I was in town this morning, and had the chance to visit the beach. Since I was last there, the town has pushed all the rocks and pebbles that the storm had pushed across the entry onto the main dock back onto the beach.
The beach is still very changed in this area, from before the storm. Much of the organic debris has been washed away, but the big rocks next to the dock itself are completely covered with sand. There is no sign that they are there at all!
With every tide, a new sand ridge is created in the area, though.
Where I took this photo, the ridge was probably about 8 inches high.
New layers of pebbles are slowly being washed back onto the water’s edge. So many colours and textures! I just love it. :-)
I had some daylight left, so I decided to see how far I could get on another thing on my to-do list before winter.
Some clean up of the pile of larger wood, by the fire pit.
We may not have been able to use the fire pit over the summer, due to fire bans and unsafe conditions, but we should be able to use it in the winter. :-)
Among the dead trees I cut down, leaving tall stumps until I can come back with a chain saw, there are three spruce stumps that form a triangle.
I decided to take advantage of that.
My reciprocating saw got quite a workout today! I was able to cut to fire pit size, and move the enter pile of larger wood, and even get some larger pieces in the “kindling” pile!
The disturbed area by the tree with the tire around its base is where the pile was.
The tall stumps worked well to keep the stacked wood in place. We can also use them when we put a tarp over the wood. We can even nail it in place, so the wind won’t blow it away.
Yeah, we plan to get cheap tarps. Actually, there is at least one I saw in the barn that we can dig out and see if it is still usable.
We got a slightly warmer day today – a whole 8C – that I took advantage of to work outside. I was able to rake up some grass clippings in front of the barn – the grass there gets so dense, it’s hard for the mower to handle, and if the clippings get left behind, I find they make it even harder – and add it to the old kitchen garden.
Since I was out there, anyhow, I decided to see if I could move the trailer frame into the barn for the winter.
How to get it there was the question.
The trailer is too wide to go through the side door of the barn, that accesses the old hay yard. To get to the back door, it needed to be pulled through the remains of an old corral.
There were only two possible places I could get it through, on the north side of the old corral.
You see that big, collapsed fence post in the picture on the left? I figured I could just move that aside, and I could roll it over the rails – including what appears to be metal balcony or stair rails (I am finding these absolutely everywhere!). When I tried to pick it up, however, everything started to lift with it. It’s all still attached to the post!
On the edge of the photo, you can see a fence post that is still standing. The photo on the right is the other side of the post.
There is a “floating” fence rail, and the ground is incredibly rutted. Plus, there are a bunch of big rocks.
Neither opening was very good, but the one closer to the barn was slightly better – if I could get around that big post.
Once I got through there, it would be smooth sailing. I had an open space on the opposite side of the old corral.
After that, it was just a matter of getting it into the barn.
For some strange reason, I forgot that there were double doors in the back of the barn. I don’t remember ever, in my entire life, seeing both sides open before.
The cats were very interested in me clearing space for the trailer, and making sure there was no glass or nails on the floor.
The next thing was, how to pull it. There is a security chain at the hitch end, but it is short. Since its got only 2 wheels, if I lifted the front too high, the back hit the ground. If I didn’t lift it that high, however, I found myself hunched over, and at risk of injuring my back.
Into the barn I went and looked around. I found a couple of lengths of chain, one of which had a hook on it.
It was perfect!
The trailer also just made it through the space, with a bit of shifting around.
That tire by the fence post that’s still standing is actually in a deep rut.
It was awkward, but it worked!
The cats really like this thing.
It’s in!
It can now safely stay here, out of the elements, until we are in a position to put some plywood on it as a base.
Who knows. We might even *gasp* put some walls on it, too! :-D
Another thing off the to-do list for before winter!
Oh, and while I was clearing the space it would go in, I found something for the “strange things we find” list.
I’d found a couple at the start, and by the time I dragged the trailer in, I disturbed things enough that 3 more were uncovered.
Yeah. Those are .22 shell casings.
No, we don’t have a .22 My dad’s guns are among the things that went away when the place was empty, though I’m 99.9% sure I know who has them.
My guess is, someone was shooting through the open top of the split door, then just didn’t pick up after themselves. What they would be shooting at from here with just a .22, I have no idea.
Well, now that we’re here to take care of the place, we don’t have to worry about anyone doing stuff like that anymore.
This past Sunday, as has become my custom, I stay in town during my daughter’s short shift. It turned out to be a beautiful day, and I was able to have my first visit to the beach since the blizzard.
I have to say again, how incredibly fortunate we were during that storm. Yeah, we got some tree damage and were snowed in until we could shovel our driveway out, but we really didn’t have a bad run of it. Just yesterday, I was reading that there are still some 2000 people without power. The electric company, with help from other provinces, has about a thousand people working to restore power. In some places, generators were delivered or where on the way, to provide emergency power. The remote areas they workers are in, and the conditions, make these last northern areas much more difficult; in some places, workers are trying to restore power lines while chest deep in water and mud! A rough estimate was that the storm resulted in about $100 million in damage to the electrical system, though there is no way to know for sure until after it’s all done and the numbers are crunched.
We have much to be thankful for.
How the storm hit could be very different, depending on the area. Especially with the lake effect. The one time we did go by the beach, it was amazing to see no snow at all, yet just a couple of blocks away, people’s yards had about 6 inches of snow.
People living near the beach and marina posted videos online, and it was astonishing to see the waves crashing over the breakwall on the main dock.
There were some significant changes that I could see, right away.
After cleaning up the storm damage, the next thing to focus on was to put stuff away for the winter. Since we now have sheets of metal roofing on the old garden shed, and it no longer has water pouring in through a hole, I decided to move things around so I could use it.
Of course, that meant finding some curious things!
While working around the willow tree, I noticed something out by the north fence and took a closer look.
That’s when I found we had more trees and branches come down there, too. I hadn’t seen it before, simply because I hadn’t bothered going that far through the snow. The main priority was checking close to the house.
I’m really glad I was able to mow in this area, because that made clean up a lot easier!
I’d posted a video I took after this job was done, previously. I am honestly surprised more of this tree did not come down in the storm. I hope it survives many more storms, because it’s such a beautiful old tree!
The first thing I had to do was assess the fallen branch more closely.
The branch was long enough to reach the double row of elms heading towards the garden gate.
As I started cutting away sections, I was able to see that the whole thing had been kept from hitting the ground by the skinny little top of the branch that landed on an elm!
Amazing, that that was all it took to keep such a big, heavy, branch from falling all the way to the ground!
After clearing away enough branches that I could reach the main part with the extended pruning saw, I just start pulling.
Eventually, the top came down, and I was able to start breaking it down from the end.
The main branch ended up being held up by another branch I’d already cut away part of. While I continued cutting away smaller sections, it looked like I would have issues with where it cracked at the trunk. How would I even reach it? I had expect this to be the easy part of the job, but it took a lot more work just to cut away pieces, so I could reach where I needed to go!
Plus, I had to get the weight off the branch that was still holding the whole thing up, so I grabbed a branch and started dragging it off to the side. It all twisted at the cracked trunk.
Hmmm…
Little by little, I cut sections away until I reached the cracked trunk.
This part of the trunk was too high for me to reach, and I couldn’t see how I could cut it away. It would be too dangerous to use the step ladder and a buck saw.
However, it was really quite rotten, and it twisted quite a bit when I was manhandling it to get those sections cut away. What would happen if I pulled on the cut ends?
I found the whole thing easily twisted around, and pieces of the trunk started to fall off.
What I thought would be the hardest part of the job turned out to be the easiest part – it just pulled right down!
The pile at the base of the tree is all from that one branch that broke.
I’m leaving it there until spring, when I plan to take down the rest of the rotten trunk. I’d already added lots of other downed branches to the pile by the fire pit.
So that is done for now!
When I started working on this area, though, I spotted more storm damage that I’d missed, because I simply hadn’t slogged my way far enough through the snow.
