Under The Weather...

Forced "down time" today is leaving me with a depleted energy level but ample opportunity to skip around and visit blogs that I've been missing. I have no idea what hit me but it was swift and complete. What started off with a raging sore throat and cold-like symptoms quickly escalated into something akin to food poisoning with a case of severe chills thrown in for good measure! All of this occurred in a 24 hour time period and I am happy to find myself greatly improved today, just wrung out. Bummer.

Lots of fun things have been going on around here. Remember that storm that wiped out trees and tore up the woods surrounding our home back in June? Mr. Goodneedle finally got the big  logs separated out from all the debris and hired a man with a portable sawmill to come out last Saturday and cut them up into boards. This is a new twist on making lemonade from the lemons we were dealt. We got approximately 1,600 board feet of oak and cherry; that's a whole LOT of lemonade!

This photo gives some good perspective to the size of the logs to be cut as they lie-in-wait, just outside the garage door.

Hannes, helping.

These two photos, above, capture the set-up and the workings of the sawmill. It was fast and efficient!

Once cut, the boards are stacked where they will remain in our garage while they dry. Our basement smells like a lumber yard; no complaints, I do enjoy the fragrance of fresh-cut wood... good thing!

Speaking of sawmills... I've been watching back-to-back episodes of "The Waltons" on the Hallmark Channel when I'm home in the afternoons sewing or quilting; I was really surprised to learn that on the later episodes John Boy was portrayed by a different actor than Richard Thomas... did you know that? Did you also know that in those same later episodes Olivia's character went to a sanitaruim in Arizona to receive treatment for tuberculosis? Her cousin, Rose (played by Peggy Rea), moved into the farmhouse to help John care for the family. I don't know where I was in the early 1980's when those major TV family changes happened... oh, I suppose I was too busy caring for my own family back then to even notice! 

Our daughter-in-law had a birthday on Sunday; we took her, and the family, to Firehouse Subs for a birthday lunch after church. On the way out to the car Gregory spotted this relic and, of course, asked the normal Gregory questions: "what's that?"..."how works?"... which begs an even greater question: "how many of these are still in existence?" He'll be able to count on one hand the number of these he sees in his lifetime!

Life is Good!

 

Aftermath

We were hit by a fast-moving storm on Thursday afternoon and hit hard! I had just stepped back inside the house after letting Hannes outside when the wind picked up and the power went out. I looked up and saw leaves and limbs flying past the window with a speed and intensity I had never seen or experienced before. I grabbed Hannes and ran to the basement. There was rattling and trembling outside the house follwed by a short period of torrential rain. When I dared to lookside this is what I saw. Thankfully there was no injury or damage to our home. This 100 ft. oak passed within feet of the corner of our home.The driveway cracked beneath the weight of the tree.

This root ball stands ten ft. high.
The following photos show damage and destruction alongside our driveway:

The trees that were snapped and twisted off were done so twenty five feet off the ground.

Another uprooted Oak.

My husband's car could only pull in the driveway a short distance,
the driveway closer to our home was completely impassable.

The clean up begins. Our son and his chain saw arrived and helped too; we couldn't have done this without him. We worked late into Thursday night, not calling it quits until some headlight-aided raking was done.

It was all very scary, but nothing compares to the fear and worry associated with my husband being on his way home during the storm. I didn't know where he was or how bad the conditions were on the roads where he was. I later learned  that he had to cut his way home through downed trees with a borrowed saw; the road that leads into our neighborhood looks like a war zone.  I can't remember ever being happier or more relieved to see his car pull in (or as close as he could get) to the driveway. Through all of this we remain thankful to God for our many blessings and to family, friends and neighbors for their help and concern. We've got our work cut out for us, literally, for weeks to come.
Life is Good!