Still cleaning up! Ice Storm (cost, house, how much, phone)

[MoMark]

I had most of my front acreage cleaned up from what had dropped from the trees during the 3 day ice storm in early January. But many of the larger branches that broke off in the trees didn't break enough to fall, or they got caught falling by other limbs, etc. The situation has been dangerous and my neighbor and I had tried to figure out how much it would cost to get a cherrypicker out to saw the pieces off and drop them. We were told $400 a tree!! I've got LOTS of trees!
Then my neighbor found a guy through his church who's been renting the equipment and he spent three days on my neighbor's property getting the trees cleaned up, then yesterday he came to mine and worked the afternoon cutting the broken pieces off especially one particularly dangerous limb that was hanging upside down like a wishbone hung up on another big limb. This guy is charging very little and I'm so glad to get it done! The sap hasn't risen in the trees for the most part yet, so we're hopeful that most will survive, but check out how threadbare they look! That one to the left that looks like a telephone pole now we didn't touch. The whole top of the tree collapsed in the storm. We've got lot's of trees that have no tops now and we don't think will survive.
That tree in the middle with half hanging down was my biggest worry:
You can really see the size of these trees compared to that little guy in his cherrypicker!

How it looked last summer before all this damage... BIG DIFFERENCE!Those trees got thrashed


After he was done, there is so much heavy debris again on the ground, HUGE limbs that need to be cut up and then burned that this coming Saturday is another burn day! It'll take a whole day to drag this stuff to the bonfires and cut it up and burn it, but at least the trees in that sector are done now! Imagine how nice the lawns will look when all that sunlight reaches them this summer whereas before they were often in shade! The woods behind the house are a lost cause. I used to be able to walk paths through it, but so many trees collapsed or partially collapsed that it looks like a warzone and you can't walk through it anymore..that's two acres of mess beyond description....I don't have the energy to try and tackle that
This has been my life for the last two months ....

[JBrown]

A really nice place you got there...that's what I like...lotts-O space..old growth trees etc. You got more grass than I do, I'm woods front and back but that's just the style around me here. Enjoy yourself...

[MoMark]

Originally Posted by JBrown

A really nice place you got there...that's what I like...lotts-O space..old growth trees etc. You got more grass than I do, I'm woods front and back but that's just the style around me here. Enjoy yourself...

Thanks! I love trees too, but I'm very fortunate that none were close enough to the house to damage it when the ice storm felled them. My neighbor had some damage and I looked after his home those three days while he was in town with his wife salting roads and keeping private accounts clear of ice.
Trees had up to 2" of ice on them and were collapsing like the WTC...you'd hear a huge crack, then a whole 50ft tree would just collapse straight down and hit the ground with a thunderous impact. It was happening every two-three minutes on the last day when torrential ice rain had them dropping left and right...VERY SCARY. Not to mention a huge, huge, unimaginably huge mess. Even Springfield, a city of 150,000 people, is still choked in fallen debris nearly two months later. The city has tried to take on the cleanup and it's too big, so they're begging for volunteers to help as whole neighborhoods are still a mess and a lot of older folks and other people for whatever reason can't tackle the mess themselves or they don't have the money to pay someone. It's pretty sad
I love the trees, but I'm hoping nature and the sawing has made them less vulnerable now to future storms. The cleanup is beyond comprehension. You just can't imagine how much work it is. Now when I see that a part of the country is facing a severe ice storm, I cringe in empathy for the homeowners and people with forested acreage.

[Yorkie_Mom]

MoMark, Just wanted to let you know what Minnesota has in store for us!!!! We just had a major storm last weekend with the ice and a foot of snow. Well I just watched our news, and starting tomorrow we are going to get about an inch of ice followed by 12 to 20 inches of snow!!!!!! I will trade anyone until this winter crap is over, and then come back long enough to move to another state that is warmer, and to where I don't have to shovel.
Last storm we got, I had to shovel snow that was up to my waist in front of our garage, so this storm can go away because I am to sore to shovel one more load. Anyone want to pitch in a hand and help this poor woman out?????

[I LOVE PA!]

I live in Northeast PA, and I ahve been through some of those awful ice storms! Our trees here are so close together, choking the other trees, that there isn't much branches that stick out, they just go straight up. The worst I remember is having a van and no garage and my van was covered in an inch thick layer of ice, and working for a bank, I still had to be at work at 8:30, even though there were no customers the entire day. It took be 2 hours to chisel the ice off my van!
This last storm, on valentines day, the ice fell already frozen, it kind of looked like dippin dots ice cream, but it was ice! It didn't freeze onto anything because it fell frozen, which was better but very hard to shovel or even snow blow.
Thurs. we are exepcted to get an inch of rain, I don't know where it is going to go with all the snow on the ground already.

[MoMark]

Originally Posted by Yorkie_Mom

MoMark, Just wanted to let you know what Minnesota has in store for us!!!! We just had a major storm last weekend with the ice and a foot of snow. Well I just watched our news, and starting tomorrow we are going to get about an inch of ice followed by 12 to 20 inches of snow!!!!!! I will trade anyone until this winter crap is over, and then come back long enough to move to another state that is warmer, and to where I don't have to shovel.
Last storm we got, I had to shovel snow that was up to my waist in front of our garage, so this storm can go away because I am to sore to shovel one more load. Anyone want to pitch in a hand and help this poor woman out?????

they actually predict frozen precipitation in the form of freezing rain before the snow comes? If so, and it's an inch of ice, that's terrible I'll take the snow any day over the ice. The trees can survive the snow. The ice just destroys once it gets thick enough....destroys everything. I never knew ice could be so destructive.
It's been beautiful here the last week, warmer, temps in the high 50's and 60's...I even got sun yesterday But it's back to 40F for Saturday...the day I have to be outside with a crew working the debris again
I hope your weather forecasters are wrong.

[Yorkie_Mom]

Originally Posted by MoMark

they actually predict frozen precipitation in the form of freezing rain before the snow comes? If so, and it's an inch of ice, that's terrible I'll take the snow any day over the ice. The trees can survive the snow. The ice just destroys once it gets thick enough....destroys everything. I never knew ice could be so destructive.
It's been beautiful here the last week, warmer, temps in the high 50's and 60's...I even got sun yesterday But it's back to 40F for Saturday...the day I have to be outside with a crew working the debris again
I hope your weather forecasters are wrong.

You heard right, they said 1/2 inch to an inch if ice and what makes it even worse is up to 20 inches of snow enough is enough, I don't want any of it. Where is spring??? I thought it was going to come early. I will take your temps, it sounds nice right about now. It has been in the 20's here and it will get warm enough to rain first and then the cold front will make its way through and all turn to snow, THEY SAY NO TRAVEL!!!!!!! Duh!!!! As if I am going any where in that crap!!!!! Can someone come and kidnap me and my daughter until this is all over????? If for some reason you don't find me on here in the next couple of days, that means we lost power. I am glad we have a wood burning fireplace for times like these, at least we can stay warm. I will keep you posted as long as we have our power. Take care, and hope to hold through the storm. Yorkie

[plaidmom]

MoMark...I'm so sorry to hear about your trees! I feel like our trees are old friends.

The snow/ice has ~finally~ melted here and there are limbs everywhere. We had a day of ice, then a day of snow. Yes the ice is worse than snow. I know what you mean by "destructive". The thaw is also causing quite a bit of flooding.

We have an arborist scheduled ( yes, expensive, but worth it, to us, for our old friend the Pin Oak).

I haven't had the heart to take any post-ice-storm pictures yet.

Here He is in the Summer:



It takes three adults to encircle His trunk. I'm sure He's lived through worse than this

[plaidmom]

Originally Posted by Yorkie_Mom

You heard right, they said 1/2 inch to an inch if ice and what makes it even worse is up to 20 inches of snow enough is enough, I don't want any of it. Where is spring??? I thought it was going to come early. I will take your temps, it sounds nice right about now. It has been in the 20's here and it will get warm enough to rain first and then the cold front will make its way through and all turn to snow, THEY SAY NO TRAVEL!!!!!!! Duh!!!! As if I am going any where in that crap!!!!! Can someone come and kidnap me and my daughter until this is all over????? If for some reason you don't find me on here in the next couple of days, that means we lost power. I am glad we have a wood burning fireplace for times like these, at least we can stay warm. I will keep you posted as long as we have our power. Take care, and hope to hold through the storm. Yorkie

Spring is starting in the lower Midwest...get in that car and come on down!

[Yorkie_Mom]

Originally Posted by plaidmom

Spring is starting in the lower Midwest...get in that car and come on down!

Where at in the lower Midwest, I will be right down. I don't want to be here. Got a extra room,lol Thanks