It’s federal election day here in Canada, and I’m happy to say that there was a local polling station (according to the elections Canada website – and the agent I spoke to on the phone while trying to find where the nearest polling station would be – our little hamlet doesn’t exist) and I was able to register and vote without any problems. What a difference from the last federal election, when we were still living in the city! It helped that the registration officer happened to be a “neighbour” that I finally got to meet. Since she lives on the same road we do, a mile away, she had no issues with the fact that there are different names for our road. I’ve got the road name on my driver’s license, which no longer matches the signage. She’s had the same issue we have, since the stop sign with the road name got knocked down, and the sign with the name of our road disappearing. It has not been replaced, so there is just the numerical designation on the other stop sign.
I got to vote, and later on I’ll be going back with my daughters, so they can register and vote, too. :-)
Until then, I’ve got a bit of catching up to do, and will be splitting things up into several posts, rather than one big one. I was finally able to get the tree damage from the storm taken care of, as well as putting stuff away for the winter, the day before we had my mom over for a surprise second Thanksgiving dinner. With this post, I’ll start with the last things I cleaned up; the little things!
Things have been warm enough for the snow to mostly melt away, so today I was finally able to go around the yard and take care of the storm damaged trees.
I will process and upload photos, probably in a couple of days, but until then I wanted to share this video I took of the big willow tree, after I’d finally gotten the broken section down.
The base of this section is pretty much compost.
I really am amazed that this is the only section that came down in the storm.
I’m leaving the remains where I’ve put them, to clean up in the spring. That is when I plan to take down the rest of the rotting trunk.
Assuming it doesn’t come down on its own, over the winter.
While doing my rounds, I noticed something about the storm damage to one of our elms that I hadn’t before. I simply didn’t stop to look, since it’s still to wet and snowy to start cleaning the damage up, until today while doing my morning rounds.
This branch here isn’t just broken.
It’s broken off completely. The only reason it’s not on the ground is because it fell on another little branch that’s holding it up!
The girls and I had to make a trip into the city today, and while driving around, we saw so many damaged trees. Some were large ones that basically split apart at their turns, as heavy branches on different sides broke off in different directions.
This morning, while doing my rounds, I was able to go further into the spruce grove, after checking the trail cam. Near the trail cam, I found a small poplar that was broken, and a few more broken branches. I also found that the asparagus have been completely denuded of their berries!
Which reminds me; I had been showing photos of the yard to my mother and she saw one of the red berries on the asparagus and asked me where it was taken. I told her were, and wondered about how they got there. My mother says they’ve always been there! Which would mean there have been little spears of asparagus growing here for some 60 years!
Wow.
Anyhow;
In the spruce grove, I had made note of several dead trees that I wanted to keep an eye on, and one of those came down during the storm.
I don’t know why this picture ended up so out of focus. :-(
Unlike the other trees that have come down, this one does not have signs of ant damage in the trunk, so it took quite a lot for the wind to knock this one down!
It landed right on another tree, which you can see bending under its weight. That little tree (which I think is a living maple, but it has no leaves right now) is the only reason it is not on the ground!
The other bent tree to the right isn’t actually under the fallen tree; it just looks like it from this angle.
The two dead trees in the foreground are right near the one that feel, and there is another dead tree a bit further back, behind it. I am hoping we’ll be able to cut those down before they fall, like this one did.
Here, you can see where the top of the tree is right in the top branches of another spruce.
Which is also dead.
By the time we finally clear out all the dead trees, the spruce grove is going to be a lot more open than it is now!
While making my way out, I had to stop and get pictures of this unusual tree.
It’s another dead spruce, but I’m fascinated by how this one spruce has been so stripped of its outer bark. Almost as if it had been sand blasted for something. It’s the only tree that is like this, though.
My goal for this year had been to start clearing into the spruce grove, so that will be my goal for next summer. The first thing will be to get at and clear away the dead trees that are already on the ground. Then figure out how to get down the ones that are fallen, but hung up on living trees. Only then can we start looking at cutting down the dead trees that are still upright.
That last part can wait another year or two, though (except the ones we’ll be hiring someone to take down for us, because they are closer to buildings). I need to start clearing the outer yard, too! At the same time, we have to keep on top of the areas already cleared, so they don’t get taken over again.
It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, and after the blizzard that hit us, we have so much to be thankful for! Parts of the province are described as looking like they were hit by a tornado, and I just learned that my sister was without power for 2 days. Thankfully, they have a wood stove and fireplace for cooking and heat, as well as a generator.
When I drove my daughter to work on the Thursday, things were still looking good. By the time we reached town, it was starting to snow, but it was on the way home that I drove into the beginnings of the storm, locally.
When it was safe to do so, I pulled over to get a picture.
I was finally able to upload my images and was working on a post about the storm and current conditions.
Then the power went out.
It has been off and on several times since. There are outages all over the south and central areas of the province, so we are doing much better than others.
The shut down killed my blog post, though. Not even the auto-save to draft remaining. After several times cutting out, I’ve just left the computer off and am just making this quick post on my phone, while I still can!
We are well and safe, though, and that’s what matters.
Also…
I am SO GLAD we got those trees cleared away from the power lines and roof. I don’t think I will ever stop being so relieved by that. Especially in conditions like we just had!!
Okay, so I’ve managed to upload enough pictures to complete a few posts – if not in the way I originally planned! There are power outages in the area due to the storm so I figured, if I’m going to do it, do it now!
A few days back, I was able to get some really interesting photos around the yard. Especially images of various mushrooms that have been growing.
I must say, it feels strange to be posting this on a day when the ground is now covered in heavy snow!
This patch caught my eye because of the way it frames the drip line of the spruce tree nearby.
This patch is an odd one. It’s the only area where there are SO MANY all in one area. At first, I thought maybe the wood chips we used as mulch may have contributed, but the other areas using the same mulch do not have this.
Unfortunately, the haskap bush (female) in the first photo, which had been doing so well all summer, suddenly seems to have died. You can barely even see it in the photo, among the stems of the flowers. I find myself wondering if the mushrooms might have contributed to its demise. The other haskap (male) seems to be okay, though it does not have as many mushrooms growing beside it.
Next spring, I’ll have to pick up at least one female haskap transplant. Or more. With this one dying, it means there’s no chance of having berries next year. :-(
While going around the yard, I spotted the tiniest of splashes of colour on an old tree stump I uncovered while clearing the old wood pile. The next day was our one hot day, and that seems to have damaged them, so I’m glad to have gotten a few photos. I’ve never seen anything like them before!
I had company while I was walking around the yard, taking pictures. I had to laugh when, once again, as I tried to get photos of this particular mushroom, I had a cat jump up and interrupt. LOL
I’ve been going a bit of research, and it seems that these tree mushrooms that are growing on the maples may be oyster mushrooms. Which means they are edible!
We won’t be taking any chances, though, but it was interesting to read about.
These ones I found, pushing their way through the leaves, looked really interesting!
I found these interesting, too. With all the rain, there has been a notable increase of growth on the trees themselves.
The lichen, I’m used to seeing. Finding new moss establishing itself among the lichen was cool. Little baby mosses! :-)
Then I noticed one of the trees I was taking pictures of, has a big crack in it! Something to watch out for when we have high winds, such as today.
While doing my research on what sorts of fungi were growing on our trees, I made a discovery.
The photo on the left is on the stump of an apple tree my sister had pruned back before we moved out here. The tree had some growth that first summer, but it did not survive the winter. Recently, we spotted the fascinating fungal grown on it. The purple makes it really stand out.
It turns out to be something called Chondrostereum purpureum.
Many plants will recover naturally from an attack of silver leaf, so
it’s best to wait some time after you’ve noticed the silvering before
you take action. If branches start to die back as a result of the
disease they should be pruned back beyond the spread of the brown
colouration, to the next adjoining stem.
Where the entire plant is infected, or silvering starts to appear on suckers
growing from the roots/rootstock, then it is infected throughout and
should be removed (roots and all) and destroyed (burned). This should be
done before September to prevent the spores developing and spreading to
other plants. Don’t leave the wood lying around as this may become a
source of infection for other plants.
Is it good for anything?!
No.
Wow. Okay.
Actually, I did find that there is a use for it. It’s used to deliberately infect problem trees to get rid of them.
So I went back and looked at the other trees, and found some growing on the remains of a crabapple tree that had already been cut to ground level.
We weren’t able to go anything about it before the storm hit. Hopefully, it won’t infect the other trees. At least we now know about it, and what to do – or not do – to deal with it.
Once this storm is passed, we’re supposed to actually warm up a bit; the snow on the ground will likely not last. Here’s hoping! We still have quite a lot to do outside before winter hits!
