Windy Spring

High winds aren't new to our area, in fact they're fairly common up in the hills. What is new to us is how much they're affecting us. I know our sample size is only 5 years, but in that time usually the pine forest around us has made a big difference in protecting us from bad winds. Lately the winds have been causing a lot of problems, and today illustrated some of them very well. The Lady of the House woke up last night wondering what the noise was, and eventually I made sure it really was just the wind, not a fire. This morning first thing that greeted me was the results of that wind storm, as you can see above.

It's not just that branch that's down. There are a lot of branches down around the perimeter of the yard, and a number of trees that I'm starting to have concerns about. The one pictured Right is positioned to crush a rabbit hutch if it goes much further. I didn't have time to do it this morning, but I want to rig up a lever and push it down off to the side so it doesn't come down by surprise. This sort of random dead fall is precisely why people would go around and pull down half dead branches, and why felling trees in bad shape is good around where you are going to be actually doing things. We like leaving standing dead wood up for wildlife to use for habitat. For instance, woodpeckers need places to live and hammer at for bugs. Things of that nature. The truth of the matter is though, I think we may have let that go too long.

One of the things I know we need to deal with before it ends up a very bad surprise is the  tree leaning over the driveway. You can sort of see it towards the center of the shot here. Right now it's being held up more by a stump next to it than anything else. That's a tree I'm going to have to deal with using a chainsaw. Right now I don't have a chainsaw I know to be working. I just need to get the one I was gifted to a shop to do a thorough once over on since I don't have the experience to be comfortable handling it, or the time to learn how to do it. At some point I look forward to having the time to learn to properly maintain and care for chainsaws and tractors. Right now though, we're still doing things almost exclusively by hand.

One of the things that is a definite after this windy winter and windier spring is that we HAVE to get the wood shed built. The number of times we ended up with wood uncovered for rain or snow showers has gotten absurd. I even tied the corners of the tarp down a few times and they got ripped off and broken. I'm tired of having wood that's slightly or more than slightly damp. This year, the wood shed has jumped up my priority list.