Damaged Giant

With any luck the power will remain on.  Our first outage lasted for twenty-four hours and our close to needing a  refill propane tank prompted no action from me.  Twelve hours later the power went out again with that outage also lasting twenty-four hours.  At that point we desperately needed a delivery. The Mirabito truck arrived here before lunch.

This stately White pine tree grew along the edge of the river bottom field.  Fortunately much of it remains intact but it did suffer a huge hit.  The ground at the base of this tree features a deep deposit of decayed pine needles.  That seemed like a perfect place to transplant Arbutus plants.

 

Fortunately the broken tree pieces fell toward the river rather than on our land.  This loss to the tree is enormous but it appears that enough undamaged tree remains to support continued growth.

This welded wire cage protects the two Arbutus plants placed here.  It is designed to keep hungry  woodchucks and rabbits away from our plants.  The tree debris that fell here was limited to small dead pieces.  Both the cage and the plants escaped injury. 

Our first Arbutus transplants were placed further up the hill under a much smaller White pine.  Our normal path to these plants was blocked by downed Sumac trees.  No damage was done to the plants and we were surprised to find open flowers.  Only a few of the buds are open but they created a welcome display.  Age related decline prevented me from getting on the ground to smell these unforgettable sweetly scented blossoms.  Perhaps that will be part of tomorrows visit here.