Change Is In The Air

Ten years ago very little sun light made it to the ground. I'd call our yard partly shady to shady. Trees on the south-east side shaded it in the morning and trees on the south-west side provided shade in the afternoon.  Not a bad arrangement.  We knew there would be lots of shade when we bought the property.  It wasn't a problem.  Actually, at the time the trees and the shade they provided were considered an asset.

Our backyard was like a park. The dogs loved it and up keep... your kidding right... what up keep?  A thick layer of pine straw covered the ground and all I had to do was blow the pine needles off the patio and pick up  twigs and small branches that fell from time to time.  Oh, I forgot, pine needles needed to be blown off the roof every other month or so. All in all life was good. We lived within the city limits, had industrial facilities on our property line, yet felt like we were in the country.

Then we had an ice storm...

While it was pretty to look at the sharp crack of limbs being ripped from the trunks of trees and the sound of ice cascading down through the canopy was frighting.

Lower story plants were crushed.  And our patio was hidden under a layer of ice and tree branches.

And then the unthinkable happened.  We heard a loud snap, a deep rumble, and a powerful thump.  The earth literally shook. On the western edge of our property, in an area we affectionately called the back forty, a white pine had been torn out by the roots.  As it fell it started a domino effect.  It knocked down the tree next to it, and they knocked down a third tree.

We were very thankful that none of our beloved trees fell on the house.