem for them.

We chased the goats out but I did not want that monstrous gate back up. Johnny noted that the hinges had broken and that's why it fell, after I had loosened the bottom. We did get a smaller, lighter gate from our stash of used gates (we have a lot of them) and moved the monstrosity farther down the garden and fastened it securely (hopefully) to a post. Now all I have to do is open the smaller lighter gate to drive through with my compost. And that's what I did and unloaded it into a couple of the bins. I was not hurting badly yet. That would come the next days.

The photos below show the new gate installed with the old gate attached to a post half way along its length. The last photo shows where I had been digging out the monster gate to get it open. 

 That was a little over two weeks ago and I am mostly healed. I could not lie flat for several days and had to sleep in my reclining chair in the living room. Then, of course, we lost power and I had no hot shower to ease my aching muscles. But we were only out of power for 2 1/2 days after which I started taking showers twice a day. In my efforts to keep from using my back and left side, I strained a muscle on the right side of my neck. But that is healed now and my back and side only hurt when I overuse them. Johnny has to be a little careful when he hugs me but he manages.

After Johnny had the driveway cleared of all the downed branches and trees from the ice storm, I prevailed upon him to bring his chainsaw to the arboretum where there was much destruction.

Eucalyptus don't like ice.  All those leaves coated with ice pulled the trunks over.

 

 

 

 

The Scots Pine got decapitated.

The Ponderosa Pines lost many tops and several trees, including two across our hay field fence.

You can sort of see some of the topped trees in the background and tops on the ground throughout.

I did not take photos of the mangled trees around the house. The birch took quite a hit but the hellebores under it seem unfazed. They just kept blooming underneath all the mangled branches.

 

The farm clean-up continues. Currently the lane going down to the well pump is impassable, but we can get there through the adjacent hay field. The trails in the woods by the creek are a tangle of downed trees but they can wait. We will have enough firewood to last the rest of our lives.

And now the daffodils have started blooming. I'd take photos but it is alternately hailing and raining today. They'll wait for another, drier, day.

By the way, we still haven't had our vaccines.

Our 54th Anniversary... in an Ice Storm

 We usually hike a waterfall on our anniversary (and on Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's. We like waterfalls.) But this year it sounded like it would be too wet so I thought it would be nice to sit in the warm house and read through my accounts in my blog books of previous anniversary adventures. (I gather all my blog posts from the year into a book at the end of the year.)

However, we had an ice storm instead the night before, lost power, had 3 hysterical horses as trees and tree limbs kept snapping off and sounding like gun shots. An apple tree came down next to the horse barn and many branches of the big poplar next to the barn came down. No way were the horses going to stay in the barn. I let them out into the field. With every CRACK of falling timber, the horses raced away from the sound across the field only to race back when a tree on the other side of the field went down.

Lots of friends called to see if we were okay. I don't think any of them knew they were calling on our anniversary. A very memorable anniversary. Fortunately, we did not lose phone service. Johnny spent the day clearing our long drive from the road and then, on Valentine's Day, clearing trees off the driveway in front of the house so I could get to the horse barn in my EZ Go, that I haul manure in. I mostly just took photos. I had dropped a heavy long gate on myself a couple days before and was not in great shape. On Monday, Johnny worked on 91 year old neighbor Irv's water line, which had been destroyed in the storm. Irv still has no water and power as of today, Tuesday. Johnny is up there working on it as I type. I managed to cut my way through the mess in our yard to get into the garden. (We still have chard and violas that I use in salads.) The goats are getting lots of broken leafy bamboo. 

I'll take photos and tell the gate story in another post. It was not one of my finest hours.

Yesterday, Monday, our power came back on at noon. Last night we had hot showers. It's amazing what a hot shower can do for a sore body and stressed mind. 

What follows is the storm in photos.

 

Below is the path from house to goat barn with the shrubs and trees on either side iced and about 2 feet off the ground.

Although destructive, the ice was also beautiful.

 

The chicken yard fence...

 

These broken and bent tops of the poplar by the horse barn straightened back up after the ice melted.

 

One apple tree in the orchard next to the horse barn was completely uprooted.

 

Horse paddock gate with paddock behind. Horses were out in the field, refusing to come in.

Barely recognizable below is the bench on the dam between machine shed and orchard

 

Below is the top of the Linden tree, all branch tops broken off and littering our back yard.

The pretty birch tree out our side yard is not so pretty anymore... the top branches were all broken.

Below is the winter blooming jasmine, still blooming in the portion not covered with ice.

Here is the blooming Daphne before the storm...

And after, covered with broken limbs from the cherry tree above.

The passage into the garden, which I cut a hole through on Tuesday.

The drive going in front of our house, choked with limbs from the poplar tree.

The yellow is Johnny's rain gear as he saws down yet another broken tree in the driveway.

In photo above, a barely discernable tractor beyond the blockage is our neighbor, clearing from his end to help us out.

Johnny dragging yet another load out of the driveway to the back field.

 

Many people are still without power.  But at least we are used to wild winter weather in the north part of the U.S. Now a storm has hit Texas and they are much less able to cope. Here's hoping the rest of 2021 behaves better. 

But we did, after all, have a very memorable 54th anniversary.

Suddenly, It Is February

 Time marches on whether I am paying attention or not. The last of our light snowfall disappeared this morning. All that was left for days has been Johnny's snow person, built on January 27. Here it is newly built:

The snow left but pretty mornings remained...

We have worked hard at clearing out the berries and dead trees along the little creek by the barn. My first reason was to open up the view to a nest box high on a tree on the far side of the creek. But plans expanded to make it possible to get to the creek, see the ferns and the water. Many loads of wood later, it is much cleared and we much tired.

Most of January, though, I cleared new trails in an overgrown portion of our woods. Many years ago, we planted various evergreen trees in that lowland, mostly alder, area, but they had been overgrown with blackberries, gooseberries and much more. We thought most of the trees had died. Much to my surprise one day while I was lost in the area, trying to make a trail, I discovered many redwoods, cedars, and spruce very much alive and finally tall enough to make a break for sunlight. I was so excited I made trails through head high blackberry tangles to access the trees. Someday I'll get photos of the beautiful evergreens newly discovered.

When not clearing brush one place or another, I worked on converting our Christmas llama to a llama-of-the-month. This month is Valentine's Day so here is our Valentine llama, decorated with help from friends. Carol made the knit hearts and Claudia sewed the blanket. Johnny built the stand to keep the llama out of reach of the puppy who nearly destroyed the Christmas llama. On the day we put up the Valentine's Day llama (Feburary 1st... today!), this was all that was left of the snow person: one tiny mound of snow and his hat.

 

And here is the Valentine llama, on its perch in front of the chicken house, in view of visitors driving up and also in view from the kitchen window.:

This llama will be transformed in March into a St. Patrick's Day llama. His new outfit is ready and waiting for him. Rainy days have become days to plan future llama months... much more fun than sorting and cleaning!