Mother Natures Fury

[hortontoter]

I was very apprehensive making the 60 mile drive this morning to the cabin. I watched the radar closely yesterday and knew that Carrroll County took a pretty good hit. As I turned into my driveway I was pretty shocked at the scene. My first thought was where do I start to clean up this mess.

I surveyed the area close to the cabin and saw that there was no real damage to the structure, but things were a real mess. I couldn't get across my creek due to high water and it was littered with fallen trees. I could see that I had lost at least ten mature hardwoods, mostly oaks. I hate to see the damage up on my higher ground across the creek.

I had no electricity and my freezer in the refrigerator had partially defrosted. The carpet was pretty wet, but not in a real large area. I keep a small shop vac on hand for times like this. It was useless without power, so my T-shirt sufficed as a sponge of sorts. I sopped up what I could and started some clean-up of the grounds. Limbs were everywhere. I piled up most of the large ones near my fire ring and then raked for an hour or so in the driveway. Got the driveway cleared and called it a day.

I stopped at the electric company to report my outage, as I am the only one on my transformer. The lady told me 7-10 days before I have power again. I'm sure I'll be back down over the weekend to do some more clean-up.

[hortontoter]

Limbs like the ones in my driveway are laying everywhere. In the background of this photo you can see some of the trees that hung up in others but are either uprooted or broken off at the base.

[Big_Holla]

Hate to see the mess you have to deal with Dick. Like you I also hate to see good wood go to waste too.

[hortontoter]

If I didn't love hunting there as much as I do I'd probably throw in the towel and sell the place(Yeah, right!). This year has been a real pain trying to keep up. But, hey we will get it cleaned up over the next couple of weeks and all will be fine.

Hard to believe how much a piece of ground can get in to your heart. My dad has been having problems with his foot. He helped a little bit this morning and then took up residence on the porch. He kept asking me when I was going to take a break. I told him that I'd quit when I couldn't do any more. He just shook his head and said "I'm glad you and Norma own this place, no one else would work on it constantly to keep it up". I just smiled and kept on working.

The wood that is retrieveable will not go to waste, Chuck. My neighbor will cut most of it up and use for firewood to heat his house in the winter.

[mrbb]

well looks like you have some work to do, but like they say, it could always be worse LOL
and I too hate to see a good tree come over in a storm, takes so long for a tre to get to a certian size,
fire wood or not, it still sucks
but better to use than just leave it be!
and as for keeping the place
think you would be lost without it
all the work, is good for the soul, and makes you appreciate all the good times when you just get to relax when your there!
all the more so!
if you were colser i'd be glad to help you out, too!

[Mike F]

I too, are sorry about your mess. Everything that I can see from the house is OK, but haven't made it to the woods yet.

[hortontoter]

You are right Stan, I'd be lost without the place. We definately have more good times than bad ones.

I'll bet your creek is flowing quite well Mike. If you got wind like we did I'm sure you have a few trees down.

[Mike F]

Yes the creek is up, and has been all summer. The wind we had only lasted a couple of minutes, and didn't seem as bad as the rest of the state got. It looked on radar that the line of the storm got bigger as it went east.

[Big_Holla]

It's good the neighbor will be helping you out with the wood. Boy, didn't think the storms were that bad down that way but I guess I was wrong. Tell that Stonegod fella to get over there and help you out!! :smash:

[buckbuster217]

Really hate to see this Dick, but gotta agree with Stan, you wouldnt know what to do with out it. We had about the same as Mike, the wind only lasted a few minutes with little to no damage, me and the wife went for a ride last night and was checking some fields, a lot of the corn fields to the southeast of us are flat! Hate to see this for the farmers

[hortontoter]

I heard today that an F1 tornado was confirmed in Mineral City which is not far to the Northwest of my property. The storms on Wednesday were taveling on a east southeast direction. I'm thinking my damage may have been remnants of this.

Good news is that my SIL is going down with me early tomorrow morning to do some chainsaw work for me. I'll work with most tools, but I don't use gas powered chainsaws. I'll take some more photos tomorrow. I'm hoping my neighbor hasn't already cleaned up a bunch of the downed trees.

My SIL tackled this tree for me a couple years ago. Another beauty of an oak that was destroyed.

[mrbb]

watch out for poison Oak, this time of yr it can be a pain in the butt if you get it
and a seems like wild storms are the norm anymore
our weather these days as to yrs ago, seem all screwed up to me, seems like we go from winter to summer, then to spring like cool temps and rain or drought in between, like one extreme to the next, no gradual changes like yrs back, or feels that way to me

[Big_Holla]

watch out for poison Oak, this time of yr it can be a pain in the butt if you get it


Yep, that's the easy one for me to miss.

[hortontoter]

We got an early start this morning. I'm hoping 6:30AM wasn't to early for the neighbors. We worked until about 1:30. My SIL ran the saw amd I piled brush. The two of us actually accomplished quite a bit, but never even got into the tree trunks. I should have taken some photos before we left to show what we got done. There were four trees down in this spot. One very large tree took out three others as it came down. Some good came of this mess though. I made a temporary barricade with some of the brush to force the deer to cross the creek in front of my creekside stand. I'll burn it all this winter after deer season. Another surprise was I walked in the cabin this morning and had power restored. I was going to take the wife down a spend the night tonight and do some more cleanup tomorrow. But, my SIL invited us to come over tomorrow for a cookout and cake and ice cream for my daughters birthday. After all he did for me today, I couldn't say no.

[Big_Holla]

Boy it sure did blow some stuff down! Glad you are using some to possibly benefit one of your stand locations. I don't blame you one bit for taking your Sunday off to spend time with the family. Work stuff can wait.

[buckstalker17]

IF YOU NEED ANY HELP DICK JUST LET ME KNOW THAT BIG TREE WAS A CLOSE ONE THOUGH SHOOOWEEE

[hortontoter]

IF YOU NEED ANY HELP DICK JUST LET ME KNOW THAT BIG TREE WAS A CLOSE ONE THOUGH SHOOOWEEE

Thanks a lot for the offer. I've got until September to get this cleaned up. My neighbor will cut and remove all the big wood for firewood. The trees by the creek closed off a major funnel in my creek bottom. This funnel is a major travel route for bucks, mostly from the last few days of October through mid November.

[buckstalker17]

Thanks a lot for the offer. I've got until September to get this cleaned up. My neighbor will cut and remove all the big wood for firewood. The trees by the creek closed off a major funnel in my creek bottom. This funnel is a major travel route for bucks, mostly from the last few days of October through mid November.
make sure you get that funnel cleared out if not ole splitter might come south to franklin county

[Big_Holla]

Thanks a lot for the offer. I've got until September to get this cleaned up. My neighbor will cut and remove all the big wood for firewood. The trees by the creek closed off a major funnel in my creek bottom. This funnel is a major travel route for bucks, mostly from the last few days of October through mid November.


make sure you get that funnel cleared out if not ole splitter might come south to franklin county

I agree, even if it's just a path for them to get through!! Perfect time to make that opening right were YOU want them to go too!!