Littered

January, so far, has been very wet and warm. The weather people are saying that this could very well be the warmest January since 1900. Rainfall and snowfall records have been broken all over the country, and right now many regions in France are dealing with flooding rivers, including Paris. I've measured 93mm of rain for the month to date, and that doesn't include the rain we're getting today. That's almost twice the normal monthly rainfall for us and the most I've measured for any January since I started keeping track in 2005.

I won't need a chainsaw to gather up these branches. They'll be good kindling for next year's fires.

We have certainly noticed the warm temperatures. After a month of wind and rain, our property is littered with fallen branches. None of them are very big, but they're pretty much everywhere. I guess it's nature's way of pruning the trees. When (if?) it dries out, I'll be out there gathering them all up and stacking them for kindling.

I'm worried about our largest apple tree. It has been losing big sections of branches over the years. When I say big, I mean that I needed a chainsaw to cut them up and move them. A huge crack in the main trunk has been getting bigger as well. I'm afraid that one day half the tree will come down. I'm surprised it didn't happen this month with all the wind we had, but it held on one more time.