{"id":650,"date":"2014-02-09T10:53:41","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T18:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.luterra.com\/blog\/?p=650"},"modified":"2014-02-09T10:53:41","modified_gmt":"2014-02-09T18:53:41","slug":"a-storm-to-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luterra.com\/blog\/?p=650","title":{"rendered":"A storm to remember"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gunshots in the distance.\u00a0 The air is perfectly still, a soft rain falling at 32 degrees.\u00a0 More gunshots, closer this time, followed by a crash and a swishing sound, and then more silence.\u00a0 These trees have seen ice before, but never have they seen 15″ of snow followed by a half inch of ice.\u00a0 They are burdened up to five times their usual weight, the added strain far from the trunk, on every needle, every branch.\u00a0 Wood fibers stretch to the absolute limit, carbon and oxygen atoms snapping apart in chains of cellulose.\u00a0 Crack.\u00a0 Crash.\u00a0 A swish of snow.\u00a0 And silence.\u00a0 It is almost like a thunderstorm, wondering where the next lightning will strike, the next thunder will reverberate.\u00a0 But storms are all wind and rain and sound, thunder only adding to the cacophony.\u00a0 This is just a quiet, humid winter night, punctuated by the falling of trees.\u00a0 Survival of the fittest.\u00a0 Darwin’s ghost walks the forest like an invisible giant, here and there nudging a branch, a whole tree.\u00a0 Those who have strayed too far from vertical, those who have stretched too high toward the sun while neglecting the strength of their trunk, those whose roots have a tenuous grasp on the soil.\u00a0 All will fall tonight, leaving the forest stronger, creating gaps into which new trees will grow.\u00a0 Violence is a part of nature’s repertoire, and I feel humbled to have borne witness to this spectacle.<\/p>\n

It is melting this morning at 39 degrees, trees releasing their loads of snow and ice.\u00a0 We have been without power since last evening, and it could well be a couple of days before we get it back, as there are trees down all over.\u00a0 Eight inches of snow on Thursday, then freezing rain and sleet, then two more inches.\u00a0 Another eight inches of peaceful snow on Friday, beautiful single flakes, each ephemeral shape unique in the universe.\u00a0 First time chaining up the Subaru, still got stuck on the steep section, worked with our neighbor to clear out the hill.\u00a0 Sloppy yesterday, rain at 32 degrees.\u00a0 Somehow it was just the right temperature to melt on the ground and yet freeze on the trees.\u00a0 Roads turned from snowpack into deep ruts of slush, tough going until our limited fleet of plows could push them clear.\u00a0 Spinning out the driveway, losing chains, putting them back on, cutting fallen branches and trees out of our path.\u00a0 It is over now, and soon we will set out to clear the road, heading into town for the day, returning tonight to the homestead in the woods tonight, to a land awakening from snow, straightening branches, and already thinking of spring.<\/p>\n

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Gunshots in the distance.\u00a0 The air is perfectly still, a soft rain falling at 32 degrees.\u00a0 More gunshots, closer this time, followed by a crash and a swishing sound, and then more silence.\u00a0 These trees have seen ice before, but … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luterra.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luterra.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luterra.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luterra.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luterra.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.luterra.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":657,"href":"https:\/\/www.luterra.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions\/657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luterra.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luterra.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luterra.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}