It was with a heavy heart that  I took a full walk around the property this afternoon. The snow is pretty deep and it is hard to predict the extent of the damage, but what I could see was not good.

Our biggest tree, a maple I planted almost upon arrival here in 1989, is pretty much toast. Huge branches , including all those from the very top of the tree not only broke off, but stripped the bark down large sections of the trunk as they fell.

The boys and I cut off what we could yesterday, but for  the rest we  need ladders, and there is too much snow for that.

My ‘Mrs.Robinson’ crabapple, all loaded with winter fruit took a big hit, as did the magnolia and two pear trees. A third out back is now just a trunk.

The white pines, very suseptible to winter damage anyway, are broken and twisted.

The ninebark and forsythia,, the first over 10 ft tall, the latter about 15 are still buried.

And the stacks of branches are starting to pile up. 

Yesterday we went out in the cold for as long as we could (we had no power or heat to come back in to) and shook lots of bushes and limbs to free them from the  heavy  wet snow and see if they would  perk back up. Some we had success with, some, not so much.

Once the snow melts and we clear the paths of debris, I will be able to prune some things back into shape, or tie some things up as in the case of the arborvitae. Usually in winter, lots of these are tied or protected somehow ( the boxwood too but no one had gotten to that yet. It was still early fall, and a lovely warm one at that.

A lesson learned, both the concolor firs and the corylus ‘contorta’ were left unscathed, their branches fully able to bear the weight and shake it off.

All over the place roads are still blocked by downed limbs  and trees are still precariously balance on power lines. It is scary to drive under them, I duck out of reflex every time.

We have power back on, so tommorow I will head out to start some of the cleanup. Looks like the chipper will be working overtime, and the hobo fire barrel will be cranking in January.

Sigh.