Photos from polar vortex Feb 2021

All the photos were taken with the iPhone. The photos do not come close to capturing what I can see with my eye. I will have to try with the Canon and work on contrast.

February 12, a light snow, fun. But by the morning of the 13th, the 3 trees I marked in red would have fallen. In addition to many branches falling from the taller trees above. That's just in the frame of this photo. Countless trees and branches fell around and on top of my entire house.

I took this photo on February 17, trying to get it from the same angle as the photo above.

The path and area where Mae was standing covered in branches.

What happened was this. The night of the 12th, we had freezing temperatures and rain. That caused this to happen to all the trees:

Inch-thick ice formed around every branch, down to the tiniest twig. Ice also formed around the electrical lines. It was very heavy and the weakest branches and electrical lines started falling the night of the 12th. Our power went out intermittently that night and at 11pm I had to ignore this urge to get caught up on our laundry. I told myself, "don't be stupid, just go to bed". I really should have followed my instinct and done the laundry. Around 2am I opened my eyes and I knew the power was out. I went and put an extra blanket on Libby because she normally just sleeps under a thin blanket. Shortly after 2am, I heard a tree branch fall on my roof. It was loud and terrifying although I'm pretty sure the kids slept right through it. And the next one too.

In the morning I went out to check the damage. The side of the house that the tree branches fell on is hard for me to photograph while standing on the ground.

These photos were taken the morning of the 13th. In the first one I circled the gutter which had no damage at that moment.

Above is that same back walkway where Mae was standing. Again, this is the morning of the 13th, and the path is messy but still walkable at the time this photo was taken.

Here is I photo I took today, Feb 27th. Forgive my face, I was staring at the image behind me.

I have 2 dogwood trees in my front yard. Here is what I saw the morning of the 13th.

One of the trees lost a small branch at the end of my driveway. In the back you can see a tree fell on my neighbor's car.

And here is my other dogwood on the morning of the 13th:

This photo of the same tree, different angle, was taken on the 15th. I am not sure when that branch fell.

You can see on the 15th the ice has not melted. It's still very heavy and the branches are coming down every few seconds. I tried to get a video of the branches falling but it was harder than it sounds. The branches would make sound and I would try to hurry and point my camera there but I would still miss it. I did personally witness 2 more branches fall on my roof. Here is a 4-second video, once again I caught it on camera too late but you can hear it and see the motion after the fall. (You might have to try the video twice.)

One of them must have been very heavy because when I took this photo on the morning of the 14th, now my gutter is bent in a crazy fashion.

But going back to the 13th. Mae took a walk around the neighborhood and came back and told me there were power lines on the ground. I wasn't sure I believed her so I told her to show me.

The photo above is just one example of many, many, many. This one was down for 7 days I think before the power company came out.

Because the branches kept falling, and after I took that video on the 14th, I asked Mae not to sleep in her bedroom until the ice melted. She set up this cozy cot in the living room. We have candles in the back and a propane heater in the lower left corner. We still had a little hot water in our electric hot water heater and we used it to take pioneer baths that day.

By the 15th I was on my last little can of propane to run the little camp heater. We had big propane tanks but no more little ones. Close to 300,000 people out of power in the Portland area meant that there was no more tiny propane cylinders or any alternative heat of any kind.

Oh, you might wonder about the fireplace in the background. Yeah, we hate that thing and it's getting replaced with a gas insert just as soon as I can get a contractor over here. But we did heat our home with the wood stove that is downstairs. 

This is how we cooked:

This was our fridge:

On the morning of the 15th, this tree at the end of my driveway fell. That tree was literally on my to-do list of trees to chop down. It was in the power lines and I knew it had to go. I was so happy to see it fall. Since our power was still out and we only have an electric chain saw (and the chain fell off last summer), Mike had to get the tree off of the car using a hand saw.

At this point you can see the ice on the street has melted and we can finally drive. First Mae and I went out in a pointless attempt to find small propane cylinders. Then Libby and I went out to go to Walmart in Portland. In a pointless attempt to find small propane cylinders. When I got to Portland I realized they had much more snow than we had gotten in Oregon City. And when we got to Walmart it was closed!!

But it was warmer that day and our house at this point was nice and warm from the wood stove. Mae said the living room was much warmer than her bedroom and so she slept there another night. 

Feb 16th we still did not have power/internet and my office was telling me they were going to send me a lot of work to do. I do not like to turn down work. And more than that Mike and I were going crazy from not bathing. Since we did not have internet, even on our phones, my sister helped us find a hotel. We went to the hotel to use their hot water and internet so I could work. It was so nice! Although we did not sleep there, we used the hotel for 2 days. My neighbor called me on Feb 17th to say the power was back on.

We had it good. I visited a girl scout home on the 19th that is just a few blocks from me. They still did not have power and their firewood had gotten wet so they were cold. I brought them some dry firewood. They still did not have power on the 20th but they told me they had gotten some more wood from another friend.

Here's 2 more before and after photos.

Front yard Feb 12:

Feb 15th:

And today, Feb 27th. The mess over my shoulder that is 6 feet tall is stuff that Mike cleared from the driveway. When I get the chain saw fixed we will turn it into firewood. Based on the existing stuff that fell, we will have firewood for the rest of our lives. But that's not all because we plan to have 4 extremely large trees taken down.

We will keep the 4 trees for firewood as well. The 4 trees are too close to our home and after 2 freezes and one wildfire in the past 12 months, we think nature is trying to tell us something and those trees have to go. We already knew they had to go, but we're talking about a bill for several thousand dollars, so, it was hard to prioritize that before now.

Two of the trees that will go are the big chestnut that we hate anyway, and the other one that was dropping branches on the roof. The other 2 that will go are at a different end of my house, not pictured. But one grows over my chimney which just can't be good, and the other one is the type of tree that falls down, so it has to go. 

My front yard area(ish) has 2 dead trees but I think they are small enough and far enough away from the house that I don't need to pay to have them removed. To be fair, one of them already fell on my house four years ago so now what is left is the bottom half.

We have not yet had a roofer climb up to see if my roof is damaged. I looked in the attic crawl space and there's no holes or leaking. 

This county looks like a hurricane went through. Between us and Texas (and others), State Farm is overwhelmed with claims right now. 

After spending last summer removing trees it looks like I have a similar summer ahead of me, only this time the trees are much larger. Fun! And, I wish I could start now, but it's still a little too cold outside for me. Mike repaired our little electric chain saw today, though, so we can start soon.

I took this photo from the 2nd floor, looking down. The reason I took it is because none of that stuff is supposed to be there. Except for the blue barrel. The blue barrel marks the entrance to my little hiking trail. The barrel held walking sticks. So, you're supposed to be looking down at a clearly marked dirt path heading downhill. Instead, you're seeing 3 trees that just laid down right there. The path itself is not navigable at this time, but thanks to my chain saw it will be soon!