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| This was the scene when I arrived home after dodging downed powerlines and bent &
straining telephone poles. Nothing big went down in our yard.
Sooooooo lucky. Turns out that the overturned swing was
the worst property damage we incurred to any of our man-made possession. |
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However, we weren't so lucky with the non-man-made possessions.
Pictured is a root mound of a huge tree that is not visible but it is on
the other side of this root mound. Probably more than 100 trees & maybe even 200+ trees fell in a
few minutes.
In terms of really huge trees, about a dozen or more trees close to this size
fell when a tornado ripped through our family farm. This tree is
sixty feet from my house. On the other side of my house, less than
40 ft away, 4 trees fell.
It's sad to see the old beautiful oaks gone but like I told dad, at least we
don't have to decide which trees to take down anymore. We would never have
chosen those though. The damage is so extensive and so
far ranging that it is hard to believe that our homes and buildings were
spared. I told my buddy that my clean living and me & dad's prayer
meetings must have paid off! He laughed.
I guess we'll have to start a new
line of TreeHugger Floors using the downed trees called "Tornado Floors". |
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A Shed-Hugging Tree...go figure!
Just ignore
Freedom. I have no idea what he's looking
for.... Anyway, see how the tree enveloped my
shed but did zero
damage. Limbs are pressed against the windows, 3 full size trunks
fell within inches but no damage. Yeah!!! |
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| The Saffers are on the TreeHugger Farms Disaster Tour (it's just a
nickel too). I have to be honest. This picture cracks me up. Merritt waving
from the pit with the family
looking on from the sidelines. This is a different tree than the
one where I'm posing in the hole. There are a bunch of root mounds
this size. |
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2 good sized oaks ripped out of the ground side by side. One Red and
one White Oak. If we had some Blue Oaks, we could make a flag. |
Video: 2 Oaks down. Push play above. |
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| Brian Nelson - an old friend (but I don't call him
old to his face) was over to pick up some mixed species flooring we're
gonna install in his house. He was in shock like the rest of us. |
I think Brian believes he has conquered that tree. It looks like
he took it down and is now celebrating his victory. Brian always
did have an active imagination. |
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| Tree about 75 ft from my house. In the video, I claim the
tree I'm on was 125 ft but I doubt it could be that tall. But, I
think it is probably easily 100 ft. I'm gonna check. But, in the meantime, let me assure you is a very
good size tree. |
Everywhere we walked we found large Oaks blown out of
the ground. Plain and simple: This tornado hated Oaks. |
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Other than the swing, this is the only other man-made
thing that got touched by the storm. Didn't damage it though.
This is the same
shed but different side as pictured above where it says
"just ignore Freedom..." |
Probably 6 trees all came down together and wrapped around the
shed. |
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| Freedom
loves walking on downed trees |
Video: Freedom running on downed log. |
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| This tree is split. See picture on right.
Miriam is raking to right. Miriam raked for 2 days straight
without stopping. |
This is my
swing tree.
See the split. Crap!!! |
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| This is an accidental recreation of what it must have
looked like to the tornado. |
A bunch of trees are missing their tops like this one
above. Some were twisted out but I don't have a good shot of
that. |
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Another incredible mess. Complete different part of the forest. |
Freedom at it again. |
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Huge Holes in the forest canopy. |
Merritt walking on downed oak. |
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Another pile of trees.
The big on is an Oak and the broken one
is a Pine and the bent one is a Poplar. |
Video: Pile of trees. We walk around downed
pines, poplars & at least 2 Oaks. |
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| Different view of pile of trees shown above.
The tangle is 5 or 6 medium size trees and you can see a broken pine
tree in the background. If you've
ever been over and taken a walk to the creek and then on around, this is
the pretty rock outcropping we pass. |
This was the fun part. Cleaning the leaves out
of the pool. It was 90+ degrees and humid so, a man has got
to do what a man has got to do...get wet. |
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Another very short video of the pretty rock area and a large mound of
roots.. |
This is along the driveway in front of my house.
Pictured is 2 Poplar trees that fell on my power lines and the electric
crews came through to cut them off the lines. When they cut the
first one, the release of pressure on the wire allowed it to snap up and
throw a log 20 feet through the air and landed right
next to the supervisor. Good thing they hire people who know what
they're doing.... |
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A Change is Coming |
I'm over the shock and ready to move on. |
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I'm starting out small.
New chainsaw though. EZ Start baby! |
Here's the chipper raring to go.
(Did I spell
"raring" right?) |
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Got the yard cleaned (mainly Miriam did it cause I was fighting with the
chipper all day). |
She cleaned not only the yard
but the shaded area as well. Looks good. |
