September 16, 2013
Continued Progress                              


Sunday morning Simone and Kylie arrived with their little boy, Quinn.  

Quinn and Simone

Mike and Kylie headed out to the south side of the property to clear the trees that had fallen on the fencing between us and the dairy pasture.  

Here's a tree on the southern border of the property that broke off about 7 feet up.  The trunk of this tree was about 12-14 inches across.

The property on the other side of our southern border is a pasture that a dairy company uses for grazing its cattle.  The pictures below show the branches and tree trunks that fell over or on the fence dividing the properties. Mike and Kylie had already cut them down.

 On the southern border, looking to the west.  You can see the line of the fence posts and everything to the left fell on or over the fence.  The trees standing in the background are about 200 feet away.

This is the view to the east.

And this is what is left on our side of the fence.  It is quite a tangle, and there is no way to get through it without cutting a path with the chainsaw.

The bee hive, which sits right next to the wood shed, was covered with branches.  It doesn't appear to be damaged and the bees are still able to get in and out, but Mike figured he would cut away the branches and make it easier for them.  Here are the before and after pictures of the hive.

Here is the hive before the storm.

Here it is after the storm.  You can just see the top of it in the center of the picture.

Here it is after Mike cleared the branches.  Just to the right of the hive is a root that pulled out of the ground when one of the trees behind the wood shed fell over.  If that root had been 6-8 inches to the left it would have flipped the hive over.

Here is the kauri wood all stacked up in the wood shed waiting to have the nails pulled out.  Below is what this section of the wood shed looked like after a tree root came up through the floor of the shed.

The power of nature!

And the good news for the day - - - Annie brought her chicks right up to the front door and let Heather hand feed them - - - quite unusual in the world of chickens.  But then Heather has a special way with animals.