The strange thing is, my neighbor was out working in his yard yesterday, and said there was no lightning. He thought I was burning out back and paid no attention to the smoke. Later, I showed him the lightning stuck tree. We were both puzzled. The only logical explanation is that the strike must have occured days earlier when we had some thunderstorms and had just smoldered underground for some time before catching the trees and brush on fire. I had to put a lot of water at the base of the tree as smoke continued to rise out of the ground around the tree. Strange, indeed. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />
Cleaned up the mess today with a little help from Dog Father on the limbs.