Wind, big wind!

We had heavy winds yesterday. I finished boiling about 4:00 pm, cleaned up and left. Then about 7:00 I went back to the sugarhouse to get something and discovered that an ash tree had blown over, it was about 15" DBH and it hit the corner of the sugarhouse. So far I only saw that it broke one corner of the overhang and along the way it took out one mainline. In fact it was the anchor tree for that mainline. I may just park the excavator there for an anchor until after the season. Then I'll likely need to set a heavy duty post or move that end of the mainline 8-10' in one direction or the other and adjust the laterals that enter it. From the last side tie to that end I have 7-8 laterals that enter that line but that will be after the season and after my surgery recovery time.
As for the sugarhouse, I only saw 2-3 purlin boards broken on that overhang, but there was a limb from that tree that hit the overhang about half way down towards the far end of the sugarhouse, I know it wrinkled the steel roofing, not sure if any boards were broken.
Clean up today at any rate. We will have no sap today, high temp will be 32, which gives me 1 day to get that tree cleaned up and then reset that mainline to run sap tomorrow when the temps will be high enough for sap to run.
I've set a last date for boiling new sap for 4/13 if it goes that long, then I'll need to finish off everything, bottle or pack all of the syrup in barrels, clean everything, pull the taps and clean the lines all before my surgery on 4/18. After that I'll have 2 weeks no work orders, followed by 4 weeks max. lifting 10#. That woun't leave much for maple that I'll be able to do.

Big winds here in Eastern Ontario as well. Took out a main line and broke the mainline wire, guess I had them pretty tight. My son is going back to clean up the tree and attempt a repair latter today. We are pretty much done for the season anyway, maybe its a sign to shut it down. Dave - Not sure what your health issues are but all the best. I had prostate removal surgery in Mid Jan of this year and was sidelined for 8 weeks. I had family and friends step up and get the season going. Feeling better now and Dr, said I was cancer free after the biopsies came back. Take care, I look forward to reading more of your posts.

Darrell

the wind was pretty intense up here as well last night. I boiled until 11:30 last night and i was a little concerned for a little while. boy was i getting a good boil going though! i haven't had a chance to see if there was any damage in the woods, but with some gusts at 50-60 mph, I'd imagine there's a little.

An Amish sugarer was killed when his sugarhouse collapsed last night in Theresa, NY. That kind of wind makes me terribly anxious and I guess that's a reasonable feeling. I lost three big trees this week and I haven't even been to the woods yet.

We had the dangerous high winds here too, with several trees come down in the woods. No structure damage though, for which we are grateful. Our real problem with high winds is that the drainage out of the woods gets clogged in several places, creating flooding. Man thats cold when the water tops the boots. Also kind of strange/funny to hear ducks in the maple woods when that happens.

Bad day for ash trees. I had this one down in the woods today. Leaning against a small maple that is tapped, the only thing keeping it up. Hopefully the wind will take it down in the middle of the night sometime.

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I also have this black locust, which is the anchor point for my pumpout line halfway down the hill. Severe lean, and during heavy winds the ground heaves up and down 4 to 5 inches from the root ball. Not sure what keeps it up, but I should probably reroute my pumpout line to the other side before it decides to go. Summer project.................

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Originally Posted by wnybassman

Bad day for ash trees. I had this one down in the woods today. Leaning against a small maple that is tapped, the only thing keeping it up. Hopefully the wind will take it down in the middle of the night sometime.

Attachment 18479

I also have this black locust, which is the anchor point for my pumpout line halfway down the hill. Severe lean, and during heavy winds the ground heaves up and down 4 to 5 inches from the root ball. Not sure what keeps it up, but I should probably reroute my pumpout line to the other side before it decides to go. Summer project.................

Attachment 18480

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Be very careful, the ash may be very difficult to drop, think that one out well. The black locust could be another issue. I hate it when having to deal with severely compromised trees. Don't do anything foolish.

I was heading down this afternoon to get my mainline back up, but the forecast calls for 40 MPH winds. I stay out of the woods on days like that, now it's scheduled for tomorrow. The wind was mostly below 20 MPH this morning, but I took that time to watch my grandson's Navy basic training live broadcast of his graduation. He is the same grandson who worked with me for 12 seasons before graduating college. Now he is going into the Seal program, starting Monday.
In his basic training his only complaint was that it was too easy, now I'll bet not many say that!