Our yard accumulated about 14 inches of heavy wet snow that made a mess of the maple trees. Before I could get the snowblower out of the garage, I had to cut up a stack of branches:
Yes, there really is that much of a slope leading up to the garage; clearing the driveway immediately after every snowstorm is not optional.
Many of the branches in the back yard broke off and simply leaned against the ones still arched over the driveway:
The front yard was a mess:
In addition to all that, we had branches down beside the house, in the garden, around the beehive, and, in general, everywhere. Obviously, we have too many maples, but they’re what the previous owners planted (or at least didn’t uproot while that was possible).
The generator bridged 25 hours without power to save the refrigerator & freezer contents and keep the house between 55-60 °F. We survived five days with no phone (shrug) or Internet (eeek!); the cell phone was, as usual, useless because the house sits on a local maximum in a shallow valley below line-of-sight from all the surrounding towers.
The last break in the phone & Internet cables occurred just north of us:
Those branches came from a tree across the road that put down roots on a slab of rock that just didn’t provide enough griptivity:
After three days of diligent bow-saw work and mule-mode dragging, we cleared the yards. The back yard clutter went over the cliff toward our bottomlands adjoining the Wappingers Creek and the front yard timber now sits ready for what we hope will be the town’s pickup:
Our experience was a nuisance, rather than a disaster, unlike that of many folks in the area.
Now it’s time for the annual fall leaf-shredding adventure…
[Update: Turns out the NYS DOT drew the short straw:
Took them the better part of 15 minutes; the larger branches nearly stalled that giant chipper. A tip o’ the hard hat!]
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 