Hurricane Irma Aftermath · · PAGE 48.

October 9, 2017:  The cleanup is not over until all the storm debris is removed by DISASTER RECOVERY trucks that take away all the tree trunks, limbs, and Spanish moss.  We had another minor storm with winds that came through last week.  I found a tree limb that had fallen from the big oak tree near the southwest corner of the house.  It was about 15 feet in length and was on the sidewalk near the speed limit sign.  I cut off the small side branches and put the remainder of the limb on the big pile of debris near the speed limit sign.  I looked up to see where it came from in the tree and spotted another dead limb up there from Hurricane Irma.  All the dead leaves point to the remaining dead limb still in the tree.  It is up too high to get my ladder up there to safely dislodge it.

Here is another view of that same tree and dead limb.

This was the day the trucks took away all the storm debris.  It was also the federal holiday for Columbus Day and I was not working today on my day job.  I was having a race to get all the big tree limbs moved from the debris pile by the access road to the front pile that was sitting here until the big truck with its scoop bucket took everything away.  That dead grass and leaves between the sidewalk and the street marks the size of the pile out front.  I spent the morning dragging big limbs from one pile location on the access road to the pile that was here in front of the speed limit sign.  The scoop on the truck also removed some sod and the rich soil under the grass level.

Here is the view looking the other way.  There are three of my yard waste cans down by the access road when the normal weekly trash pickup will remove their content of leaves and Spanish moss.  The regular trash and yard waste collection is on Tuesday, which was October 10 this week.

This is the remainder of the pile of leaves with small twigs and branches at the side of the access road near the driveway.

Here is the same pile with a different camera angle looking north.

October 10, 2017:  When the yard waste cans were emptied this morning, I started to clean up the remaining leaves from the two remaining debris piles.

October 12, 2017:  I had some time to take more photos today of limbs that were damaged during the hurricane, but have not fallen to the ground.  This is a wide angle shot of the tree close to the access road and the storm drain that runs under the east side of the property.  In the middle of this image is a big limb that also fell from the upper canopy of this tree on a bigger trunk of that same tree at a lower level.

This second image is zoomed in on the fallen limb.  This time you can see the big limb with its dead leaves.

There is one more big oak tree near the driveway that has my attention.  Since the hurricane I have been hearing the sound of limbs rubbing each other when the wind blows and the upper canopy of the tree moves.  The limb above highlighted with the yellow lines is forked and has its ends broken off from several years ago.  There are live side branches with green leaves attached to the remainder of the forked limb.  The limb marked with the RED line is below the other limb and when the wind blows, these two limbs make a creaking noise.  My concern is my car is usually parked in the driveway below these two limbs.

October 16, 2017:  I have three more photos after most of the leaves have been removed, and a better view of a dead limb in the afternoon sunlight.  This is the dead grass and gouged top soil at the southwest corner of the lot where the turf was killed by dead limbs being here for 30 days.

Looking up from this spot, the fallen limb from the upper canopy of this tree is outlined.  The only question is WHEN will this one fall to the ground?

Over at the other side of the lot is the other dead grass area by the driveway and the access road.

That is the end of the story of Hurricane Irma and the cleanup that took 30 days.  I have to buy some grass seed to get the dark areas green again.

February 4, 2018:  I have been contemplating how to remove the dead tree limb shown here again from a photo seen above.

Here is what I did today, February 4, 2018 to solve the problem.  This picture shows a long white pole on the sidewalk, the tree limb that was above the sidewalk as seen above, and a yard waste trash can ready to remove the branches from the fallen limb that has finally reached the ground.  There are no photos of the progress as I was working alone.

What was the technique to get this done?  I used some white poles used with a canvas sun shade to create a long push pole that is assembled to be 22 feet and 6 inches total length.  I used the long pole to push up on the fat part of the limb to move it off the limb where it was resting these past few months.  It moved over to the point I thought it would fall, but the side branches were still holding up there.

I had to set up my extension ladder, but not for climbing, but to serve as a "guide brace" for the long pole.  I could push the large limb from this angle to get it a bit farther to the East expecting it to fall at any minute.

I checked the length of the pole before taking apart and returning the pieces to storage.

The final push that made the branch fall to the ground was done by a neighbor as I was shorter and he was stronger.  David Simmons and his wife Marly were walking their dogs again today as I was ready for the final push of the limb to make it fall.  They had been walking their dogs yesterday afternoon when I was making my first attempt to move the limb using a long extension cord to lasso the tree limb and pull it down.  That did not work at all.  When they came by today, David was very helpful for the final push as they were walking west on Meadowbrook Road.

When they were on their way back from walking the dogs, I showed them the map of the golf course development project from PAGE 49.  I took them out back to compare the map of Phase 1 & 2 with the current progress behind 1351.

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