Storm Arwen meets Cortina
Discussion
So Storm Arwen blew in and our trees which have been there for 20+ years largely survived.
I say largely, what I mean is that 1 very tall tree was uprooted and fell. This was what greeted me when I woke up.
It hit a gate post on the way down which deflected it slightly which meant the main trunk just missed the roof of the car.
The snow is now melting so I will be out with my chainsaw tomorrow to clear what I can and see what damage has been done.
Hoping I have been lucky.
I say largely, what I mean is that 1 very tall tree was uprooted and fell. This was what greeted me when I woke up.
It hit a gate post on the way down which deflected it slightly which meant the main trunk just missed the roof of the car.
The snow is now melting so I will be out with my chainsaw tomorrow to clear what I can and see what damage has been done.
Hoping I have been lucky.
Oh yes, fingers crossed it will be no more than superficial.
Before I got it back, my Sportshatch suffered from having a fairly large branch falling onto the passenger door, though given the extent of the rest of the work it didn't add that much to the job. But that wasn't starting out from the kind of condition that your car looks as if it's in.
Before I got it back, my Sportshatch suffered from having a fairly large branch falling onto the passenger door, though given the extent of the rest of the work it didn't add that much to the job. But that wasn't starting out from the kind of condition that your car looks as if it's in.
kwittery with anything practical.....Congratulations that Tina came out more or less unscathed.
There's a poor guy over on Autos***e with an L reg Landie hardtop (restoration finished just a week ago) that now has a bloody great tree right across the middle of it. Looks an almost certain write-off. Prob at best a big strip for spares to rebuild another one.
We too had a similar lucky escape to yours:
After a very weird part-year of dodging Covid, dealing with other illness and the potential loss of the place where I park my other classics/projects the Frau and I finally decided that one priority was trying to expand our parking area by clearing away old garden features within a space at the side of the house. There is a large, well established 30 odd year old pine tree right in the centre of all this. I’ve considered removing it, but a) it’s a lovely tree b) the roots (or so I thought) probably go down to hell and c) it looks lovely when the Chrimbo lights run through it each Christmas.
On Friday around dusk we’d reached a point where we could actually start the several days digging and levelling of a section of said parking area to ready it for covering with gravel to comply with SUDs regulations. Starting that digging etc was going to be Saturday’s task, before storm Arwen intervened.
At about 23:15 Friday night the Frau, having just exited from her long bath, announced that whilst soaking up the bubbles she had heard a weird noise outside. A weird noise amongst the end-of-world Devil’s wrecking crew cacophony that was raging outside? Anyway, as you do under “I heard a noise” events, I went to check. Arwen had brought down the pine tree in the parking area and it was sprawled over Bagheera our beloved Jaguar Sovereign Series 3 V12, almost completely hiding her!
Talk about Action Stations! By 23:30 we were both out there, with Arwen still trying to blow us off our feet, working under the outside lights with the electric chain-saw and a bow-saw, beginning to cut away some of the branches so we could see the extent of the problem. The main trunk, some 12” thick, had missed Bagheera by a fraction of an inch but it was leaning hard against the passenger wing. We couldn’t check for actual damage to the car as she was residing under a cover as I’ve taken her off the road for some much needed tlc inc having dropped out the entire rear axle assembly. The cover was now pinned in place by the pine tree’s canopy.
With a few branches cut away it was obvious we needed to rig a winch to both stabilise the tree as we cut away branches and to pull it slightly away from the car’s wing to take the weight off it. There was every danger that as more branches were removed the tree trunk would either drop onto the car just above the passenger side door or slide its way down the entire passenger side! I was about to get my 4 ton hand winch from the shed when the power failed!
It was just stupid to even consider carrying on in the storm trying to work by the light of a torch and with only the bow-saw for cutting, so we decided to retreat to bed. We’d leave the main light switch on so we’d know when the power returned. Don't know when it came back but the next thing I knew it was 7 o'clock.
So we spent all of Saturday cutting up and removing the bloody tree!
This is Sat morning start:
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/bPidSM3m
View from other side of car:
[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/rLe3i8MK
Finally all branches off and Jaguar in sight with winch holding tree trunk safely at bay!
[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/dpJE4D1J
Dusk and we can check for damage:
[/url]
We actually got off lightly considering the size and weight of it. Bagheera ended up with a small dent in the passenger wing top (obviously the main trunk just clipped it), the passenger door mirror was ripped off and there is a tiny dent just above the gutter on the passenger side. More work obviously, but it could have been a write-off rather than the big cat losing of 1 of her 9 lives.
Had the tree fallen 6 or 7 feet to the left it would have hit squarely both the Jaguar and the Rover 75 Tourer we are using as temporary transport whilst Bagheera slumbers, so def a case of thanks for small mercies.
There's a poor guy over on Autos***e with an L reg Landie hardtop (restoration finished just a week ago) that now has a bloody great tree right across the middle of it. Looks an almost certain write-off. Prob at best a big strip for spares to rebuild another one.
We too had a similar lucky escape to yours:
After a very weird part-year of dodging Covid, dealing with other illness and the potential loss of the place where I park my other classics/projects the Frau and I finally decided that one priority was trying to expand our parking area by clearing away old garden features within a space at the side of the house. There is a large, well established 30 odd year old pine tree right in the centre of all this. I’ve considered removing it, but a) it’s a lovely tree b) the roots (or so I thought) probably go down to hell and c) it looks lovely when the Chrimbo lights run through it each Christmas.
On Friday around dusk we’d reached a point where we could actually start the several days digging and levelling of a section of said parking area to ready it for covering with gravel to comply with SUDs regulations. Starting that digging etc was going to be Saturday’s task, before storm Arwen intervened.
At about 23:15 Friday night the Frau, having just exited from her long bath, announced that whilst soaking up the bubbles she had heard a weird noise outside. A weird noise amongst the end-of-world Devil’s wrecking crew cacophony that was raging outside? Anyway, as you do under “I heard a noise” events, I went to check. Arwen had brought down the pine tree in the parking area and it was sprawled over Bagheera our beloved Jaguar Sovereign Series 3 V12, almost completely hiding her!
Talk about Action Stations! By 23:30 we were both out there, with Arwen still trying to blow us off our feet, working under the outside lights with the electric chain-saw and a bow-saw, beginning to cut away some of the branches so we could see the extent of the problem. The main trunk, some 12” thick, had missed Bagheera by a fraction of an inch but it was leaning hard against the passenger wing. We couldn’t check for actual damage to the car as she was residing under a cover as I’ve taken her off the road for some much needed tlc inc having dropped out the entire rear axle assembly. The cover was now pinned in place by the pine tree’s canopy.
With a few branches cut away it was obvious we needed to rig a winch to both stabilise the tree as we cut away branches and to pull it slightly away from the car’s wing to take the weight off it. There was every danger that as more branches were removed the tree trunk would either drop onto the car just above the passenger side door or slide its way down the entire passenger side! I was about to get my 4 ton hand winch from the shed when the power failed!
It was just stupid to even consider carrying on in the storm trying to work by the light of a torch and with only the bow-saw for cutting, so we decided to retreat to bed. We’d leave the main light switch on so we’d know when the power returned. Don't know when it came back but the next thing I knew it was 7 o'clock.
So we spent all of Saturday cutting up and removing the bloody tree!
This is Sat morning start:
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/bPidSM3mView from other side of car:
[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/rLe3i8MKFinally all branches off and Jaguar in sight with winch holding tree trunk safely at bay!
[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/dpJE4D1JDusk and we can check for damage:
[/url]
We actually got off lightly considering the size and weight of it. Bagheera ended up with a small dent in the passenger wing top (obviously the main trunk just clipped it), the passenger door mirror was ripped off and there is a tiny dent just above the gutter on the passenger side. More work obviously, but it could have been a write-off rather than the big cat losing of 1 of her 9 lives.
Had the tree fallen 6 or 7 feet to the left it would have hit squarely both the Jaguar and the Rover 75 Tourer we are using as temporary transport whilst Bagheera slumbers, so def a case of thanks for small mercies.
Edited by pcjpcj on Wednesday 1st December 12:51
that could of gone better but also could of been so much worse Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff