We had some high winds today. When I got home this one was lying across the driveway.
You shall not pass.
Va had left just before I got home, and she drove under it to leave. I drove under it to park in the garage. Then pulled the tree down and fetched my bow saw.
You! Shall not! Pass!
I briefly considered whipping out my chainsaw, but there was only one tree, and it was small. Also, I didn’t have any gas for the chainsaw, and I am afraid of using one.
The trick to cutting up a log is to cut it so that it does not pinch the saw’s blade. I cut the top out first. Then there was no place to cut without pinching the blade, so I brought one of my canoe cradles out (they are substantially more sturdy than my sawhorses).
Pinch avoidance
After the second cut, I heaved the trunk off to the side of the driveway and went in. Va called me a little later suggesting that I check out the south side of the house (she heard something – maybe power lines slapping the side of the house). So I went out again. The house was fine, but there was a tree lying on the power lines up by the road. It had snapped off about 20 feet up and was being held in the air by the electrical wires. It was about 10″ in diameter – pretty big! I called the power company.
They said they would probably not be there tonight, which didn’t surprise me at all, since we still had power, and they had outages all over the place. The surprise was that they did come out and I didn’t notice while they were here.
February 1, 2013 at 1:17 am
Aha! Firewood!
A power company almost has to pay attention to any tree touching the lines because that can start a fire by itself (I’ve seen them do it) or cause more problems.
February 1, 2013 at 9:45 am
Yup. You may remember last year I blogged about a power line igniting a power pole.
February 1, 2013 at 1:21 am
Firewood is right, you’ll need it if the cold air here makes it there!
February 1, 2013 at 9:46 am
I won’t be able to use it as firewood myself unless I build a camp fire. It will more likely be added to my daughter’s log cabin playhouse (assuming I ever finish that).
February 1, 2013 at 6:07 am
Good thing the larger tree didn’t start a fire or pull the lines off the house! A good sized poplar lost a limb here yesterday.
February 1, 2013 at 9:46 am
Yeah, I was amazed the wires were able to hold that much weight.
February 1, 2013 at 8:58 pm
We are right at the end of the line, even when there are lines on the ground they do not come for days.. you must have had very high winds.. made for a bit of excitement anyway! c
February 1, 2013 at 9:07 pm
I don’t know how high the wind was gusting here, but I saw reports of other places in New England where they exceeded 80 MPH.
We were lucky they came out so quickly. I think they happened to be in the neighborhood for something more urgent.