An Unexpected Father's Day Surprise

Got a call from the neighbor early this morning saying a couple of our trees fell down.  These were 2 old locust trees that has been leaning for many years.  With all the many inches of rain recently, the ground has been pretty saturated.  Last night's rain of 2.5 inches and heavy winds was just too much.

This is what we found when we went out to investigate.  The big trees are laying across the neighbor's driveway.  This effects 2 houses worth of neighbors.

They said they weren't going anywhere for the day, so they were in no rush to get it cleared away.  That was very good news.

A view from the neighbor's driveway looking to the east.

We were also saddened to see our thriving apple tree split.  About two thirds of it fell down.  The rest will come down soon.

Back to the big locust trees, my littlest man had to come out and see the damage for himself.  I think he was impressed with the mud.

That is a pretty big root ball.  I'm not sure how we'll clean this up.

The creek is still flowing pretty good too.

A Father's Day treat after many hours of chainsawing, moving brush, and burning.  Cookie Dough Cupcakes!

My last load for the day.  I think we did about 8 or 10 loads.
  The neighbor's were a great help!

All that's left after 5 hours of continuous feeding and burning.

At the end of the day, we got just about all the brushy tree-top stuff burned down.  Now we need the ground to firm up to get the loader tractor on the yard.  We'll cut big chunks and use the loader tractor to move things around.

In the end, I'd say we're about half done.  And we're very thankful this was the extent of the damage.  The neighbor's cars were not damaged at all.  The fence is a little bent up, but that can be repaired.