Been a little busy to check in, what with 16 hours of shovelling, 8 hours of chainsawing and dragging limbs, and fixing damaged mews for the hawks and owls at the Black Hills Raptor Center. That's just the front yard. There is that much more in the back, too. Plus the nieghbors that aren't able to take care of their own wrecked trees.
We got 18+ inches of wet, heavy snow here in Rapid City, but up in Lead/Deadwood they got in excess of 48 inches of the stuff. Many parts of town are still without power and some don't even have running water (One guy in particular is the Culligan man!!!) For now I have it all out of the street and bucked up in piles, hoping the National Guard will be coming around to pick up. If they don't, I am gonna have to found up a trailer. Gun Doc? You got a flatbed and are you in the area???
Towards the end of the storm I was bug-house crazy (more than usual) and went around the neighborhood knocking on doors to check on folks. I handed out my phone number to everyone with instructions to call if they needed anything. When things finally shook out on Saturday the neighborhood started coming out of their houses and we all banded together Saturday and again Sunday to get everyone dug out and get downed limbs taken care of. They may not be P.A. Community, but many of them rose to that standard of caring.
But get this...of all the stuff I sawed up, not a lick of it would have been decent bow wood...NOT EVEN A FREAKING PAIR OF BILLETS!!! Heart rotted chinese elm, branch ridden silver maple, box elder, cottonwoods, scrub juniper, and Lombardy poplars.