Flaming Roots

Posted on by Thor

Hurricane Milton blew over several trees at the studio I am renting. To help out the landlady, I offered to pay 5 months rent up front so there could be a pool of money to help with the hurricane recovery efforts.

Two pine trees were removed from the back yard and this tree had been blown over, knocking over a fence and leaving a giant six foot high root ball.

Over several days I lit the roots on fire and kept the blazes contained by standing by with a garden hose. I was sure I could burn the entirety of the root ball to the ground.

The tree service guy, Paul,  who had cut down and carted off several other trees was supposed to grind down this root ball with a mechanical grinder. He abandoned the job for over four months and that is why I started by burn campaign.

The landlady was in contact with Paul who had some stellar excuses for not renting the grinder and getting the job done. One of the more inspired excuses was that the wife of a friend of his had driven onto his property and smashed her car into some of his equipment. His friend had been accused of abuse and Paul sided with him. Other excuses were less colorful but just as inspired.

My landlady told me to stop with my controlled burns. She said I shouldn’t make Paul’s job any easier, and she was certain her negotiations would get him back on the job. I have less faith in human nature.

Since the root ball had been abandoned for so long,  native plants had started to sprout on top. They were a crisp bright green showing signs of new life.

This burn didn’t last long. I didn’t have enough wood to keep the fire stoked. The interior roots were already charred and there was as much dirt as there was roots to burn.

The following month the grinding was finally completed. My landlady’s persistence and faith in human nature had prevailed.

With the huge root ball removed, there is now a hole in the ground and plenty of wood chips for mulch. I have been trying to level out the war torn landscape with a metal rake but progress is slow.

I have taken to wandering the yard bare foot to do the work. I feel more grounded but my feet are still tender and the wood chips are bloody sharp. I have one wood splinter in my left heel and I am wondering if it will ever come out. With every step the splinter is pushed deeper in. I have to assume my body will find a way to get the splinter out without me having to dig it out.

Root Ball Blaze

Posted on by Thor

A huge pine tree fell next to the Lake County studio because of the winds from Hurricane Milton which blew through central Florida in October of 2024. Milton was the second-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded over the Gulf of Mexico.

I have been cutting off roots from the seven foot tall unearthed root ball. Native plants have already started to grow on top of the football shaped ball, like a chia pet. If only my balding head could be so resilient. I gather the roots I cut off and set a fire in the fire pit each evening. It is a slow mesmerizing way to get rid of the storm damage. I have started cutting off the larger roots now, so the fire burns brighter and longer each night.

I felt an incredible sense of peace tonight as I watched the blaze and worked on this painting. I have fallen in love with this hidden slice of Florida. The lot next door is completely undeveloped and I could hear critters foraging around in the woods. The gentle wind caused large bamboo stalks to sway and clatter against each other. Bamboo and tall pines pointed to the stars. The fire would snap and sparks would rise up also leading the eternal gaze to the night sky. These quiet moments are helping me ground myself. After four hours of virtual teaching the fire help me wind down.

A rain storm yesterday showed that the gutters to the home are clogged in one spot. In the afternoon I got the ladder out and cleaned the gutters.  I am also digging a trench to bring roof rain water away from the home to the edge of the property. I found that the gutter had a mesh on top of one of the downspouts to keep pine needles and other debris from clogging the spillover. The other side had no mesh so I added some screen as a stop gap solution. I also up-righted a fence that had been knocked down by the fallen pine tree. I just used 4 by 4s to shore up the fence until I dig new fence posts. It felt good to be outdoors and doing physical labor. I worked up a good sweat and it felt awesome.

Perhaps the physical labor is why I felt so at peace sitting by the fire. I had earned this moment of bliss and happiness.

Post Milton

Posted on by Thor

Hurricane Milton knocked down 4 trees in at the Lake County Studio. One tree fell up against the shed in this sketch damaging the roof line but not yet hitting the ground.

I consulted with Paul, the leader of the tree removal crew of 3 and he felt I would be fine sketching from this location.

Paul had a thick utility belt with more gadgets than batman. He clipped on a chainsaw to the belt and kicked the metal cleats on his boots into the thick pine bark.

At the base of the tree a thick rope was braided and tied with a sort of  Tee shaped metal device that the rope could be wound around. Paul made his way up cutting off smaller branches as he went. His goal was to get to the very top and tie another road braid which must have had a pulley set up.

Paul had a blue rope tied to his utility belt. Large branched would be securely tied to the blue rope and at the ground level, a red rope was tied to the blue rope to allow one or two men to use the pulley system to lower the branch to keep it from crashing down at full force. They were a well oiled machine and Paul was always in charge making sure no one was under a branch that might fall. Paul was also always secured to the top knotted rope so he would only fall a few feet and swing rather than fall all the way to the ground. When he came down to climb another tree, he said the trees were swaying at least a foot at the very top. It was a windy day. That is a job I would never have the nerve to do myself.

The most exciting moment came when Paul cut off a large group of branches at the top of the tree all at once. The ground shook when it hit, only a few feet in front of me. After that I decided to pick up my artist stool and move back a few feet. With the largest branches they would do what was called a quarter turn with the red rope which would cause the fallen branch to swing around the main trunk away from Paul. It would then be lowered slowly to the ground by the ground crew.

When all the side branches were down, then the main trunk came down in about 16 foot sections, which fell with brute force shaking the ground each time. They were then cut on the ground into 4 foot sections which were transported to the street. It rained twice, which interrupted the work. It took a day to safely cut down 2 trees. Another smaller tree is slated to be cut down and the large root balls from large fallen trees will eventually be removed with a large crane. A neighbor across the street asked Paul to split the large logs and dump it all on his front lawn. It is a shame this house doesn’t have a fireplace, because nights have been cold this week and it is a shame to waste such a massive source of fuel.

I am excited by the possibilities at the Lake County studio. I’ve learned quite a bit about composing, and the myriad of uses of bamboo for construction. I am going to start making some bamboo path edging soon which should look awesome, while keeping leaves from littering the pathway. While large tree roots were ripped up by the hurricane, Maybe it is just a dream, but it is nice to dip my toe into the infinite possibilities of sustainable homesteading.

Lake County Florida Studio

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In the driveway of the Lake County studio is a pile of sand for sandbags acquired before Hurricane Milton hit. That sand will be used to fill the hols left behind once the root balls are removed from the fallen trees.

There is a property right next to this which is completely wild and undeveloped. As I sketched I felt calm and peaceful. Squirrels ran along the fence and birds were chirping It was a rare moment of absolute peace where I feel like I am part of the landscape. I need to search for such locations more often. The former neighborhood in Orlando where I had a studio that always had airplanes flying into and out of the Orlando airport. Being on the approach to the runway the airplanes roared over head.

Since being here I have slept like a baby every night. The only sound in the morning has come from a few cardinals who tap on the glass because of a mirrored surface.

An artist friend showed me around Lake County. There is a neighborhood behind the post office which has really old cracker style houses that are getting run down. It is a poorer neighborhood, but there are many buildings with plenty of character. I might start hiking out that way for the exercise and to sketch.

Workmen cutting down trees will be in the yard tomorrow, so I suspect I will be sketching men with chainsaws. A new location should bring new inspiration for my daily sketch routine. I still have tons of boxes I still need to unpack but that will happen slowly over the coming weeks.

Fallen

Posted on by Thor

I moved into the Lake County Florida studio. Most everything is still in boxes but My Disney Feature Animation desk is partially set up and running, so I can sit down and write.

This is a sketch done on the side of the property. Hurricane Milton ripped through Lake County and knocked down about 4 trees on this property. Thankfully none of them fell on the house. All of them fell to the south. The winds from the north blew over the lake with no obstructions and then slammed into Lake County. Since I moved in, work had started in cutting the fallen trees. This particular tree was cut into about 5 foot sections and those huge logs were moved to the roadside. It is hoped that they will remove the logs before the job is done. They will be returning to work on the other slightly smaller fallen trees later in the week.

Also visible in this sketch behind the tree is a composting station. This station had 3 stations of hay. Because this big tree was cut back to the roots, there was room to work on the compost pile. The primary composting area had gotten cold and so the compost was no longer breaking down. Also the wood palates that separated the sections had broken down and so it had to be reconstructed. While I broke apart pallets for the wood, A friend worked on rebuilding the bins. The sun set as we were working. I managed to kneel down on a rusty nail. Luckily I knelled down on the head of the nail so I didn’t draw blood. By the time the sun set we had two sections reconstructed.

My friend added new hay to the first bin and dug a hole down to the ground. The hay was compressed out to the outer edged of the bin and then the new hole was filled with food scraps. There were lots of scraps since the refrigerator held food that was purchased before Hurricane Milton hit. A whole chicken was added to the composter. I didn’t realize meat could be composted.

With everything inside. my friend spread hay over the top of what was added. A metal mesh was put on top of the pile and held down with stones so no critters could get inside.  The final touch was a thermometer to see how the compost was heating up inside. After a year, the food scraps should break down and then they will be added to another bin. Hay will then be added to the first bin and the process starts all over again.

Milton Damage

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Hurricane Milton caused some major damage in Florida.

An artist friend of mine, lives north west of Lake Apopka and I have been helping her constructing a large sculpture.

There are many tall pine trees in her back yard and Hurricane Milton knocked over a bunch of them. Luckily none of them hit her house, but one is leaning precariously against a shed and several other fell over taking out fencing.

My friend and I both had work accepted at FusionFest over the Thanksgiving weekend. She volunteered to paint on location during FusionFest. I thought I had a cold after going to the Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival to promote COVID Dystopia. I actually was infected with COVID-19 for the first time when flying back to Orlando on Delta flight 1652. I tested myself the first night back and now know that the first test was a false negative. I proceeded to help with My friiend’s project thinking I just had a cold. I didn’t feel healthy enough to go to Fusion Fest.

Later in the day I sketched this tree which had been uprooted by Milton. The ripped open root ball reminded me of how my insides felt. COVID is an airborne vascular disease that affects the heart, arteries and fuses brain cells killing off grey matter. It effects just about every organ in the body. The “cold” had knocked me on my ass. The sun started to set as I worked on the sketch, so I rushed to finish before it got too cold out. The ripped open root ball reminds me of the unseen damage being done to my inner vascular system.

All That Jazz

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The Free Spring Symphonic and Jazz Concert was held at  Valencia College East Campus (701 N. Econlockhatchee Trail Orlando Florida), in celebration of Jewish culture and diaspora, featuring musical selections Fiddler on the Roof,“Scenes from Terezin, and other celebrated standards. This as a fun and lively concert at a large auditorium venue I have never sketched before.

I need to reignite my spidey senses and start finding such events again. For now I need to get out in the yard and start cleaning up branches after Hurricane Milton blew through Orlando. No major damage just a lot of debris.