Last night at about 10pm a storm passed through my area. It consisted of very strong winds and a 15 min. rain that dropped a whole 1/2 inch on us. I lost two huge branches, one dangerously close to the house
This message was edited Jun 26, 2006 10:31 AM
...and one dangerously close to the power pole.
but the one that got the brunt of the Gods' wrath was this little fella. Look closely
My neighbor to the east also had damage. he lost an entire tree, damaging the fence we share. Interestingly, in a subdivision of 50 houses, NOBODY else had damage, there wasn't even tree debris anywhere else.
Another interesting thing is that it looks like the wind disturbance all took place at the 15-20 ft level. my patio umbrella and my beds are untouched.
Is that a snake in that tree??
Neri, I am sorry about the damage to your property and trees.
I couln't tell who was living in the tree cavity, was it a squirrell?
Josephine.
it's a snake. don't know how it got there. must have been living inside the trunk or something. gives me the willies.
This message was edited Jun 26, 2006 10:26 AM
Maybe we should start a club --I've been having bad tree luck, too. Last week we had a large limb fall off of one of our pecans and onto the house. Luckily, the tree was far enough away from the house that just the end of the limb brushed the roof and only the gutter was damaged. Before I even got a chance to address the issue of the broken gutter, my neighbor and I discovered that borers have invaded the maple between our houses (see my post below). We haven't had anybody out to look at it yet (working on it), but I've identified the borer as a redheaded ash borer, and I'm fairly certain we'll lose the tree. What surprised me is that borers apparenly only attack weak trees. I suppose the tree was suffocating because its roots extend under the two driveways and it has very little area to get water, nutrients, and oxygen. An identical maple in our back yard is doing just fine. For now. Knock on wood.
knock on concrete. wood has borers, remember? lol
Vossner -- they're not mad, just getting your attention. If they were mad, you'd have been under that limb then, and discussing it face to face with them now. ;}
you've got a HUGE point there, brigid!
hubby has already removed one of the branches using a rope and his truck. The snake was dead. There is a hole in the lower third of its body (not clearly discernible in this pic), where the branch pinched it to death. We have identified it as a TX rat snake, a non-poisonous one. I'm still wondering how the heck it got up there!?
BTW, I highly recommend "A Field guide to Texas Snakes by Allan Tennant. I bought a previous edition on ebay for $10. There is a newer edition for more $, but well worth it, I think. Hopefully Santa will bring it to me for Christmas. The pics are absolutely excellent and even a snake-squeamish person like me can use this book with confidence.
Wowsers Neri! There must have been a straight line wind that pushed down in that area. It got mighty windy here late yesterday afternoon, but still no rain.
Ever since I found the Texas Rat Snake in my front yard, I have had my eyes on the trees. I had heard they live up there. Your poor guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I will have to look for that snake book.
Vos! Wow I am sorry that you had such a storm, we didn't get it in this area- what are we 15 miles away?
Glad you, family and house were not injured!
In our part of Texas I have seen what we call Chicken snakes in trees. They will also climb very tall poles and get in the Martin bird houses and destroy whatever is in there. I had one one time climb a pole and eat the Bluebird eggs. I was so MAD!!!!
Lin
Vossner,
I heard that storm. It was all around me but never hit my area. Got plenty of rumbling and lighning though. I really sorry to see so much damage. That was a reall doozy.
That's a shame to lose those big branches. Nery, I don't know if I could walk around under those trees anymore without looking up the whole time. Then I'd be tripping over a tree root or something and scare the p out of me. lol
our wooded lot is dreamy and virtually crime free, but not w/o some drawbacks. We try to be alert about stuff falling from above and about tripping over stuff, like snakes!
Beware the dreaded tree snake. It lies in wait until an unsuspecting person is walking by and then leaps out of the tree and attacks. Not to be confused with the dreaded bush snake which hides in the bushes and jumps out at you. It's when they work in tandem that you have to really be careful of. If your looking up they get you from below and if your looking down they get ya from the top.
Yeah, that's what I was talking about -- snakes falling out of trees!
Do you remember the storm that downed my cypress in the spring? And moved the BBQ pit and all of the very heavy potted plants away from my house to the other side of the driveway. Only my yard. Debris all over. Took me the whole day to clean up the mess. Straight line tornado is what the arborist thought. Isn't it just weird!? That poor snake was sure in the wrong place at the wrong time. Really weird...
