After the Storm

[dxmachina]

I hate standard time.

Made it through the storm with no loss of power and minimal damage, just one branch down from the remaining Bradford pear, a branch that I was planning to prune anyway. My neighbor lost most of what was left of his Bradford, so that tree is probably a total loss. My other neighbor lost a piece of their Bradford, as well. I haven't been to the other end of the street to see if any of the other trees took hits. On the assumption that the town will be by some time this week to clean up downed chunks of tree, I did the rest of the planned pruning today. Still, this is likely the beginning of the end. They're just crappy trees.

I was a bit worried that the bike path would be strewn with branches, but it was reasonably clear except for some small stuff. I had more problems with the den of Cub Scouts that was clogging up the path. The sun was out when I started, but clouds rolled in within a few minutes. It was chilly, 50° or so, but I managed to stay fairly warm. I still need some kind of ear warmer. I need to take a ride over the Eastern Mountain Sports.

Comments

[hackerguitar.livejournal.com]

Just FYI - if any of the downed pear trees are sizeable (8-10" or larger in girth) they may be attractive to local woodworkers, of whom there is a sizeable contingent.

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

I am one of those local woodworkers. Sadly, Bradford pears (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callery_Pear), are ornamentals bred to grow as fast as possible without regard to wood strength. They have a very short trunk, only 3' to 4' long. The rest of the tree is made up of an exploding firework of branches. This pic (http://pics.livejournal.com/dxmachina/pic/0002ddec/g4) will give you and idea of the structure. The wood is very weak, and there are far too many forks to get any kind of useful lengths out of it.

The town recently planted a cherry where my other Bradford used to stand, but I'll likely be long dead before anyone ever has to worry about salvaging the lumber from that.

[hackerguitar.livejournal.com]

Ah. I had a feeling you were a woodworker. I've used small pearwood pieces to build ornamental boxes, but love large pieces of pear for furniture.