Dead Trees, Part 1

I have too many of them, and I gained a new one yesterday.  I'll explain.  About 10 years ago, lightning knocked off the top 1/3 of a huge sweetgum tree in the neighbor's yard.  Being downwind, it fell into mine.  That made it my problem.  The rain that followed caused a river birch (a real junk tree) that was already leaning over to fall on my toolshed.  

My friends kid me about "over-building things".  Well, the shed withstood the tree falling on it!  But I had to get a tree removal company in to cut up and remove both.  I also had them remove 2 other river birches that were tall enough to shade my garden.

Well, the damaged sweetgum trunk eventually rotted and the middle 1/3 fell over in Fall 2020.  I expected to cut it up with a chain saw in better weather the next Spring.  But then I fell off the extension ladder in January 2021, so I sure wasn't doing any hard work for 6 months.  And I still don't really feel healed (and suppose I never quite will again).  I may indulge myself about all the glories of aging in a future post, but not today.

There is a beech tree in the front yard.  It died 2 years ago.  I have (had) golden rain trees on each side of the driveway near the street.

That's not mine, but a good picture of one.   They get about 15' tall.  Mine were 12'.  One died the same time as the beech tree (it was a dry year for my area) and I saw other dead trees in the neighborhood later.

So the weather forecast Sunday night was for storms with strong winds Monday.  Earlier yesterday, the forecast was for localized near-hurricane-strength winds, heavy rain, hail, and possibly small tornados.  It is kind of early in the year for that, but climate change is real and stronger weather is becoming routine earlier and later than usual.

When the winds started, I was surprised at the violence of the wind on the trees.  It wasn't just one direction.  It swirled, beating them back and forth.  Mature trees bent.  Smaller ones whipped around like shrubs.  It wasn't a tornado, but it was sure damn close.  Hail fell.  Pea-sized at first (which is fun to watch when inside) but it grew to grape-sized and I worried about my lettuce on the deck.

I watched the dead beech tree carefully.  It had partially died many years ago, but sent up some new tops.  None very heavy though.  I had estimated its height and measured to the house.  The remaining heavy trunk would (probably) not quite reach the house, but even 3" branches can damage a roof.

The beech remains standing.  But I didn't realize at first that the surviving golden rain tree had been blown over.  Right across the driveway, of course.  The dead one didn't get blown over; no leaves for the wind to push on...

The storm was brief, so I went out to look at it about 5 pm.  Too heavy for me to drag off the driveway.  I have 2 chain saws.  I can't keep the serious gas one adjusted enough to work (2 stroke gas engines drive me crazy), so I have a small electric one.  I tried to cut it apart, but the blade was too dull.  I have a replacement blade, but didn't really want to mess with it right them.  I figured I would do that later today.

That's when my wonderful neighbors across the street came to my assistance!  More on that tomorrow...

Monday Monsoon

I had stayed up late Sunday night (blog, Civilization2 game, a discussion forum).  So I went to bed about 3 am.  As I curled up in bed, it started to rain and I was happy to hear it.  July and August are historically dry to the point where the soil cracks open, so rain is appreciated.  Plus, I'm one of those people who find the sound comforting when I sleep.

So I had only positive thoughts hearing the rain...

Well, sometimes you are just plain wrong!  When I got up about Noon, I looked out the window to see how much rain had fallen.  I have a large rain gauge that tops out at 6" with large 1/4" markers and there is a floating red plastic button so you can see the level.  I couldn't see the red button.

So I got dressed and went outside to check the rain gauge.  The rain gauge was filled and the button was hidden under the top.

So I drained a little water out so you can see the button

I don't know how much MORE than 6" we got here...

I had gone out from the deck and gone back inside the same way.  Then I went into the basement.  Now, I've had wet basement problems, in the past (there is a 12'x10' sunken patio with a 3' high cinder block wall on 2 sides and sliding glass doors, and the patio was poorly built.  It should have been very slightly sloped toward the lawn, but it isn't.

After a couple of hurricanes  that caused rainfall to seep into the basement, I dug a 6" drainage trench downslope.  It worked well, but they fill in eventually and you don't notice such gradual changes.  Normally, in heavy rainfall, I check to make sure the water is draining through the trench.  But I was asleep this time.

Rainwater got in.  I don't mean a foot of water filled the basement, but 1/4" is bad enough.  It gets everywhere.  Have I mentioned that Iza has the bad habit of pooping just outside the litterboxes even when they are utterly clean.  I often just pour a bit of clumping litter on the poops and scoop them up later.  Guess what happens when water collects around kitty-poop covered with clumpable litter?

So I set one litter box in a dry spot and cleaned it every waking hour while the litter-poop dried (and The Mews have been VERY good about using that one).  I used my wet/dry shop vac to collect most of the standing water (avoiding the poop mess until it dries).

So having done what I could in the basement, I went out and looked at the front yard.  I have one storm drain on my property and one shared with a neighbor .  I live at the bottom of a large downsloping neighborhood.  The shared storm drain is almost the end of the line of several drainage easements from the higher lots (just before the last drainage into the swamp across the street).

There is actually a storm drain under this gravel!

It is routinely covered with plant and tree debris and when I can, I pull junk of the grate covering the drain.  But it usually drains well enough.  Any storm drain can be overwhelmed by enough water but what doesn't drain there flows across my front land near the street to the one actually ON my property.  A few hours after even a hurricane the standing water is gone.

Not this time!

Usually, I get small tree debris.  THIS TIME cubic yards of clay and gravel flowed over the storm grate and covered it completely.  The lower 20' of the drainage easement was previously 3' wide and almost 2' deep.  It is filled with gravel now, almost up to lawn level.

I met my neighbor there Monday afternoon.  He had called the County Government about the problem.  I took pictures and will email the County about it (pictures help).  He is new here and was surprised.  He is direct and used to contacting authorities.  His SO (uncertain and he didn't volunteer) has been here about 10 years ( asked if she was the same person who was metalic red hair and black dresses and he smiled and said yes.  I only aksed to make sure it was the same lady I had seen years before.  He's cool.  He admits they tend to stay by themselves...  Well, so do I.

After I went back inside, I decided to check the basement (drying nicely) and went out the sunken patio glass doors.

AACCKKK!

The 3' high cinder block wall around it was broken in half like a potato chip and pushed out 1' in the middle!  I was stunned.  It wasn't like I had much flowing water over the surface.  As best I can tell, it was just that the soil got SO saturated that it expanded and pushed the cinder block wall away.  I'll call my insurance agent tomorrow, but I bet that is considered uncovered "flood damage" even though a tree that fell over from soil saturation would be covered.

See that board in the back?  That was on top of the cinder block wall.  That's how much it moved.

I'm going to try levering the pushed-out cinder block back in place and using construction adhesive to hold it in place.  I'm going to wait a few days to allow the broken edges to dry.  If that doesn't work, I will have a few masonry repair companies come by for cost quotes.  And it may be time to have the patio drainage problem solved permanently.  I had in mind to add perforated 4" pipe just below ground level with a regular pipe draining downslope but a professional might have some better solutions.

It has been a rather unhappy 36 hours.  It could be worse.  In the grand scheme of things, these are minor.  But they sure are ANNOYING!

A Surprise Storm

It's one thing to have a 40% chance of a thunderstorm and quite another what we had here this afternoon.

I am glad I took pictures of the first 2 daffodil blooms and a few new crocuses before the storm.

 Because they aren't there now...

The rain started a bit sooner than forecast, but that was no great surprise.  Maryland, being between the Appalchians and the Chesapeake Bay east/west, and the northern and southern weather patterns, is considered one of the trickier areas of the US for weather forecasting.  We get unexpected swirls from all directions.

I was appreciating that there would be some rain; we have had only about 1/2" so far this year.  So I was watching the first few raindrop.  Then the hail came down!

We don't get hail often here and it is usually the size of peas when we do.  It falls straight down, bounces around oddly and lasts about 5 minutes.  The hail around here is usually the size of peas; this stuff was grape-sized.  Not much compared to what some people get elsewhere, but surprize is whatever is more than you are used to. 

Today, we had a hail-blizzard!  I've seen snow going almost sideways in serious blizzards before, but I have never seen hail do that.  The hail didn't bouncely politely of the roof; it smashed into the windows and doors.  It was so heavy (briefly) that it just looked like a thick fog outside (moving rapidly sideways).

The sound was deafing on the side of the house facing the wind and I am hoping that when I can see it in the daylight, there is no dented or broken siding.  It was exciting in an odd way (meaning I couldn't stop it, so might as well observe it for the experience).

And then the power went off.  It came on a few seconds, went off a few seconds, and then went off for 3 hours. 

It wasn't yet dark enough to need candles, but I did go around the house and collect battery-powered stuff in case it lasted a while.  I have several radios with rechargeable batteries,  a couple lights that operate off cigarette plug in cars, 2 portable battery packs with plugable outlets, several maxlite flashlights, and even a crankable emergency radio.  And multiple-wick emergency candles.  We do sometimes have hurricanes here.  And I always make sure to have dry wood and a couple bags of charcoal for cooking outside if things get bad for more than a day. 

I am SO boy-scoutish...  LOL!

The radio said we had wind gusts up to 60 mph and heavy hail.  There was a possible tornado reported nearby, so the wind gusts made sense.  I don't keep a rain gauge up in Winter so I don't know how much precipitation fell, but in the 30 minute storm the drainage easement was running higher than I have seen it for years.  I a thankful for 2 things about that.  First, that I raised the level of my lawn around it by 2' 3 years ago, and second, that I got the County out here to clean the imbedded debris in the storm drain at the end of the easement.  Otherwise, the street would have been inundated!  Even so, my front lawn near the street had standing water a foot deep.  Even a storm drain has finite draining capacity.

There is temporary damage.  The only 2 first 2 daffodil flowers were crushed, I think most of the crocuses are beaten down.  Perhaps most sadly, I lost a few 100 saucer magnolia buds that were about to bloom due to the warm weather of the past weeks.  I'll take heart that so many are left.  And the unopened daffodil buds seem undamaged.  Flowers are fragile; buds are tight and tough.

The deck...

The new edged front island...

The backyard...

Keeping to good thoughts as much as possible, the hail will melt slowly into the ground.  The ground needs water. 

The power came back on in time for me to re-heat a pre-cooked frozen meal (pulled pork with jalapeno peppers in roasted tomato sauce with noodles) and M/W sweet potato and a big tossed salad.  Good thing too, because I was staring at a can of beef chili and considering using the hibachi to heat it...

What irritates me the most (aside from the loss of the saucer magnolia buds really) is that I was JUST going to the basement to plant my tomatoes and peppers and cole crops when the power went out. 

And stranger?  It is dribbling hail.  Just started as I typed the last sentence...

Damnable But Small Problems

It's the smaller problems of life that get at you the worst sometimes.  I mean, Really Bad Problems, you know they are, and you have to deal with them.  Family members die, you break a bone, you lose a job.  Those are bad.  And everyone understands.

Its the smaller stuff that is sometimes harder to deal with, because you are all alone with it.  The splinter in your finger, the sore shoulder, the car that doesn't like to start, those don't get so much sympathy. 

I've been plagued with the latter recently.  I don't need much sympathy, but I DO want to gripe about them.  And its MY blog, so here goes (LOL)...

My left thumb is inept.  For years, I've had a spot I stuck with a thorn and it caused a tiny hard spot that just won't go away.  I keep noticing it with the index fingernail.  I've opened it a couple times with a sewing needle, but I can't get it to heal away.  And I cut the base of my right thumb years ago and it formed a hard spot there too.  I just keep noticing it when I grab things.  So when I got a half-inch splinter in That Left Thumb from the new deck I just got all freaked.  I couldn't get it out.  Turn the inside of your left thumb towards you and put the back down on a steady surface.  Now try to get at it with a needle and tweezers. 

Maybe I'm not as flexible as I used to be, but I just couldn't.  It took a week for the skin harden over the splinter like a callous, and I managed to loosen it after that.  Its healing fine.

But sometimes, it is just stuff like that over and over.  I damaged the left shoulder rotater cuff 10 years ago, and I thing I've done it again.  I don't even know specifically how or when I did it.  I just woke up one morning and OUCH!!!

My aging Mother used to say "getting old isn't for sissies".  Hmmm. I've been enough heavy work on my own for a long time and had a lot of "ouchies" (and enough "ARGGGHS" too), but they seem to be coming more often these days.  I hope I'm not becoming a "sissy".  But let's just say that I used up a tube of muscle rub ointment before the expiration date for the first time this year.

I wish that was the only problem.  I garden a lot and I get a lot of unwanted tree saplings that need to be dug out.  Usually, its not a problem.  Oh, work for sure, but I get them out.  Well, I was surprised this week. 

I am rebuilding my old rotting framed garden beds.  Aligned better to the sunlight, wider and higher, and to have a chicken wire enclosure to keep the varmints out.  Well, with the season moving on, I decided to redig the beds that will be outside the enclosure so that I could have some Summer plants growing (cukes, beans).  Meaning the old less-productive asparagus bed had to be dug up. 

There were 4 tree saplings I've been cutting back in there for several years.  So it was the right time to REALLY dig them out.  I couldn't.  I mean, I used the same techniques I always used before, but they just would yield!  I have tools.  A sharp all metal spade, an axe, a 5' pry bar.  I finally got one out and it about killed me...

Talk about realizing that you aren't 30 anymore...  I'd be happy to be 40 (I'm 64).  I did the sensible thing.  I left the other 3 in and planted around them.  Its just for a few months.  Come Fall, I will cover that bed with plywood and plastic and let them DIE next year.  All problems can be solved with time.

But I only mentioned all this to tell you about today's problem...

I have historically had basement water problems.  The old gutters filled with tree debris and would overflow onto the deck and then down to the sunken patio.  The patio had ground level drainage.  But over the years, the soil build up (fallen leaves, mowed grass) and formed a pool that build up to the level of the basement door.  Water got in.  I solved that temporarily by digging a ditch through the lawn downslope. 

In Fall 2012, I had the roof reshingled, new vinyl siding, and new larger gutters with debris-proof tops.  No more gutter overflow filling the basement patio!  Yeah.

Right...  With the new deck, there was a lot of digging involved.  Lots of soil moved around.  They did a good job moving the extra soil to a corner of the yard.  So far, so good.  What I didn't notice was that some of the extra soil got spread into the remnants of the patio drainage ditch.  So I had a 2" wall of dirt around the lawn connection to the patio.

It rained really hard today.  I was glad for the rain because it has been about 1/4" per week the past month.  BUT!  The rain that fell through the deck filled up the basement patio (I bet you saw that coming).  FORTUNATELY, I happened to go into the basement to get something and saw the rainwater seeping in.  I threw some old towels on it and went to the toolshed IN THE TORRENTIAL RAIN to get my grub-hoe.  Shovels work, but a grub-how makes a nice 4" wide and deep trench.  In the rain. 

Even with a raincoat on (and I wished I still owned a poncho) I was soaked to the skin just making a 4" wide and deep ditch from the patio downslope 12' long.  It was a pleasure seeing the water draining out in a rush...

But that is still a temporary fix.  I thought the bigger rain gutters would solve the problem, but with enough hard rain, even just the water falling through the deck will fill up the patio.

The real fix is to lower the level of the lawn where it meets the deck, AND installing a below-ground drainage system to move the patio water downslope.

More work.  Just what I needed.  And I'm sure not going to do THAT before my shoulder heals.  I'll just have to make sure the grub-hoe surface dug ditch stays clear for a while.

ARGGH!

And I won't even get into the new adult groundhog and rabbit I saw around the garden this afternoon.  Well, OK, I just did, but you know what I mean.

Storms, 2

Oh well, I meant to add pictures to the post yesterday.  But I got up late and the pre-saved post was alreaddy there.  Then I needed to make lunch for Dad and me, feed the cats, get the mail, etc...

So here are the pictures...

I had almost no damage.  This fallen branch was annoying because I had to cut it to pieces to move it off my hosta bed.

But it sure wasn't serious.  I'm just glad that huge tree on the west of the house stayed tall again.  I probably will for another 50 years.  But it may fall next time.  You never know...

The branch was only twice the width of my shoe.

Ans it only fell 20'.  Here's where it broke off.  Its a weird black maple tree.  It grows from my neighbor's yard, but almost entirely over my yard.  The previous neighbors refused to pay to have it cut down (or even trimmed).  The new neighbors are well, "new" and I don't know them yet.

But THAT tree isn't threatening anything, so I will just let it be for now.

This picture is sort of a joke. I deliberately put the thermometer in the full afternoon sun.  I suppose the temperature is accurate for full afternoon sun.  On the other hand, I WAS out there in the full sun, and so were the plants.  I was watering the plants after cutting the fallen tree branch to manageable pieces.  I drank a quart of Gatorade while outside.  And plain water when I went inside!

My favorite HOT joke:  "It was SO hot, I saw a starving coyote chasing a terrified rabbit, and they were both walking"...

But seriously, we don't have month-long droughts here in JUNE.  July and August are the dry months here.  The unshaded lawn grass is already dormant and crunchy.  What are July and August going to be like?  I do not routinely water the lawn.  The grasses here go dormant in late Summer and the Fall rains bring them back to green until the next July.  But I may have to water the lawn this year.  Even the weeds in the lawn are dying, and I don't think the turf grass is as hardy as the weeds.

I've never seen it like this in early July.

STORMS!

Well, we have had some surprising stormy conditions here lately!  The first was Friday night.  For one thing, I didn't know it was coming.  We don't watch much live TV here (well, Fox and Golf channels, but they aren't big on local weather).  It was eerie.  Around 11 pm, Dad commented on how dead still it was outside.  And just then, "the train came through the station".

The wind suddenly whipped up to near hurricane level, the rain started, and the lights began flickering.  I'm not too worried about the lights because we have underground cables here; a power outage is rare and usually lasts only a few seconds to a few minutes.  Its been years since it was a whole hour.  I LOVE our underground cables!

But the rain started driving against the front windows higher up and harder than I can recall seeing even in the few hurricanes we get in MD.  Naturally, I had just noticed this past week that my back rain gutter was coming loose at one end.  These things never happen at the beginning of a drought, of course.  I'll have to arrange for a repair soon, but I'm sure gutter repair companies will be busy for the next month with damages from fallen tree branches.

The rain only lasted a short while, but we got 1/2" of rainfall.  I'm glad of that!  I would have liked more.  I've been watering selected parts of the gardens, but nothing beats rain falling everywhere.  Some long-established shrubs were wilting and the 1/2" of rain perked them right up.

There wasn't too much tree damage in the neighborhood.  After lesser winds, I've awakened to the sounds of chainsaws.  But I went out and found a dozen broken branches in the yard.  I collected them to bring then up front to pile in the utility trailer, when I realized I had walked RIGHT PAST a major tree branch fallen on the hosta bed, LOL!  I haven't moved it yet, its way too big for me to lift.  I'll have to haul out the chainsaw.

I have to laugh, of the entire neighborhood, I may be the only person having to use a chainsaw this weekend! 

It could always be worse.  One nice thing about my property is the huge mature oaks and sweetgums.  One bad thing is the huge mature oaks and sweetgums!  There is one old oak directly west of the house (from where the strongest winds come).  Every severe wind, I wait to hear it crack and fall onto the house.  I regret that I will have to have it cut down some day before it crashes onto the house.  I wonder if my insurance company will partially pay for preemptive tree-cutting?