Ice storm

[Adios Pantalones]

Lots of birch were hanging right over touching the ground- other trees just snapped off to touch the ground I'll try and dig up more

 

[woodmeister]

ice storms do make for some great photo ops.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

When the sun broke through the fog and hit the trees that morning- it was unbelievable. Too bad it was so dangerous to be outside- big branches and trees were coming down- and then 1# chunks of ice were falling from the tree tops- could have brained me.

 

[woodmeister]

Worked for the power company and have seen some crazy things when it comes to ice. Canada in 99' turned 200' towers into mangled erector sets.8" of ice around conductors if that happened here and power was out for months people would spontaniously combust.

 

[savageactor7]

That reminds me of our smaller birch...every couple of years it'll bend over covered with ice and we just shake it off. Takes a couple of days but it stands right up again.

 

[fossil]

Had a nice triple-trunked birch planted as a sapling in front of our house in Virginia. Grew like a weed, must've been pretty happy there. When it was young, an ice storm would bend it over to the ground like that, and when the weather warmed it stood right back up. After it matured, an ice storm bent it over like that, but it never did straighten back up nicely. Looked pretty sad, but was very much alive. Had a tree service over taking care of all our poplars, oaks, maples, and chestnuts (climbers limbing & removing deadwood & such), so I asked them what they could do for the birch. They topped the three leaders in a nice pattern and tied them together well up inside the tree in such a way that it looked quite natural and the rope was basically invisible. All three trunks sent up nice new leaders, so all was well after that. As a young tree, the resilience of the birch was amazing, but as an older tree it could no longer recover so gracefully from being bent to the ground. Rick

 

[btj1031]

Had a nice triple-trunked birch planted as a sapling in front of our house in Virginia. Grew like a weed, must've been pretty happy there. When it was young, an ice storm would bend it over to the ground like that, and when the weather warmed it stood right back up. After it matured, an ice storm bent it over like that, but it never did straighten back up nicely. Looked pretty sad, but was very much alive. Had a tree service over taking care of all our poplars, oaks, maples, and chestnuts (climbers limbing & removing deadwood & such), so I asked them what they could do for the birch. They topped the three leaders in a nice pattern and tied them together well up inside the tree in such a way that it looked quite natural and the rope was basically invisible. All three trunks sent up nice new leaders, so all was well after that. As a young tree, the resilience of the birch was amazing, but as an older tree it could no longer recover so gracefully from being bent to the ground. Rick

Not unlike humans!

 

[fossil]

...Not unlike humans!

Not at all unlike humans, J-Man. That's why both my stoves are on 12" high hearths. Rick

 

[Adios Pantalones]

This one hasn't stood all the way up, and I fear it will shade out garlic, onions, and asparagus this year so it's history.

 

[Apprentice_GM]

Great pic AP

Done any good firings lately? Ones with flames leaping 20 feet out of your chimney? 7 days of 2400 degrees burns until Men In Black arrive to stop it?

The last burn I saw of yours had the maddest pot in it, for a friend's herbs and spices or something, it had this crazy octopus thing crawling on top, was way cool, did your mate love it?

 

[Adios Pantalones]

There was a Lovecraft inspired teapot like that- I gave it to Vic99 here on Hearth- it's sitting on the mantle over his Hearthstone stove so I think he liked it

I put up a quick site a few weeks back (I was bored one morning) with fire pics- many of which have been posted here.

http://wileyhill.angelfire.com/firing.html
and
http://wileyhill.angelfire.com

I should be firing in March. Did you check out that Australia map with all the potteries on sidestoke.com ?

 

[daveswoodhauler]

A photo from the front of our house....it was a one lane road for about 4 days.

Don't want to go through that again.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Also, a thanks to the linemen.

 

[Apprentice_GM]

AP,

I sure did! There's one only a couple of hours drive from me I want to check out. Jann Kesby has a bourry box kiln and an anagama and uses ironbark, and says of it "Ironbark wood is extremely hard and dense." which is an understatement!

Do you guys get "hoar frosts"? We used to have parts of Whistler's Ski resort that had some spectacular hoar frost statues, trees and shrubs with horizontal icicles trailing out from hem, especially off the back side of ridges where prevailing winds were strong.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

We get hoar frost, but the best I ever saw it was in Anchorage, Alaska. The trees were covered with it and threw crazy prisms when the sun hit it. Overlooking the Cook Inlet, the crows had frost on their wings that they picked up from the moistue over the water outlining their feathers- jet black outlined in white frost. Pretty amazing.

Also saw the northern lights from the plane, moose, bald eagles, etc- crazy. I wanted to go to AK my whole life, then was given 3 days notice that I'd be an expert witness in a trial there... in January.

 

[fossil]

In Central Oregon, the condition most favorable for it is what's referred to as "freezing fog". Cold, still, moisture-laden air mass laying close to the ground. Had some a few weeks back. The third pic is the radio antenna on my Jeep which had been parked for 2 days. Wind had little or nothing to do with it, as there was essentially no wind. The crystal growth was fascinating. Rick

 

[webbie]

We missed all the REAL ice storms this year - sometimes by just a couple hundred feet (in elevation).....but still the woods got some icing here and there....