Dorian did damage all over the Maritimes, but all that tree waste need not be wasted.

Enter Murray Gallant, a senior from Cape Breton Island who decided to turn a power pole that toppled in his backyard into works of art.

Gallant was working on a carved pig before Hurricane Dorian hit the Maritimes.

"I wanted to make a bigger pig," said Gallant. "I didn't have the wood, and I was wondering where I was going to get it -- and along came Hurricane Dorian."

Dorian toppled a power pole into Gallant's backyard and several others along his street.

While he and his neighbours cleaned up, the 81-year-old saw an opportunity for art.

"When they were replacing them, I said to one of the men 'can I have a piece of that pole?' 'Sure,' he said. They carried it in the yard for me. They didn't ask me what I was going to do with it and I didn't tell them!"

Carving for two or three hours each day, it took about a week in total to make each pig.

Gallant has been whittling away in the peace and solitude of his backyard shed for more than 40 years, creating hundreds upon hundreds of works of art -- many of which he's sold at markets and galleries.

"I could fill this yard with all the work I did over the years," Gallant said.

Of the 'Three Little Pigs', gallant says there is only one that is not for sale: the first pig he made out of the downed Dorian telephone pole.

"They're my 'Hurricane Dorian pigs,' because that's who gave me them," Gallant said.

The affable senior says it was his way of making something positive out of a storm that caused power outages and property damage.

As for the rest of the pole that remains in his backyard?

"There are a lot of pigs in there," Gallant said. "They're just waiting for me to take them out!"

Dorian may have huffed and puffed, and blown these poles down, but just like in the nursery rhyme it's the three little pigs that are left standing in the end.