Surviving the Nor'Easter

Although we're not getting a direct hit from the nor'easter plaguing the Atlantic coast, we are being affected. Wind for the last several days have been high, and today ran a pretty steady 30 kts, with gusts to 40, under cloudy skies, with a little rain, but nothing significant. 

The water have been very high, driven by the storm offshore, and there has been a lot of erosion at the beach, with high tides lapping at the base of the dunes, and a pretty healthy chop out on the water.

Still, the sand will return in time, it just moves offshore a ways, and then slowly works its way back in during fairer weather. And I'm hoping some big teeth wash out of the cliffs.

And then there's this. I got a call this morning from a neighbor on the street below us, who called me to say a tree on one of our back lots had leaned over his house, and was threatening to fall. Under MD law, the problem is his, but he wanted to notify me that he was getting it removed. I told him to do whatever he needed to, and not worry about any damage to our lot, which is just woods.

Fortunately, the tree (a poplar with a rotten base) was hung up in a nice strong hickory, which kept it off the house for several days. A tree crew arrived around 3:30 PM and set to work. A huge crane (at least for the area), set up and hoisted a climber into the tree. He tied pulling strap onto the tree, and the crane pulled it back out of the hickory.

Then they got to work with a chainsaw. They cut it off the stump, and then cut segments off the trunk as the crane dangled it vertically, until it was too unbalanced to continue. Then they laid it in the woods, and finished chopping it up. The climber had to go back up to remove a big branch that had broken off the poplar and lodged in the hickory.

I paid the chainsaw crew a little extra to knock down a tree that might eventually become a problem, and just lay it in the woods.