Pine tree 1, Mandi 0. Help!

[mandolin]

So my neighbor pointed out that the pine tree out back in my yard was so weighted down with snow it was leaning on the power line.

Crap.

After about 45 minutes of beating the tree with a shovel, failing to hit it with a brick and trying and failing to climb it in the hopes of shaking the snow off the top part that's leaning on the power line, the top half of the tree is still covered in snow and still leaning on the power line. I can't throw anything high enough to actually shake the snow off, it's really sad.

BGE is only taking outage reports. We haven't lost power yet.

In the hope that you see this before the power gets knocked out - any suggestions for dealing with this? I really don't want my tree to take out power for the neighborhood, because there's no way I'm going to be able to get out of here to find someplace with power....

Comments

[mtgat]

How impractical would it be to build a fire near the bottom?

[weirdweb.livejournal.com]

Not very practical given how close it is to other bushes and the neighbor's "toy barn."

I may have to wait and see tomorrow morning; my neighbor took a look at it too and suspects that trying to whack at it the way I've been doing might make things worse. Also, it sounds like another neighbor might be trying to organize a "Let's Dig Ourselves Out" thing tomorrow before the game, so I can try to see if I can get a little more help then. (The plows tend to ignore our little dead-end street.)

[rui]

do you have a ladder? or does your neighbor? because of the snow's that stubborn, you're going to have to get up there with a shovel or rake or something.

[weirdweb.livejournal.com]

My other neighbor Mike (who wasn't home, he was over helping dig a sick friend out) might have one. But his wife - who pointed out the tree to me in the first place - hollered at me when she saw me trying to climb the thing and told me to stop that before I hurt myself. (The tree was in worse shape than me, since my climbing attempts resulted in broken branches.)

I'm going to wait and see tomorrow when more people will be out before the game trying to dig our dead-end street out. The plows tend to skip us over (for obvious reasons, since we live on a narrow dead-end street). At least the snow has stopped for now.

[beesandbrews.livejournal.com]

Ask the neighbors to help you knock the snow off the tree? If there's more than one of you and pooled equipment, you might fend off the invevitable. Otherwise, make sure you have water, candles/lamps, some ready to eat food and hang tight.

Good luck!