Top blown

[Al Smith]

I packed out about two trailer loads of I think yellow pine to the burn pile today .That freakin stuff weighed about like oak .I had the bright idea about a year ago to split the stuff up for campfire wood instead of Tom hauling it to the land fill .Bad plan .

 

[gf beranek]

Looking from your pics, Al, that tree looked like the bugs got it. Maybe not.

 

[Al Smith]

That top was solid all the way through ,about 12 inchs at that height.The wind just snapped it like a tooth pick .

Fact that same wind knocked down two trees out front of my house and dropped a 90 foot shag bark from the roots through my neighbors house .I'm thinking those gusts were 80-90 MPH .Fact it blew a two feet diameter limb out of a big oak too ..

I was outside at work having a smoke and saw it approaching ,looked like the rising of hell .When it hit I thought the roof was coming off ,60 acres of flat roof .Knocked out power in some places three days ,some for a week .Fact it even knocked out one of the two 138 thousand volt lines feeding the engine plant which had never happened before

It hit so hard just north of us Tom had one job alone that was over ten grand just getting the big oaks off one house .It was a bad one .

 

[Al Smith]

What I forgot to mention during that event which is small in comparrison to the east coast storm .When the land lines go out of service the cell phone circuits get over loaded .A voice message might get sent when it finds some space though .

I had used a lady friend at work cell to warn my wife of impending danger and thank heavens she had the good common sense to hunker down within the confines of the internal brick walls in the kitchen .So I think messages will get through it just might take some time .

 

[canadiantreeman]

Cool story, Al. Nice lookin tree. I'd like to spend some time in a hardwood forest eventuall. Only hardwood forest we have out here are poplar ones, all of which tend to look about the same wherever you go. Impressive trees at times, though.

 

[Al Smith]

Yeah it's just different depending on where you are .I've seen the pineywood hills in Colorado and parts of Utah, etc but never the tall timber of the PNW .This side of the state pines are not native ,the other side they are .

 

[Al Smith]

I got the logs moved out today .The top one had hollow spots --firewood .About3/4 cord firewood and 300 Bd ft saw log .You gotta remember this is a midwestern hardwood not a PNW doug fir .