I Am Declaring This A Disaster (Lotsa Pics)

[tx smoker]

Tracy and I bought the land that the house is built on just over 10 years ago. It took 3 years for the economy to rebound so we could get a decent price for our previous house and for me to design the new house and get it built. Tomorrow is the 7th anniversary of us moving in. As soon as we got moved in we were avowed to buy the lots on each side of us to ensure that nobody built a house in our side yard. The lot to the left we got pretty quickly...probably about 5 years ago. The lot to the right took some time to coerce the owner into selling but we finally got it about a year and a half ago. Total of the three lots is just under four acres and all of it was untouched, natural Hill Country land. We spent years and thousands of hours cleaning it all up so we'd have a nice environment. We limbed up thousands of trees, cut out the dead branches, cut out hundreds of stumps, and moved countless tons of rock, and we did it all ourselves. The idea was to get the tractor through and keep it cut down to maintain the beauty of the land. Well, a whole lot of what we worked for was destroyed yesterday. We had an ice storm come through that has shut the whole area down, as well as taken down a whole lot of our trees. This is absolutely heartbreaking after all of our work. Please note though that trees around here are sacred. The whole area is solid rock and trees grow VERY slowly so any decent sized tree is treated with a certain reverence.

No dialog needed. The pics speak for themselves. First one is just showing the ice on a big oak tree right off the patio.

I only walked about half the property this morning taking these. I wasn't about to try going down the hill in the back to the canyon. That would be treacherous stumbling over all the ice covered rocks. It's devastating to see so much damage but that's not all of the issue. Now we have a huge amount of work cutting the stuff down, cutting it up, and getting it out of here. Was so disheartening sitting here last night listening to the tearing and crashing as the limbs came down but there wasn't a thing we could do. Sorry to take up so much time and space but it was kinda nice to vent a little bit. Seeing all of this hurts...really bad after all of our work. I know a lot of other folks have it a lot worse but sheesh, I moved to TX to get away from this kind of weather. Oh well...I guess I'm done with the "Tear In My Beer" melody.

Robert

 

[xray]

Robert, that sucks to see something you spent so much time making perfect to be destroyed by ice that doesn’t usually happen in Texas. Mother Nature is unmatched in her devastation.

If I were closer, I’d stop on down and help you clean up the property. That’s a lot of work limbing those fallen trees.

 

[sawhorseray]

Boy howdy Robert, I'm so sorry to see the devastation to your gorgeous property. I reckon there's just no telling when, where, and why Mother Nature is going to be passing thru in a bad mood, amazing to see the oaks split like that. Things will dry out, fire up the tractor and chain saw and get her done, it's all you can do. RAY

 

[JLeonard]

Man Robert, hurts to see that and its not even my property. Wishing I was closer, I'd be packing and bringing a chainsaw.
Jim

 

[BandCollector]

I wish I could help and sorry to see all those beautiful trees torn apart.

Just goes to show how minuscule we are compared to Mother Nature.

Fortunately no one was hurt,

John

 

[Brokenhandle]

That sucks to see Robert! I know what it's like to spend years cleaning things up only to have something like that happen. We did that to my grandparents farm place that was abandoned for nearly 20 years... then two years ago straight line winds came through and snapped about 20 feet off the tops of our trees. My heart goes out to you buddy!

Ryan

 

[yankee2bbq]

I know how you feel. We’ve been through an ice storm here in Arkansas a few years ago. Really devastating, took telephone poles down too. Look like a tornado went thru town. And the cracking and breaking of limbs at night is something I will never forget.
However, something that is important no one got hurt and everyone is safe.

 

[Winterrider]

Oh my goodness, that is terrible Robert. Mother nature can be quite cruel at times.
Gonna have to roll up the sleeves again. Wish I was closer to help.

 

[JC in GB]

I can only hope that mother nature helps fix this for you come spring.

It is always hard watching hours of work get destroyed by something out of your control.

JC

 

[sandyut]

Oh man Robert... that is sad. Very sorry to see all the damage. I hope most importantly you two are safe inside and none of the trees fell on your home. this will take a while to recover from... sad.

Hang in there. It could always be worse.

 

[TNJAKE]

Sucks Robert. We got the ice storm also. Predicting 22in of snow between Saturday and Thursday. Calling it the worse snow storm for these parts in decades. Stay safe bud

 

[Hungariantom]

Sorry about all the work only to have something like this happen. I'm in SC and we had an ice storm about 10 years ago that did similar damage. My wife's grandparents had a huge Live Oak tree in their yard and it was a twisted broken heap with most of the limbs on the ground. We thought about cutting the whole thing down but decided to clear all the broken limbs. It was an ugly specimen when we got done. Today it is absolutely beautiful and you would never know anything had happened to it. Good luck on the clean up.

 

[Jersey Jimbo]

That has to hurt, sorry to see all that damage. And it looked like you put a lot of hard work to make it look amazing with all the trees shrubs and paths. Hope you or your family didn't get hurt, But with how you make your property look so beautiful, I got a feeling you will fix it back up again.

 

[rc4u]

ya here is last one we had.. we lived here 41 yrs now. cut down a lot a trees from dutch elm. , wind storms ect.. planted more though and after 40 yrs the do grow nice

 

[tropics]

Robert it will look great again once you get in there, with a chain saw. I had 2 more giant oaks taken down right before winter. I didn't want to see 1 of them take out the power lines.

Good luck cleaning up stay safe
Richie

 

[rc4u]

heres 2011 flood. lived with my daughter from may to december before river receded.. you can see a window of my house just right of that tree

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

Damn man I am sorry to see this Robert. I know how hard it is to lose something you have worked so hard on. Stay safe down there and you guys will bounce back. Anything we can do just let us know.

If I were closer, I’d stop on down and help you clean up the property. That’s a lot of work limbing those fallen trees.

Joe could lend you his girl chainsaw. You might be able to scrap a couple of those smaller branches for kindling.

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

Sucks Robert. We got the ice storm also. Predicting 22in of snow between Saturday and Thursday. Calling it the worse snow storm for these parts in decades. Stay safe bud

That sucks man. They changed our forecast here to just rain now. Y'all stay safe. Make sure you got plenty of beer on hand. Don't want to run out of the essentials.

 

[tx smoker]

If I were closer, I’d stop on down and help you clean up the property. That’s a lot of work limbing those fallen trees.

Thanks so much Joe. I have a steak for you if you change your mind about joining in the clean up. Heck, I can even dedicate you your own chain saw

Things will dry out, fire up the tractor and chain saw and get her done, it's all you can do.

You're absolutely right Ray. Nothing else we can do but work through it.

Wishing I was closer, I'd be packing and bringing a chainsaw.

Appreciate it Jim. I have plenty of chain saws, just not enough people to run them all

Fortunately no one was hurt,

Blessedly there was no one hurt here but the ice storm did take it's toll elsewhere. There was a massive 130 vehicle pile-up in Ft. Worth with a lot of fatalities. Don't know if it was aired nationally but it was absolutely horrible to see the news footage. Another 40 car incident about 15 minutes from us at an intersection I drive through every day. I knew this mess was coming so got my work done early and headed home. Wasn't 15 minutes after I got home the reports started coming in about that one and it was tragic. I managed to miss it by about 30 minutes simply by paying attention to the forecast and trying to be smart by getting off the roads.

Robert

 

[tx smoker]

then two years ago straight line winds came through and snapped about 20 feet off the tops of our trees. My heart goes out to you buddy!

Jeez Ryan, that's terrible. Restore a family heirloom only to have it destroyed. Thank you for the kind words though my friend.

And the cracking and breaking of limbs at night is something I will never forget.

Yep, it's a horrible sound and the bad part is there's not a thing you can do about it. Even worse it has not warmed up at all and the trees continue to drop from all the weight. We may wind up living in a desert of this ice does not melt. There's more coming Sunday and bitter cold temps down into single digits.

Gonna have to roll up the sleeves again. Wish I was closer to help.

Yes sir, nothing else we can do. What really hurts is that we had the place exactly the way we wanted it. The plan going forward was just a couple hours of maintenance every year to keep the trees trimmed and looking good. Looks like we are basically starting all over again.

I can only hope that mother nature helps fix this for you come spring.

All I can ask for is a couple months of nice weather on the weekends and not much rain. The hills behind the house can be treacherous to get the tractors up and down to clean out the mess if it's wet or muddy.

Robert