I traveled to our summer home in Northwest Arkansas on Saturday where I got intimate with this chainsaw, which I borrowed from a friend. The Epic Ice Storm of 2009 left our back yard a disaster area. Just wanting to get some limbs down that were leaning on the house, I told myself I’d run one tank of gas and then quit. It turns out that chainsaws get good gas mileage.

I got the limbs off the roof and kept going. Most of the other houses had piles of limbs in front, so I gathered that the city or the trash company had agreed to pick up the debris as long it was cut a certain length and placed on the curb. It looked like 4 or 5 feet was the required length so that’s what I shot for. I nearly got the whole back yard done.

Now I’m not a fan of chainsawing. I spent many, many hours in the woods of Southwest Arkansas as a kid cutting firewood with my dad. Dad is a lover of the chainsaw. I think he’d cut stuff up with one all day every day if someone would let him. I hated cutting firewood. The timber company Weyerhauser owns most of the country around DeQueen, where we did most of the firewood gathering. Back in the 80s, they didn’t care about the hardwood trees on their property and would let anyone cut them down for firewood. We’d go out there and make our own roads and cut down the best oak trees. It was hard, boring work. I seldom used the saw, being relegated to loading the truck and moving the leftover treetops out of the way. I know it built character, taught me the value of hard work and kept our family warm in the frigid south Arkansas winters where it sometimes dropped below freezing. But I wouldn’t do it again if you paid me and paid me well.

A bunch of huge limbs from our trees fell across the fence into a neighbor’s yard. He’d hired a guy who lived across the street to get those limbs down on the ground. Seeing as how the limbs came from our trees, I felt responsible for them. I agreed to pay the guy for his work and told neighbor Matt I would get over there and haul the limbs to the curb. He agreed to letting me pay, and indicated he might haul the limbs out himself. The fellow he hired, name of Andy, actually works for a tree service and he had the gear to climb up in the trees and get the limbs down. He cut me what I felt was a good deal and agreed to come back next weekend to cut down the numerous limbs still hanging over my yard. I’ll have to cut them up and haul them to the curb, but I won’t have to get an expensive tree service involved.

This is what I got out to the curb. It’s about one-fifth of the total. I’m going to need some help. Are reading this, Dad?

A trip to our house in Johnson (between Springdale and Fayetteville) confirmed the reports I had gotten: The Epic Ice Storm of 2009 devastated our backyard trees and caused minor damage to the house. A couple of the trees looked like they have enough branches remaining to make a lopsided recovery, so I guess that’s good. And the shed that sits amongst the trees appeared to have not been hit at all. Limbs and branches surround it like it was protected by an invisible force field.

Our place was smack in the middle of a west to east swath that got the most icing. Rogers and Bentonville to the north and southern Fayetteville to the south apparently weren’t hit as hard as Tontitown, Springdale and points east. The area looks like a tornado came through and only hit the trees. I didn’t see any houses with extreme damage, though I’m sure there are some around.

Our neighborhood, which is just north of the Northwest Arkansas Mall, had power, though much of Springdale was still dark. My buddy Kurt in Tontitown was making do with a generator at his place.

I guess we are lucky, it could have been worse. The big parts of the trees that fell over into our neighbors’ yards could have gone the other way and hit our house. But it’s going to be a pain dealing with the insurance people and cleaning up the debris, considering I now live 2.5 hours away.

The weird birch-like tree in the front was totaled.

These photos were shot with my iPhone.