Evaluating the Damages

This was a surprise. I had heard a large boom during one of the winter storms; after I had looked outside to see if anything had fallen on our house, I attributed the noise to 'snow thunder' - a phenomenon we get during rapid weather changes.Now that the snow is melting after 6 months of being on the ground, my husband and I could tour our grounds to survey the damage. I never expected one of our huge trees to have fallen over onto the pond. When we found this tree, we just stood there trying to figure what we do now. There are services that come in to clear this type of thing, but more and more there are companies that will pay you to log on your land. Now we are looking around the property to see if we have enough trees to have a company to thin them out and we could get PAID! That would be nice, and a lot less strain on the back - arms - shoulders, etc.
It was close to 60 degrees yesterday, and my husband's day off, so we started the clean-up. A beautiful day, but a lot of work. Chainsaw, reciprocating saw, shovel, pitchfork - we were armed! Old clothes, hats, safety glasses, gloves - we were ready! We were sweating! We were the rural cleaning force for clean yards everywhere! Well, our yard anyway...

We lost just about all our lilac trees and bushes due to the early snow in October, so they had to be cut down. I do not know if they can regrow, but 'people who know' say they may, but smaller. I am happy to say that part was easy. We also cut down an old pine tree in front of the bathroom and dining room window - amazing the light we get in those rooms now! We had high hopes of getting the entire yard of damage cleaned up in one day - right - sure! But I am proud of what we did get done before our exhaustion took over. This is where we have to admit we are middle aged and cannot get as much accomplished in one day.

And it snowed the next morning, as well as the morning of the first day of Spring. Makes it hard to be optimistic that Spring will really arrive soon. It seems to be here in name only.