So Daniel and I decided to tackle the ceiling in the Stonehouse this past weekend ... the weather is getting better and this is a very messy job so we wanted to get it done before the long weekend in May.
The plan was to come up on Thursday and he and I work all day Friday taking down the old one and getting it ready for drywall on Saturday and or Sunday when we had some help coming.
Well the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. We do indeed arrive on Thursday but late because there is a storm in the area and driving is treacherous especially for Daniel coming from Windsor with his trailer to take away debris. The wind is whipping him around so he has to drive very slow. We have dinner and decide NOT to do any work on Thursday evening and instead watch something on Netflicks. At about 11:00 pm the lights go out. When we go outside to investigate the veranda is a sheet of ice. We call Hydro and they don't know what is going on either ... so we wait an hour or so, light some candles and eventually decide to go to bed.
In the morning the lights are still out and without electricity we decide to go to the Sunset Diner for breakfast. As we turn the corner of the driveway to head down our laneway Daniel says .... " Holy Shit " .... and the above picture is what we see .... Not one but two very large trees have fallen across our driveway.
Some more pictures are below including some pictures of the ice on the trees ... very pretty actually but a huge amount of damage.
It was perfect conditions for this to happen .. the ground was water logged from a very wet winter and spring ... the roots are shallow since we are on Stone ( St Marys is nicknamed 'Stonetown') ... the ice added a lot of weight and the wind was wicked ... add it all up and you have trees down all over the county and a lot of debris in everyone's yard including my own.
You will laugh ... we actually thought we could clear a path with this tiny little trimming chain saw ( dull trimming saw as well ) ... it wouldn't touch it so after about an hour of trying I called my buddy Tim to get him over with his chain saw ... also walked over to my neighbour's to see if their lights were out ... they were ... and her son came over with another chain saw ... about 3 hours later we had a small path cut to get the car out.
One good thing out of all of this ... it gave me an excuse to go out and buy a proper chain saw ... it cut through these like butter ... I'll do anything to buy another tool I don't need ... although I think this latest acquistion will actually come in handy.
A huge root ball. About six feet top to bottom.
I paced the length and the trees are ... or I should say "were" ... about a 100 feet tall .... after cutting through the trunk we counted the rings and they both were about 75 years old ... one was a maple and the other a black walnut. Both destroyed so the wood was NOT salvgeable except for firewood. Tim had a friend who came over on the weekend and removed both and took away 12 truck loads of firewood ... he figured it was between 12 and 14 face cords of wood. Will heat his house for at least one winter. He owes me a very big favour.
Other Ice damage and storm stuff below.
A good picture of just how thick the ice was on the trees.
This is why the electricity was out ... two very large trees fell across the road just outside our property on Road 151 ... taking out the power lines. It took four days for them to finally get this cleared and the power restored. Some 10,000 customers were without power in the area.
I'm now VERY glad I bought a generator ... at least we had power for the fridge and freezer and we were also able to power up the TV and DVD player to watch movies at night. Needless to say we didn't get much work done although we did get the old ceiling down .... pictures of the ceiling follow ... also I stayed over Monday waiting for the power to be restored and it was a glorious day so I walked around and took pictures of flowers etc ... they follow as well.
The garlic that Laura and I planted in the fall.
That's the garlic batch in the front
I built seven raised beds a couple of weeks ago ... not sure yet where I'm going to put them. I'm NUTS!!!!!
What's left of the two trees after the guys cut them up for firewood .. the root balls fell back into the ground a little once the weight of the trunks was taken off and they are no longer sticking out of the ground like in the earlier pictures.
