Fallen Trees - December 2015
You can click on any small image to see an enlarged photo.
Fallen Trees - December 24, 2015
Apparently we can be sound sleepers! It appears that around 11:30 pm December 22 a very large fir tree near our storage shed fell down. Neighbors heard "something" at that time, but we didn't.
This isn't even the dumbest part... the next day I walked for the mail and never noticed the fallen tree, nor the treetop sticking out onto the road, even though I walked right past it!
The next day (Christmas eve), our neighbor Todd (Flying Squirrel Tree Service) came by and asked Linda, who was out in the yard, what she thought of the fallen tree. Imagine her surprise when she looked around to see the huge tree down!
Not only was the tree down, with the top sticking out about 5ft into the road, but it crushed the adjacent arbutis tree flat, and one of the twinned trunks took out part of our metal garden shed. As it fell it also stripped branches off trees at the front roadway. The toppling tree also tore up the entire rootball, leaving a huge hole beside the shed. Overall it was quite a mess.
Some notes on the pictures: The two trunks in pictures of the damaged metal shed are from the same tree. In other pictures you can see the fork in the tree near the base. Also, the root ball you see in some pictures was totally rotten, which is why the tree fell. We were able to reach over and snap off roots that were 5-6in in diameter easily.
Fallen Trees - December 25, 2015
More photos of the aftermath...
You can see the broken asphalt of the driveway caused by the rotating root ball, as well as the undermining of the storage shed due to the hole left behind.
These last two pictures are of two tall firs beside the shed that will have to be addressed due to twinned tops./p>
Fallen Tree Cleanup - December 24, 2015
Todd and I had a look around and decided that in addition to cleaning up the aftermath of the fallen tree, there were other trees that were in need of immediate attention.
A tree behind the storage shed had roots on top of a large rock, and would likely fall, taking out the shed. It had to come down. Two very tall firs had twin tops, which were rotten and would drop huge branches on the house and garage, doing significant (and expensive) damage to the house. They had to be topped. In the back, a hemlock was totally dead and had to come out. Overall there were at least 5 trees in need of immediate attention.
Once the tree trunk was removed from on top of the metal shed, the rest of the tree was cut into manageable firewood chunks and the limbs chipped. As the main trunk was cut up, the root ball did start to tip back up, so it was tied off.
We tried to move the root ball back into place as it wanted to tip when the trunk was cut up, but in spite of using very thick rope and a 4x4 truck, it only came partly back.
These three pictures are of the hemlock in the back corner of the property that was topped. It's still a bit tall and will be cut further down at a later time.
Fallen Tree Cleanup - *UPDATE* January 2, 2016
It has been very cold for Vancouver Island these past few days - temperatures have been holding at -5C for most of the days and nights since Dec 30. As a result, no tree activity has been happening as it's too cold. Instead of giving, the limbs would simply snap off and fall wherever, rather than in a controlled manner. Once the temp gets above zero (+4C) then Todd will return to complete the work.
Felling trees in 2016 is found here