We have plenty of firewood for the fireplace this year - thanks to Sandy. And any free weekend time between now and forever will be spent splitting wood.

5 trees in the fenced portion of our property - two dead but because of power lines, phone lines and the fence, we couldn't take them down. 3 living, healthy trees that shaded the yard for the dogs.

Sandy took down 2 of the living trees, leaving the 2 dead ones standing!! LOL The third tree was outside the fence and took down the phone/internet line.

We were so lucky because if they'd fallen in the other direction, they would have taken out our living room.

All in all, we lost 10 trees - 5 in the wooded area behind the house and 5 in the 'yard'

As I said before, we got very, very lucky. Could have been so much worse for us and WAS infinitely worse for those living along the coast.

Glad it wasn't worse.........


I see a nice spot for some corn plants along that fence once that rootball is gone.

Makes you wonder why it was them and not the others around them. And of course why not the dead ones????

Now Bob can build that LOG Cabin he's dreamed of...

Does this mean you have no bush?

I know! We said the same thing but you know, Mother Nature does whatever she wants.

Bob was going to take the dead ones down too since we had a gigantic opening in the fence and the phone lines were down anyway but Verizon came to the house too quickly and restored our phone line.

Mother Nature and Verizon conspired against us!! LOL

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Don't even THINK that!!!

Two problems with that: The dogs would kill them before they had a chance and worse, we have underground springs all through most of our front yard. Makes for a sweet little stream right beside the house and a nice little pond in the woods behind us, but roots aren't happy with it.

After Bob retires (whenever that is!), he plans on working with the farmer that owns the surrounding land to put some underground pipes to take the water away from the house. He's done it with a lot of his farmland and told Bob he'd be happy to help. I also have some nephews who love working on the grounds. They offered to help when we decide to do it. Sounds like I'll need to have that keg-o-rater full!

Good times at Casa D! LOL

LOL... I'm glad you are all right.

Fire up the smoker

I never can figure out why people live in hurricane country!

because it's better than flyover country?

That works.

That explains the root ball looking the way it does ( mostly smaller roots near the surface means too much water, so they are seeking air, not having to go deep for water)

As for why the dead trees don't tend to fall, they are much lighter, and appear to actually have had a fairly strong root system, also the type of tree has some to do with it as well.

We're not really IN hurricane country! In my lifetime, we've experienced 3 'real' hurricanes. Not a bad average...

I have to say that I can't imagine living in country that is completely flat though. I love our rolling hills!

Wheres TBrochin and his chainsaw when you need him, he's the tree in yard expert.

Watch your fingers when you fire up the log splitter.

I admit, I'm a bad person. I laughed at that.

Hope you're doing better.