Ice storm, day 2a

Well, the second weather system deposited about another inch of ice overnight. A third wave is expected sometime today. Everything is closed. I have packages that need to get to the post office, and it's too far to walk in this kind of weather.

The sawtooth oak lost at least one branch, which is a real shame since it's a lovely tree. We'll probably need to get out there later and saw off the broken part (after the sun comes up).

Ice storm 2B

In which more stuff is currently coming down outside, and the ability to bend is all-important.

This yaupon is normally straight up, but when this happens the branches bend down under the weight of the ice. (Which is why a branch broke off the sawtooth--the sawtooth retains its leaves throughout winter and is therefore is particularly vulnerable to ice. Being an oak, it prefers not to bend. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do to help it out other than pray, think warm thoughts, and hope for no wind.)

It's odd that our pear still has all its leaves too, which portends danger if the wind picks up. The Texas Gold and Silver Chrysanthemums were blooming. Now the blossoms are covered in ice. displacedtexan has more pics over at his blog entry. (He took this one)

And this entry, where he shows our desperate attempts to prop up the oak to save what we can of it!

#*&$! Ice Storm!

So, here's the river birch in front of our house....see that main center trunk---the one snapped in half? (This is, BTW, a 30 foot or so tree. Hard to tell from the pic, but it's actually quite tall)

Here's our desperate attempt to keep more branches from breaking off the saw-tooth oak.

We've already lost a couple of huge branches, displacedtexan estimates that 1/5 of the tree is gone now. We're hoping not to loose much more. On the other hand, the hedge maples and the bald cypress and the pear are doing fine so far. The yaupons are showing a lot of stress, but we've only seen a few snapped branches.

When the wind gets here tomorrow, we're going to be in a lot of trouble.