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Oklahoma Gardening

Photo from the Y2K Ice Storm

19 years ago

I was cleaning off photos on an obsolete pc last night and found this. My short haired Border Collie "Sticks" striking a pose while looking for rats and field mice along the fence line the next morning.

randy

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Comments (6)

sammy zone 7 Tulsa
19 years ago
Gee Randy. What a picture. It sort of looks like he is up in a tree, doesn't it? I am shivvering just looking at that ice. Good picture.
Sammy
rjj1
Original Author
19 years ago
Thanks Sammy.

SheÂs actually standing on a small brush-pile. We were underneath a major cross-country electrical line that had been cleaned up under the year before. All the young saplings do make it look like the top of a tree.

Randy
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Comments (5)
I'm really bad with types of trees, but whatever the type is in our front yard, all the trees like it seemed to hold their leaves for a long time. I just noticed yesterday actually, that our front yard is finally full of leaves. So they held for a solid week even after the ice. I think the leaves are what brought down those two branches on our tree. But, it's our first year in our house, so I don't know how long the leaves stay around noramlly. We've had an extremely warm winter so far this year, so I suspect that has something to do with it. BTW, we're supposed to be in the low 60's in Wednesday.
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Seedmama: My heart goes out to you. It brings back to me our experience with a similarly devastating ice-storm in 1997. Ours was after Christmas, January I think, but your post brought back to me the sound of branches of our particularly large maple crashing down on the house; large chunks of ice crashing on to the roof and ricocheting off on to the driveway; watching the explosions as transformers on the hydro poles went up in flames; and seeing the top of my choice flowering crab fall off into the driveway, just after I had moved the van. It was a nightmare, but we were safe, together, and had a fireplace and a gas barbeque, and those things brought us through. It was over two weeks before power was restored to everyone - we had itermittent power as the Hydro crews removed branches which fell on the power lines across our yard and I used those times to start meals which I could finish on the barbeque. It's amazing how creative we can become if we have to. So hang in there, and try to enjoy Christmas, and leave the cleanup until Spring. We had to because our weather continued to be bad, but it was amazing as soon as the weather began to warm up to see perfect strangers just arriving on your property, cutting up downed trees and stacking the wood for free, and clearing up branches stuck in trees, and downing those which did not straighten up after the ice melted. We all pitched in and helped each other and things went faster than we expected. Maybe your comunity will come together like ours did. But take your time and see what nature has presented: it may be nicer than you think and remember 'this too will pass'. You will feel down sometimes, and that's O.K., because it will pass. Enjoy the holidays with your loved ones and we'll look forward to seeing your new beds in 2008. Northerner.
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Comments (4)
i was in a hurry ... dave is correct... anything that is broken... may as well be pruned below the break ... the remainder of the branch will pop back up ... some what .... i was thinking something like a crossbow.... wood bends ... when stressed... but retain is straightness when the stress is removed .... and these can do that TO SOME EXTENT ... any tree.. not just conifers or these ... by roping.. i mean some heavy twine ... tractor supply ... 2500 feet for 20 bucks... loose ring at the bottom.. and go around and around as high as you can go.. then back down ... how they used to tie xmas trees to put on your car ....binding it all together will allow it to TRY to support itself ... then wait for spring.. and release one .. and see what shape they have .... a new post.. a few pix.. and we can come to some decision whether they are salvageable or not ... in general ... a bare branch on a conifer is dead .. ANY GREEN will allow the branch to continue life ... the issue is how many years before you are pleased with the appearance ... if you plan to remove them.. and replace them ... start with small stock ... with SINGLE leaders... to avoid the splaying... i doubt you will find large stock as such ... an IN YOUR LIFETIME storm is hard to be proactive with ... they are just going to happen ... and there isnt much to do about it ... except whine and complain afterwards .... this storm would have probably also damaged single leader plants .... good luck ken
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Some old ice storm photos
Q
Comments (11)
Same storm, Ken. I think Hillsdale county got it even worse, as we were without power for six days. Yup, our place. I hate those elms. It took me a year to get all the limbs from that storm cleaned up and burned. I would replace those elms with cataplas or P. abies 'Cranstonii' if allowed. The only non-conifers that did well through all that were our huge cottonwoods. Those pines grew more that following spring than I had ever seen before. They definitely dealt with the ice a lot better than they did this past year's heat/drought.
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Boomer _Lady
19 years ago
Neat pic. I hope we don't get any ice storms like that this year.
rjj1
Original Author
19 years ago
You and me both. I probably slept two hours that night fearing the power would go out and the woodpile in the greenhouse would have to be lit. One of these days it would be nice to find a generator in my stocking :-).

randy
wolflover
19 years ago
Randy,
That ice storm is one of my worst memories. Our electricity went off Christmas night, and we lost all power for EIGHT days. We were also without water for ELEVEN days since we are on a water well. Our house *had* central heat which needed electricity to run it. So all we had for heat was a "Mr. Heater" that attached to our propane grill bottle. With 15-20 animals, it was too dangerous to leave them here alone. We had to camp out in the bedroom with that tiny heater. Our 55 gallon aquarium froze 2/3 of the way. Our toilets froze. Every water pipe burst. We had a tree limb stuck through the guest bedroom window. It was so cold in the house with no heat that the broken window didn't matter. We were unbelievably miserable. Our Koi pond froze over when the electricity went out, and we had two trees down on top of it. Every Koi in the pond died.

After seven days we got a motel room for a much needed shower. I will never forget that ice storm as long as I live, and I hope I never see another one that severe. Our area was the worst hit in the state. We lost hundreds of trees and have still not cleaned up all the damage to the trees and fences. Our place looked like a war zone when all the ice melted. I HATE winter!!
rjj1
Original Author
19 years ago
Dawna

Mom and dad live up the road from you. Luckily they had firewood for the fireplace and plenty of food. The roads are so steep around their house they couldnÂt have gotten out if they had needed to. For some reason I was thinking this storm happened in 2002.

Your experience is something that is best left to nightmares and not reality.

One of the most miserable days of my life was helping someone fix water pipes that had broken under the house and the water was left on for hours. When they remodeled, central air was put under floor instead of in the roof. There was only one crawl space and off course it was on the opposite end of the house. I had to hold my breath and go under water to get beneath a 12" duct each time I went to the water line break. Luckily there was no ice under the house and it was in the 40Âs when we were working on it. I still remember shivering into the night. Never thought I would be warm again.

randy

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