The wind, and its effects

AFTER: The shorn tree, newly staked

BEFORE: the blown-over tree (note lack of big roots)

We had a big windstorm the other night, and as we were driving home from the store that evening, we saw that one of our trees had blown over! It was very interesting how it just peeled right off of the ground, taking two bushes with it. The roots weren't very deep. The next day Sam cut off a bunch of branches with the chainsaw, and suddenly the tree just bobbed back up again--so we staked it and tied it with a rope. I don't know how well it will work, but we'll try it.

Abe and Seb were both quite interested in what happened, and in looking at the fallen tree. The past few nights, however, Abe keeps getting out of bed to say, "What if our other trees blow over? They have strong roots, though, right?" "There isn't a strong wind tonight, is there?" "What if the purple tree falls in the strong wind?" etc. We try to reassure him, but I can tell he's still thinking about it quite a lot.

This morning he told me the following story about Honey (his bear): "Honey lives in his own house, and he has a lot of trees. And he heard some thunder, but there wasn't any lightning. Honey's lightning doesn't want to hit tall things, it just wants to stay in the clouds. If it comes out, then it just goes back in again. And Honey's trees are all tied with rope, so they don't ever fall over."