We were asked to clear up a garden after the storms by owners that had seen the news about the area and were due to arrive this weekend for a short stay and did not really want to spend their time clearing up the mess. The two photos here show part of what we found on arrival.
As you can see a massive branch had ripped from a tree just outside the garden fence and had fallen inside almost bringing down the telephone cables and telegraph pole with it. The pole was in fact leaning quite badly toward the house and there was a crack in the concrete where it was standing as the wires seemed to be stretched almost to breaking point. Now I am no expert lumberjack but to me the best idea seemed to be to at least relieve the pressure from the cables and then get the local council in to finish the job because the ground is very steep and I didn't want to risk cutting too much and having the branch then twist downhill and take the whole local telephone sytem with it. Out came the chainsaw and I cut away all that I could find that was adding weight to the matter but not providing support, then I cut away as much as I dared from just behind the wires, back up towards the trunk and then gently slid the wires upwards until they were no longer under such high tension so hopefully relieving the risk of them pulling down poles. That done, all the rest of the mess was cleared, the owners arrived and were well chuffed and the council have now been called. Wonder how long it will take them to come and finish the job?