We had an adventurous weekend, to say the least. Poor CS has been working the entire weekend, so it's pretty much been my adventure, I have to say. From Friday night until tonight (if he gets off on time), he will have worked 48 hours. That's just in 3 days! By the time this LONG week is over for him on Wednesday, he will have worked 76 hours, if he gets off on time the next 3 nights. I doubt that.
ANYWAY, back to the trees. After a nice Friday evening - a Scavenger Hunt Sunday School party, we headed home. It was a late night for the girls, and CS headed to work around 11:30. I read late, enjoying some alone time, and finally fell asleep. Then, I was shuddered out of bed at 1:19 a.m. I say shuddered because the entire house vibrated and, of course, a loud "thud" accompanied it. Little Bit immediately began screaming and I ran for her (the other girls never woke up!). I knew exactly what had happened...my beloved pear tree. Yes, you guessed correctly. It is on our house. Well, another 1/3 of the 20-25 year old tree. Remember the previous post about the first third of the tree falling in our driveway? So, Little Bit and I go out the garage since the front door is blocked and we check it all out. Luckily, the heaviest part of the trunk didn't hit full force on the roof. The gutter took some of the hit and then it was mostly the branches up on the shingles. I called CS and we concluded that there was nothing to do until he could get home.
I take Little Bit back to bed and I finally fall back asleep nearly 2 hours later. The phone rings at 6:30 a.m. - the neighbors checking on us and our tree situation. I get on up (talk about weary!) and we all congregate outside after 7:00 when CS arrives home from the shelter. All we have are handsaws, so we begin sawing. We know if we don't get it off the roof before the rain begins, then much more damage could happen under the weight of the drenched tree/leaves. Here are a couple of pictures:
Mid-morning, the girls and I head to a birthday party as the wind and rain begins. Yes...a birthday party. When it is at Build-a-Bear, there is nothing I can say to my kids to deter them from going. A hurricane? So? It's Build-a-Bear! I had the car packed up to head straight to my mom's house and we make it there with little difficulty, although the wind and rain were pretty intense at this point.
We get there and get ready to eat lunch with my mom, brother, and nephew. My brother looks out the front window and says, "Oh, no!" Well, you can probably guess...a tree. Yep, her HUGE oak tree has uprooted, taking part of the garden with it. It doesn't fall all the way down; it hits another big oak and gets caught. The lights flicker and then go out (not to come on for 2 days). If you check out the picture of my mom's house in the previous post, it is the large tree on the left hand side of the picture. The one on the right hand side of the picture is a pine tree that died over the summer. So, no, we couldn't lose the dead tree in the hurricane. We had to lose another tree. And, if the weight of it on the second oak causes that tree to fall, then her poor front yard will be nearly treeless. She has large limbs twisted in trees and down all over her yard. We will have lots of cleanup to do in the coming weeks. And, she will have to get her garden fixed.
So, we had to stay put at my mom's in the dark all of Saturday and part of Sunday morning. We finally decided to all head to my house to cool off and have electricity (my house never lost power!). Let me back up to say that on Saturday afternoon, my neighbor called to let me know that the rest of my pear tree fell into the road. They and the boys across the street were SO nice to cut it up and get it out of the road. What neighbors!
CS and I talked back and forth, trying to devise a plan to get the poor pear tree cleaned up and hauled off our lawn. Mid afternoon, the doorbell rings and a nice man is standing there...his truck and trailer in the background. He asked if I wanted him to clean up the tree...get this...for $50! Wow! I would pay more in landfill fees if we had tried to cleaned it up on our own! After 2 hours, he had it all cut up, loaded, and even raked up the leaves in two nice piles! We did pay him more, as he certainly deserved it. What a load off our shoulders this week, especially when CS isn't even home to help! This nice man needs to head over to my mom's town and house! Here's the final picture:
The girls, first thing, ran outside to count the rings on the stump. They have read about it and have never had a chance to do it before this weekend. Glad I could oblige them with my poor tree! LOL! I guess now I have to decide on and locate the new tree to plant. I have a guy to grind up the stump and another who can plant it. So, it is awaiting my decision. I'm thinking a maple, but we will see!
Cindy and crew
1 comment:
Hey Cindy,
I posted a picture of one of your bows on my blog! :) Let me know what you think.
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