Cows got a fright

[regolith]

Last night at milking I'd just let the first row of cows go and closed the gate when I thought I heard a rumble, and the cows spooked.
Listening, trying to make out what it was but I realised I'd never know because all the rumble I could hear now was the thudding of hooves as the first row sprinted away from the shed and the rest of the herd turned to the gate at the back of the yard. There was no truck, tho even if the driver had pulled faces at them and yelled 'boo' I don't think he could have got that sort of reaction. The herd calmed down after a few minutes. I figured we'd either had an earthquake or I'd imagined that first rumble.

Daylight. There's a massive pine tree uprooted just about forty metres from the shed, in the paddock where the bulls and a few cows were. I counted them, they're all there safe and well - the canopy of that tree is so thick there could have been half a dozen underneath and you'd never see them. It's lifted the fence up on its rootball but is acting as a fence anyway.
No wind and the tree was alive. I don't know why it fell.

 

[bigbull338]

there doest have tobe a cause for the tree to fall.things like that happen sometimes.

 

[Gale Seddon]

Regolith, I read that there WAS indeed an earthquake in NZ, but it was more recent than your post:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/03 ... -zealands/

Hope all is well where you are!

 

[regolith]

That would have given the Wellingtonians a fright. They've been waiting for the 'big one' for years.

22 hours after. The tree fell about 9:30 or a bit after that, Friday night. There's no other damage, and didn't feel the Saturday night one so it wouldn't have got this far.
Earthquakes are common here, probably get a noticable tremor every few months.
I'm still awed by how huge that tree is. I figure 15 - 20 metres, they don't seem that big when the canopy is up in the air.

 

[regolith]

Hmm, presuming the post dates are correct it was Thursday night, not Friday night... I've gone and lost a day somewhere again.

 

[Gale Seddon]

Well, whatever day it was, you are okay and that's what matters! I don't remember if you're ahead of us or behind us (ahead, I think, right?). We had a 5.8 here August 23, shook things up quite noticeably...and OMG, the noise, thunder in the ground, terrifying.

 

[Nesikep]

I was once falling a dead pine tree (100' tall) and one of my cows was curious about it, but as soon as that tree started to move at all she took off like hell, she knew that trees shouldn't move like that... another time, there was a dead pine that was HUGE (24" bar on the chainsaw couldn't cut through it 30' above the stump), and the cows loved to be under a bush that was close to it (but the tree was on the other side of the fence), one night it broke off 30' above the base, I was lucky no cows were under that bush since it came down right there, and the branches that were a foot around speared right into the frozen ground. They must hear the cracking in the tree before we do