The ice storm that occurred a year ago in the Ozarks created many beautiful scenes, as in the photo above (courtesy of Retta), but it also left a trail of damage and destruction.  Aside from a power outage that lasted weeks (and the subject of my post entitled Standby Generator Project), the ice brought down many trees and limbs in our area.

This tree limb, over a foot in diameter, was no match for the weight of ice which had accreted on it during the duration of the storm.  It is only one example of the numerous downed limbs strewn throughout the property.

Here is a tree that has no chance for survival.  The three ways to deal with this are;  A) leave it as is, B) remove the potentially dangerous hanging limbs, leaving a dead trunk, or C) remove the entire tree.  Due to the location of this tree (and others within our yard), we opted to remove the tree, however there are many other similarly damaged trees on the property where we have chosen options A) or B) instead.

The falling limbs played havok with our fencing.  Where large limbs fell on vinyl fencing, rails and posts were broken or shattered.  Sections of barbed-wire fencing either snapped or were toppled to the ground.  We have completed repairs on all the vinyl fencing, but only a portion of the barbed-wire fencing, where the repairs will be ongoing for the foreseeable future.

Outside the immediate area of the yard, many trees were toppled like matchsticks.  Tree that have fallen into our horse pastures or hay fields have been cut up for firewood and removed, although some of this work still remains.

Here is another snapped limb, well over a foot in diameter, located along one of our trails.  I am in the process of locating these potential “widow-makers” and dropping them to the ground, where they can sit safely until I can deal with them fully.

Where we had to fell trees in the yard, we opted to remove the stumps that remained, which required the use of a backhoe, seen above.  After the stumps were pulled from the ground, the backhoe operator filled the resultant holes with topsoil.

Around the house, there was so much fallen debris that we employed the services of a bucket truck, an industrial size chipper, and a 3-man crew for 5 full 8-hour days.  We now have tons of organic mulch sitting in piles in strategic locations throughout our property!

Removal of the tree stumps and cut timber in the yard required the use of heavy equipment, seen above, and large trucks, seen below.

Even with all the work that has been completed to date, it will probably take us several more years to clean up after the ice storm of January, 2009.  In fact, there are over 200 acres that I have not yet had the opportunity to cut my way into yet.  I had better get to work, pronto (or at least when the temperature climbs out of the single digits)  ;)