Why I Oughta...

Earlier this Summer, we had a storm that dropped a couple of good-sized limbs from a few of our trees.  A big one from one of our Oaks.  And a few medium-sized limbs from one of the Black Walnut trees.   On that Black Walnut limb were ten-to-twelve green-covered walnuts that weighed the limb down - and likely caused it to snap due to the weight.  With a semi-wooded lot with some mature trees, that happens from time-to-time.   Normally...the limbs drop the ground harmlessly. But not this time.   This time, it came down DIRECTLY on top of our small Waterfall Japanese Maple tree *right* at one of the tree's joints.  That limb SNAPPED off one of the major limbs on the Japanese Maple.  See below for a few photos showing the damage on the Waterfall Japanese Maple tree : And, here, below, is the limb in question.  I fished it out of the bed and threw it on the lawn.   This was back in June.  Fast-forward three months to...

During that Summertime Derecho storm earlier this week, we had some significant damage to one of our front yard trees - the Norway Maple that is right outside of our front porch.  This is the same tree that I posted a photo of earlier this Summer when I spotted some bare spots in the canopy .  I took the photo above while the storm was going on and right after my neighbor texted me that the tree was dropping branches. This was - in my mind - the 'good side' of the tree, so that's unfortunate.  But, this dropped straight down.  Didn't hit our house, roof, gutter, porch and caused no damage.  So, I'm thankful for that.  And the cleanup wasn't too much.  My neighbor Matt was kind enough to come out and bring his chainsaw to help me cut this up into segments that were manageable in terms of removing and cleaning up. We ended up with a little bit of firewood that I'll put out on the pile in the back to season for a more than a year (thinking it will...

This mighty Oak tree came down in what is being billed as a "Microburst" storm up in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin last month.  We arrived the day *after* the storm.  Or...I suppose, the day *of* the storm since it hit at like 12:30 am.  The folks at the Kenosha News covered the aftermath and concurred with a meteorologist who billed the event a microburst . From their piece : A small area of Twin Lakes was hit by high winds that took down trees and left many residents without power early Thursday.  ...Aidan Kuroski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sullivan, said that a “microburst” storm with straight line winds estimated at 70 to 80 mph hit the area at about 12:30 a.m. “It was a very concentrated area,” Kuroski said. “Basically from Elkhorn and Walworth County down to Twin Lakes.”  Kuroski said the storm developed so quickly the National Weather Service did not have time to issue a storm warning. The storm produced some damage around...