Jasmine, wow you got it too in FL! What a weather! Glad you got barn door fixed before coyotes feeding time. I hope Straw is Ok. I think she is in Chicago area, they got hit pretty bad by the snow storm, over 150,000 customers lost power.

Linda, hopefully you won’t get this storm. Those 3 Leyland c trees in your pic may not make it through another storm safely. You might have to cut them down pretty soon.

Gosh Sultry, that sounds terrible! We're preparing, but the pantry is already full. Summers, I'm also excellent at predictepredictingpredictepredicting predicting rain, I just wear suede shoes! Works every titi time.🙄

We got frozen food, veggies, eggs and milk., I heard there were a lot of empty shelves. The store parking lot was flooded with sudden heavy rain, I had suede boots on, go figure!

Jasmine and Linda, insurance should cover all the expenses, right?

We got lots of rain and wind..no snow.I wish we would get snow. It might get down into the 20'sF next week.

I heard about Chicago. I do hope Straw is ok. I hope she has a wood heat source like a fireplace or wood or even a pellet stove, if she loses power.

One almost has to be a Doomsday Prepper nowdays with all the wild crazy catastrophes going on. You need backups for your backups lol. We prep quite a bit here due to hurricanes and possibilities of being without power or water, etc during intense storms. We should do more though. We keep talking about going solar, at least for one of the wells and maybe a shallow well with a hand pump. We have too many farm animals to be without water for too long. We have an old gas generator my hubby has kept alive since 2005 ( from H. Katrina & H. Rita) , a solar one would be better.

P.S. Vaporvac, If my hubby says he's gonna BBQ, it will rain. Its a running joke at our house lol.

OMG Sultry! That's some serious weather damage. I wish you boring weather for the remainder of 2024, and I hope you find the missing door. :(

I want a Quonset now, the metal pole barn might not be strong enough for blizzard weather here. Yes, I too hope you find the missing door soon! You sure need a hand pump for your animals. We have a hand pump at each place, but none of them working. Not sure who to call to get them to work. We finally put in a whole house generator at our new place last winter right after a Christmas blizzard, during that storm so many homes and business buildings had burst pipe damage. Many areas had no power for days.

Erasmus,, now you have more sun for roses after taking the tree out. Just hope your insurance would cover the tree expense. nothing is cheap these days. I won't be able to sleep with wind howling crazy outside. Last year March during a wind storm, An old maple tree by the driveway lost a big part of it. Now the tree looks like a tree spirit with 2 arms up in the air. I love old trees, will feed them manure in the spring.

Oh, I do hope that Straw is okay.

My goodness everybody stay safe!!

Erasmus - so far you've got the best news you can get...hopefully there's no damage.

Gosh, Sultry and Summers...you got it too. I bet you too, Ann. Aren't you in the mountains? I don't go up in the mountains after weather like this due to mudslides and rock slides.

Insurance will pay for removing the tree from the house and any damage to the house but they won't pay for the three other trees we had to remove. The ones with roots pulling up were removed yesterday. The remaining three Leylands by the street are younger trees and look very straight and healthy. But since they're all shallow rooted I guess they could have problems sooner rather than later.

We had more rain yesterday afternoon but not much wind. Hope Straw is ok too. Sounds like the power company is ready for bad weather in your area, Summers. The Chicago crews probably get ready before they have to too. That's good you have a generator.

I wonder if your ponds could provide water for your animals, Sultry. I sometimes think about buying a Berkey water filter for emergencies. Or having drums of emergency water.

The next storm we get looks like it'll be mainly very cold temps and that starts in about four days.

I'm so sorry to hear about your storm damage Erasmus! Indeed, this front seems to have affected many of you.

I have a very tall hedge of Leylands....not my first choice, but they certainly are pretty while they're still young and in good condition.

Thank you. Yes it's too bad they're short lived because they are good looking trees. Just like people, some will probably live longer than the average. Spacing them well probably helps. The replacement arborvitaes I bought are much slower growers but I was happy they just stayed alive during the drought we had this year. I watered them now and then . I bought one gallon size and they have grown but much slower than the Leylands.

We are going to work on extending our fence today where the Leylands were. Temps will be about 52...not too bad. Next week will be much colder.

Summers, The doors were going to be rebuilt soon anyways. A few had rot on the wood frames. They were still operational so were further down the project list lol. We have 2 done already now. Hubby has decided to make new doors for his shop and put his old (but still good) shop doors on the back of the barn. So its a win win lol.

Quonsets are very storm resistant. One drawback though, is you will lose space inside because of the slope of the walls meeting the floors. Some Quonsets are much more sloped than others.

I am making 12 horse stalls inside the barn. They are 12x12 but technically, I lose about a half foot at the back of each stall due to the slope. I have seen some people use that area for storage or a hay manger etc. I havent descided what to do with that area yet.

There is a tackroom 12ft x14 ft in the front. We lose space at the side due to the sloped wall so it is really 11.4' x 14' Plus,the ceiing is sloped on that one wall side. It is ok because that's where the sink was and a long counter/base cabinets. It was all old and gross lol. We since have ripped all that out except the plumbing. We are currently re-doing it all, as time allows.

I think I want a pole barn with straight sides lol! This building was originally used as a industrial heavy farm equipment building..then more recently a kind of run in barn for horses. Its huge but long (78ft) and the ventilation is not great towards the center. If you cut into the walls for windows or doors, you lose stability of the building etc. People build homes out of them and all kinds of stuff but I dont think we have those kind of skills lol. Welding glavanized steel is different from regular welding from what Ive researched lol.

Eventually, this quonset will probably go to hubby for another shop. He likes to restore old cars and do woodworking projects etc.

I really love those old Dairy Barns and the old Tobacco Barns!

erasmus, The ponds can definitely provide water in a pinch. That was part of the allure of this place. Last summer we had the worst drought in 50 yrs or more. The 2 Cypress Ponds completely dried up. The top one that has a seasonal natural spring, we found to be 11ft deep in places. The center pond with no trees, we just call a farm pond, normally gets run-off from the top Cypress pond when the spring is running and if we get extra rain etc.

The farm pond, still had quite a bit of water although it was also wayyy down. I dont know how deep that pond is. These ponds also get runoff from the property which is graded gradually towards them. So even though Pond Cypress Trees and even duck weed are good natural water filters, I would definitely filter it and/or boil it before drinking it myself lol. Lots of frogs and turtles etc in there too.

Due to the possibilty of drought, we decided we need another water source that doesn't rely on electricity. There's 2 wells here. One works, one doesn't. So that is yet another project lol. The non working well is missing some electrical components anyways, so that might be good to convert to solar.

Most States/Cities allow people to save their rain water. Certain HOAs might not, or may let you if not visible from the street. Hooking up those IBC Totes (275 gal or 320gal) to your gutter system can be a good way to water roses ir a garden etc. or for emergencies.

You can even hook several together. There's diy plans online or you tube videos.

Jasmine, I love those red wooden barns, but they are so expensive to build. Even metal pole barns, the price went up a lot. We have a lot of windstorms here. I googled pole barn wind damage, and decided to purchase 3 Amish wooden sheds instead. I want solid buildings that last a long time. We have a dog kennel on concrete pad with a roof, I am thinking about closing it up, making it into a place for a couple alpacas later if that’s doable for animals, it will be insulated. I have to google more on animal barns. Or in the future to build a 3-5 car detached garage, use one garage for animals. Not sure yet. That’s my alpaca dream. LOL

Erasmus, without those big trees, you gained more room for roses. Your place must attract a lot of passing by walkers, runners when roses are in bloom.

erasmus_gw Didn't see your post until now (I'm in Facebook rescuing folks from committing suicide, after my 19-year-old grand-niece killed herself).

I'm so sorry to hear the bad news. Roses helped me to remove trees.

A tree company removed my 6 large trees (20+ year-old) in the past 2 years since their roots invaded my roses.

From the web: " Leyland Cypress trees are very vulnerable to diseases, most of which are untreatable. They also do not do well with snow, ice, and heavy winds." Leyland cypress trees are susceptible to damage from heavy winds. Below is a pic. from the web of leyland cypress. They never get tall in my heavy clay, the neighbor's 4 Leyland Cypress are only 20 feet slender columns after 23 years.

Another BAD tree to plant is Ornamental or Bradford Pear. Years ago in November I was outside and witnessed the strong wind cracked the neighbor's Bradford Pear tree into half, it crashed to the ground. He removed it at a cost of $600. Fast growing trees have shallow root and are uprooted easily. Below is a list of shallow root trees:

• Willow trees (costed me $1,100 to remove our 2 corkscrew willow trees)
• Maple trees, especially sugar maple
• Oak trees, especially pin oak (my village removed most of these street trees)
• Ash trees (village removed my front white ash tree)
• American elm (prone to diseases)

summers, I totally want Alpacas!! They are so adorable. You could sell their fleece or use it yourself, if you like knitting or crocheting.

I know someone here with Alpacas. They like to lie down in their shallow creek in the summer or in a big trough lol. They are so goofy. Lordy dont even get me started on their mating rituals. 🤣

Alpacas share the same parasites (worms) as goats and sheep so if I ever got any, I would have to keep them far from the goat areas just in case. Alpacas are more delicate when it comes to parasites than a lot of other animals. Barber Pole Worm is the worst problem in the South for goats, alpaca, and sheep.

In reality, cows are next on our list. I will probably get a Jersey and some Dexter Cattle, which are smaller but can be dual-purpose, although mainly raised for meat.

My daughter and I are obsessed with Highland Cattle, mainly the cute mini ones we see on Instagram where the owners brush them and dress them up lol!

I love your Amish barn ideas. It is so much easier to clean and maintain smaller barns. Those Amish barns are so well built. I have watched a few videos on Amish barn raising and they are remarkable using tenon and mortise beams.

Thank you, STraw. I'm sorry to hear about your niece. That is the hardest thing in the world for parents.

That picture you posted of Leylands looks more to me like Emerald Green Arborvitaes. I think I detect some multiple points on them that is characteristic of the arborvitaes and they don't look as big as Leylands.

We got our fence extension up yesterday. It's not a fancy fence and might be temporary but it makes me feel better.

I told an aquaintance that I had always wanted to have a cow . She grew up on a ranch and told me I don't want a cow. They are huge and always pooping. If I had the land I might want a cow or two. I have liked cows since I was little.

Straw, sorry sorry to hear about your grand niece. You are doing a great thing by helping others. So many people have nobody and sometimes it helps just having someone to talk with who can understand what they are going through and convince them that they are worthwhile and how to get help.

Melissa, Small World! Tallahasse is about 100 mi from us. We used to live outside Jacksonville, FL on the East Coast so we are getting used to living in the country again lol.

My great grandparents retired from their Iowa farm and moved down here near Tampa with their youngest daughter. They liked it here a lot and my great grandfather bought a houseboat and practically lived on it lol.

Jasmine, do you know what kind of services work on wells? We are still green for country living, have asked a few people, but no one knows. We have 2 working wells at weekend place, and two non working wells at primary property. One of the previous owners changed water system from well to city water, but we still have the well pump in the basement, and an antique hand pump outside, there is also a large commercial (farm) well on the land. This place used to be a weekend horse farm for a local family for over 70 years, it used to have 200 acres for riding. I'd like to get the house well working again for watering roses and fruit trees.

I think you're lucky to have those wells, Summers. I bet the horses that used to live there helped enrich the soil.

Keep warm! Was 14 here this morning.

Thanks Erasmus. It would be nice to get two wells working again. It’s 11 F now, tonight will be 4 F. There is travel ban in the southtown right now, they have about 5’ to 6’ on the ground this morning, and more snow is coming. Somehow this weekend I have to drive through there to make it to PA, my potted rose trees are calling for water, it will be 3 weeks since I watered them.

Summers, where I live, wells are quite common so there's listing for actual well companies that drill and/or maintain wells. Every county should have an Agricultural Extension Office. They should be able to give you info about wells, water testing, etc. Also the Dept of Health or State Dept or Agriculture sometimes oversees water testing. If you have a nearby university with an Ag Dept they might know. Neighbors with farms, especially older folks who might still have wells or who have had wells in the past etc., might know someone who works on wells.

Thats all I can think of right now lol.

Its great that you already have wells and equipment! Make sure if you have an older hand pump that it isnt made with lead (apparently some of them are) some of the newer ones are stainless steel.

Another idea I just thought of on how to find well diggers etc..I know some modular and manufactured home builders offer to put them on property one already owns etc..they install, well, septic, & electrical..There are commercials advertising this.

So you might look for a manufactured home company in your area or in a neighboring rural area, and ask them who does their wells.

Thanks for tips Jasmine. I will try to get the house well working this summer. 😁

Do you know how to prime a hand pump? My grandmother in Illinois had one in the back yard to water her tomatoes and I came across as a city girl when I asked why there was a bucket of water next to that pump.

I have no idea how to do that. I can google it.

That might be all it takes to get it working. Hope.

Sorry to hear about all the damage to people's homes and property. Lots of trees went down from the weight of ice here, on the farm and through the neighborhood. Unfortunately we lost one of the greenhouses too. My twenty year old specimen of 'Golden Century' is under the pile of metal and plastic, somewhere. Such a shame.

Sorry to see that, Paul. I always thought you are a suburb guy, not a country folk. I hope insurance covers that damage. $5,000 damage?

Paul, I am assuming that your property and rose are still in Corvallis, OR? If so, perhaps part of your magnificent Golden Century plant will survive. HNF says it has at least one Winchurana ancestor. Anyway, I hope it does.

Jackie

Ouch! I hope you are able to salvage Golden Century! The storms are so crazy this year.

Are those High Tunnel greenhouses?

I have been thinking of getting one.

Paul, I hope your Golden Century makes it. The two babies down here are doing great in the protected alcove.

That's terrible news Paul. That was a magnificent plant.

Sorry to hear you've had winter damage too, Paul . As vigorous as Golden Century is, I bet it'll recover. Hope so anyway. Our coldest weather is expected tomorrow and Sunday. Tuesday it'll be very nice out.

That looks like a disheartening mess, Paul. I’m sorry. I hope Golden Century and all your other valuable plants come through ok. Of the two plants you sent me of GC, I now have three. One of the pots had a second smaller plant that I carefully separated and potted up. All three are putting on buds and they’re not yet a foot high in my greenhouse. Clearly, these babies are bent on blooming!

Below link warned about NOT planting certain trees: Bradford pear and Leyland cypress. Also silver maples wreck pipes.

Do Your Research Before Planting One Of These Trees That Might Ruin Your Yard - Explored Planet

Willow trees too can damage pipes. Trees can be a risk and present expensive problems but they are so beautiful and I would far rather have them than not. I bet most trees have potential downsides. My sugar maple sends out seeds that sprout all over the place. Same with acorns. Red maples seem brittle, so are Yoshino cherries. People rightly value some shade trees around their house but limbs or trunks can fall on their house and roots can even damage foundations. Lightening can strike them. It's a trade off.. But still with a little research some of the worst offenders can be avoided.

Our black walnut tree in the backyard was probably here before the house. The roots put out juglone , which supposedly inhibits plant growth but doesn't seem to do that in my yard. But it does produce lots of big nuts that fall with a loud thunk in fall and could do some damage if it hit a person or animal.

Black walnut

good to hear you are safe. Sorry about all the trouble with the trees. We had a huge golden mendocino ash removed recently. I do miss its beauty but better safe than sorry. Keep posting how its going for you. What a year for weather. I like the weather reporting at ryan hall yall. He's a good soul. I think he truly wants to protect as many people as possible. I learn so much as well.

Strawberry you are sharing the love that this world needs especially now. Everyone needs some light and stick together and say no more despair and loneliness.

Everybody stay well.

I'm just now catching up to friends on GW and I'm sorry to hear about all your damage! Erasmus, you have a gorgeous house so I'm glad the trees weren't any worse at causing damage to your main structures. It does sound like you've had an ordeal and a scary process in seeing how much the damage is. Opening up more sun for roses is a kind of silver lining for losing those old tree friends and dealing with the associated expense and heartache.

Sultry & Summers - sounds like you got pretty zapped with this nasty cold weather recently. Sorry to hear about that! We had blizzard warnings and very low visibility with around a foot and a half of snow (half a meter?) and days where the HIGH temperature didn't get above -17F (-27C) for several days. Nowhere near us did the power cut out fortunately, as that is life-threatening temperature.

Straw, I'm so sorry to hear about your niece. You are sharing your caring and insights creating some good from the tragedy that occurred in your family.

Paul, I certainly hope your Golden Century has survived even if it has to rebuild to its former glory. If Beth can recover so many of her irreplaceable roses from the massive fire she experienced, there's hope. You and Beth are among the keepers of rare roses that benefit the whole rose community in expanding our horizons.

Cynthia

Sorry about all your weather/tree woes. I'm glad your people are okay. Hoping for silver linings for your roses as you wait for spring (though that can bring its own kind of weather drama).

Thank you, Cynthia and Deborah. We got lucky in terms of damage. Even the roof damage doesn't seem too urgent as the roofer and insurance guy are still working out what to do about it. Some amount of reroofing will need to be done.

More sun for my garden will be a plus. Also, those trees will not be hogging water.

Cynthia, I will have some plants for you later this spring . Are you replanting roses much yet?

erasmus - glad to hear that your damage is being handled. Re your roses and light, years ago we had to take down an 80 ft tall, 30-40 ft wide scarlet oak (because it was rotten inside). It was on one side of our front garden, right on the lot line. There are a lot of roses in our front garden. They were between say 20 and 60 ft away from the tree. I think because it was deciduous, they were surviving OK. Well, of course suddenly, instantly, they got a HUGE amount of extra sunlight (it was taken down in the summer - it was too dangerous to wait). What our roses did was sort of go into shock. They stopped growing much, and the leaves they produced were very small. They went into their ("it is too hot!") sort of dormancy. This continued for an entire year - they bloomed in the Spring, but not much at all. Thank heavens, they recuperated by the next Spring, and grew and bloomed more than they had before the tree disappeared, and were very happy. So, don't worry if your roses don't take off immediately - depending on how severe the change in light is, they might need some time to adapt to it.

Jackie

Thank you , Jackie. Will have to wait and see but I kind of doubt they'll go into shock because my garden got sun from the east up until about 2 or 3 pm when the sun would go behind the Leylands. We've removed various trees here over the years ...I loved the trees but they either outright died or had problems. Lost three semi-dwarf apple trees, a Bing cherry tree , a sour cherry tree, a plum tree that I think was killed by roses climbing in it, red maple, two pear trees, got rid of a huge Nelly Stevens holly, and last year cut down about 8 Leyland cypresses in that " hedge". Lost a weeping cherry tree too.

The additional light has been a plus. I don't know of any that had such a drastic change that they went into shock but it's good to know that if they do that over time it can work out.

The owner of the vacant lot beside us planted Leyland cypresses along two lines of his property... some close to our house on the North side so someday those might also present a problem but it'll be up to him to remove them. They're so common around here and almost always are near houses. Most of them look good and healthy. Our line of Leylands got too much shade at the base due to the apartment building on the other side. The lower limbs started dying. Really looked ugly.

That's a big tree you had to remove.

Thanks for the note about saving some plants for me, Erasmus! I will email you directly to talk about those and yes, I'm replanting roses starting this spring. I spent all last year killing rootlets that came from stalwart survivors of digging out after the RRD plague. I identified the neighbor that had infected roses all over her back yard and she has dug them out last summer. I will be planting like mad this year which officially brands me as rose obsessed (as if I wasn't already labeled so).

Thanks

Cynthia

erasmus - Yes, it was a big tree. The tree company had to use a huge crane to lift men into its canopy - luckily our next door neighbor had room for the bottom of the crane in his back parking area, and was so nice to let them use it.

Here is a pic of part of the tree when it was being taken down - you can see a tiny (actually very large man) person dangling from the crane in the lower left part of the photo. The entire neighborhood was out on both sides of the street for a block watching.

Jackie

Oh gosh..that is a big tree. I think I see the man. Too bad it was rotten...the leaves look good. It is kind of an event when they take them down. These guys are almost like circus performers. Daring man on the flying crane. I was thinking this morning that those hydraulics better be in good shape.

Cynthia.. sounds like you're jumping back in to your rose garden in a big way. I'm so glad you found the source of the RRD and your neighbor has understood and taken action. I hope it won't come back. I'm going to spray my garden with dormant oil pretty soon. Says to spray between 40 and 70 degrees and when there will be no freeze for 24 hrs. That puts it at Thurs. Feb 8 here.

Yes, it was way too bad, but when it was all over and we asked them to leave the trunk about 6 ft high, the cross section at the top of the 6 ft was almost hollow - the rot was in the middle of the main trunk. I asked one of the arborists who was investigating the tree if the tree fell over in storms during the coming winter, would it hit our house? He said no, it would fall away from our house, but completely smash the small one bedroom house of our neighbor, so that settled that and we did not wait. Luckily, we have another scarlet oak which is almost as big in our back yard, and that one is doing fine so far.

Jackie

How did you know the tree was rotten?

erasmus - The first thing I noticed was that a round sort of thing on the tree - it was the sort of covering growth where a large limb had been removed decades before, and the tree had sealed that place by growing a round cover on the wound. It was only about 8 feet off the ground, and was a circle about 18 inches in diameter. Anyway, there it was lying on the lawn, but upside down. What had been the inner side of it was covered with bright yellow guck. So, we called our tree people and they said that was a fungus which was attacking the tree. Long story short, and 6 different arborists companies later ( I kept getting different opinions, in the hopes that the ones already had were wrong, because I really loved that tree), we realized we had to take it down.

Turned out that it was at the end of its natural life for scarlet oaks (about 80 years - my DH's grandfather planted it in the 1930s), and also that particular fungus (by that time it had been identified) was famous for attacking and killing scarlet oaks. One of the arborists we had look at it had a tiny drill attached to a computer. He drilled into the low down part of the trunk, and found more spaces with just fungus for a long way in at several different heights. Also another company, which did not do any actual tree work, but just assessed the dangerousness of trees (mostly for the Parks Dept) looked at it with all sorts of equip and said it was very dangerous. We got an unrelated company - our usual tree company, to take it down (to avoid a conflict of interest). Many would think that was too many arborists and things, but it made me feel much better about the decision being correct.

Jackie

Wow...sounds like they're high tech. That's great they have the means of evaluating what's going on within the tree. I would have gotten several opinions also. I am a bit cynical and think people/ companies can tell you what will result in the most profit for them sometimes. The Parks Dept. aught to know their stuff too.