Lightning Strikes! . . . and Agroforestry

Internet break and a new video

Our farm was struck by lightning on Friday. The bolt hit a tall old Douglas fir tree on a hill, near a large body of water (the Fern Ridge Reservoir)—three risk factors for high-risk lightning strikes. Then it spiraled down the top half of tree #1, causing bark to explode and fly as far as 200 feet away. The flash arced into a large lower limb on the next tree over and ran down a metal fireman’s pole that we set up for our kids’ play. It grounded in two places, making large holes in the soil. The lightning also arced into an ethernet line running under the trees, exploding out both ends of that line—causing a router to literally fly to pieces and other components to burn. From there it went to the dish where internet enters our property, and also into the electrical system, popping several breakers.

Thus, we have no internet on the farm. I’m in town writing this for you. Here’s my easy out: Mitchel Davidovitz recently made this video for Abel Kloster’s agroforestry research and education program. This is a draft video of me talking about our farm. Enjoy!