Our cypress swamp doesn’t look too bad at the west end, after Hurricane Helene.
But some of it is quite bad. Continue reading
Our cypress swamp doesn’t look too bad at the west end, after Hurricane Helene.
But some of it is quite bad. Continue reading
This slash pine was almost 100 years old when Hurricane Helene toppled it across our back driveway.
Here’s a video clip:
https://youtu.be/wqOaL1NYwBk Continue reading
We raised this tree from knee-high, so we wanted to see how it was doing after Hurricane Helene.
Finding Gretchen’s Sycamore Tree after Hurricane Helene with chainsaw and dogs 2024-10-12
After I chainsawed through many yards of fallen trees, bushes, and vines, we found it battered but still standing.
Blondie and Honeybun were almost as happy as Gretchen to see it.
Here is a video playlist:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk2OxkA4UvwnPsm5_5P9lTV26Mqd-SWR&si=1HpY-Z3kg72Izfyx
The tree with the afternoon sun, 16:59:15
Movie: Gretchen comes to her tree, 17:40:09
Movie: Gretchen looking up at her tree, 17:40:45
It was knee high when we transplanted it
Movie: Survived better than almost anything else nearby, 17:41:01
Movie: Gretchen, Blondie, and Honeybun at her tree, 17:41:20
Movie: Big pine on path to the pond, 17:43:40
Deadfall on south path, 17:55:46
-jsq
Small saw path, or big saw path?
Small saw, she said.
16-inch Ego electric chainsaw on water oak deadfall
In her defense, we did saw a bunch of smaller stuff before we came to this deadfall. And that EGO 16-inch electric chainsaw will saw bigger logs than that. But I prefer the bigger saw for that sort of thing.
Meanwhile, on another log, the pale dogs were doing their circus act. Continue reading
Update 2024-06-16 The snake experts say it’s a black racer (Coluber constrictor). I’ve come around to that identification, because it doesn’t have the narrow neck and wide head of a rat snake, and its body is round in cross-section, not loaf-shaped. Also, it struck like a cornered black racer. See this reference. I was just surprised it didn’t run away fast like a typical black racer. Maybe four dogs made it think cornered. Anyway, black racers also eat rodents, so happy munching, snake.
All four dogs didn’t like this rat snake at the workshop door, although only Blondie and Honeybun feature in these pictures.
It appears to be an eastern rat snake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis), with the white under its chin and side of head and otherwise black body.
It did try to strike at the dogs when they got close, but once I called them off it slithered back under the bench, and onwards.
Here’s a video:
https://youtu.be/e5AvoYPQmTE Continue reading
A small turtle crossing the path to the garden. It’s maybe 4 inches long.
That’s Sky’s dog leg.
None of the dogs noticed until I’d been looking at the turtle for quite some time. Blondie, Honeybun, Sky, and River sniffed and moved along.
I think it’s a box turtle, but I didn’t pick it up to see, since it wasn’t in the way and it was in no danger.
-jsq
What kind of turtle is this? It’s about 5 inches long, so presumably quite young.
The triple ridges with radiating patterns look to me like an Alligator snapping turtle, Macroclemys temminckii. I don’t see anything else among the 29 turtles of Georgia that is even close.
I don’t know what it was doing out in the open, 500 feet from the nearest water, which is our cypress swamp.
Anyway, it provided yet another opportunity to remind our dogs: no turtles!
-jsq
What kind of snake is this?
Blondie alerted us to it.
Honeybun walked by it without noticing.
I wasn’t willing to get any closer for a better picture.
-jsq
Update 2024-01-09: Steel Roof on Wood Trusses 2024-01-09.
Previously we saw the roof trusses multiply from one to two.
They doubled again to four, and then leapt on top of the plates.
Four roof trusses on the ground and on the plates
What next for these engineered products?
-jsq