Some weeks ago, lightning struck a bunch of trees and killed them.

During Hurricane Nicole, two of them fell across the front driveway.

A little chainsaw work cleared the driveway.

Lightning, Hurricane, Chainsaw

Before

These two pictures are from November 5, 2022. Notice how the dead trees are in a line.

Lightning-struck trees

No, it’s not pine beetles. A few of the dead trees do have beetle holes, but most do not.

Fortunately, the biggest longleaf by the driveway were not affected.

Driveway longleaf

After

Gretchen heard these trees fall across the driveway.

Deadfalls in driveway

I fetched the tractor and chainsaw, and pretty soon no problem.

Chainsawed out of the way

Didn’t actually need the tractor for the parts of the two trees across the driveway, but did use it to drag away some bigger sections.

-jsq

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