Rain Dance

My poor garden has taken a major beating this year.  The storm on July 11 left all of my tomato cages and every vegetable bent to the ground.  After doing a ton of staking, they seemed to do well.  Then this week's weather rolled around and it seemed like it was being baked under a boiling hot sun.  No matter how much I watered, it just didn't seem to be enough.  I knew it needed the kind of soaking only Mother Nature could provide and thankfully, she was happy enough to oblige.  She even let me finish my weeding before she sent the rain this afternoon. 

Right after it started to rain, the boys decided to do a Rain Dance in the drive.  It isn't often that it is 90 out and you can play in the rain!

Owen doing a combo run-skip-walk down the drive. 

Gav under the run off from the roof.

While blurry, I like this pic. 

Owen!

It has rained for about 60 minutes so far and is still coming down. I know my plants are happier. I know I am. I'm tired of dragging a garden hose around the yard!

Clean up

Well, after a total of just over 90 hours of clean up by ten people, our yard is looking much better.

Even the smallest Stine helped. Gavin hauled logs to the drive.

They needed to rest and have a photo opp on the massive limb that came down.

The gaping hole from where the branch was is big enough, but it also tore a ton of bark off the side of the tree.  We are concerned because of the two massive branches that remain, one is over our light and drive and the other is over our kitchen.  While we don't want to remove the tree, we will if that's what Mr. Tree Man says we should do and insurance will cover it.  (Hopefully, he calls today.) 

What continued to surprise me, as the hours of clean up seemed drag on, was the generosity of our neighbors, friends, and family.  We are truly blessed!   

• Immediately after the storm, a neighbor a few houses down came to make sure I was okay since she knew I am home with the boys in the summer. 
• The man across the street helped David clear the drive so I could get the van out if need be. 
• My father in law's neighbor loaned us a brand new chainsaw from his shop when ours wouldn't start right away. 
• Our friends Aaron and Kathleen (pregnant even!) helped with clean up both nights.  We'd still be working if it wasn't for them.
• My mother in law dropped by with beer and ended up staying to help load brush.
• David's cousin rode by on his bike and stopped to help.  He came back later with a second chainsaw for us to use.
• My brother David loaned us an extra tools, including a massive chipper that was put to good use.  He also loaned us his generator since we had no power. 
• My nieces and Mom all helped by either watching the boys or running errands for us. 
• After the limb came down, we were able to cut it all up and a friend's uncle took ALL of the wood away.  He filled the back of his truck and a huge trailer with it.  That was a huge relief because we couldn't figure out what we were going to do with it- especially since the tree may still have to come down. 
• The mom of one of my high school friends offered to let us sleep and shower at our house if we didn't have our power on.
• The dad of one of my students came over and asked if we needed a generator "because we can't have our son's favorite teacher without power."

7.11.11 Storm

(Please excuse any typos. I've had three hours of sleep.)


Yesterday did NOT go as planned.  The original plan was to start painting Owen's bedroom Patina Blue by Velspar.  I dropped the boys off at Pinewood for Parks & Rec at 10:00 knowing it was going to rain, but figured they could run around and play in the gym so I could get some work done.  I was home and cleaning the last things out of his room by 10:20.  I had opened his blinds to have more light and noticed it was getting darker quickly.  The next thing I knew, our umbrella from our table on the deck flew straight up in the air Mary Poppins' style and plummeted into our pool.  I watched our apple tree to the left of the deck snap in the wind as if it had just been flicked over.

Our poor apple tree was just starting to produce apples this year.

That's when Mom Instinct kicked in and I decided to go get the boys.  I ran through the house and grabbed the keys from the key holder and was just stepping into the garage when the tree to the left of our house fell across the drive as I watched.  Almost as soon as it hit the ground, the power went out.  To say I was freaking out at this point is an understatement.  I wanted to be able to hold my babies in my arms and there was nothing I could do.    

Owen's climbing tree that fell across our driveway and just missed the garage.

I ran to our front room and got to see a massive limb fall off the tree in front of our house.  I was sobbing like a baby at this point and am pretty sure I looked like a nutcase.  That's when the sirens started going off.  Thankfully, our animals follow me around all the time and I was able to scoop the cat up and shove her in her pet carrier and grab the dog with my other hand and run to the basement.  When I got there, I discovered I had no flashlight and sprinted back up to grab one (note to self: buy another flashlight for basement).  For some odd reason, it was in Owen's room and I looked up just as the transformer on the pole in our backyard blew with sparks and all.  I ran back downstairs, then sat in the basement waiting for my cell phone to pick up signal while the sirens blared.  It felt like I was trapped in a really bad movie. 

David standing next to the branch off the front tree. 

When the sirens finally stopped, I called David's cell phone and had to leave a hysterical message.  His work phones were down and I couldn't reach him.  More than anything I wanted someone to get my boys and bring them to me.  I managed to reach my niece Jess and she agreed to go get them when the storm officially blew over.  I finally reached David on the phone and told him he needed to come home.  I don't think he believed me about the amount of damage.  He also said he'd pick up the boys.  It was still raining, but the wind had stopped, so I ran out to get the umbrella out of the pool.  I wasn't putting the liner we replaced last summer in jeopardy!  I was soaked instantly. 

After that, I changed my shirt and I knew I needed to call AEP.  I went across the street to my neighbor's because they never lose power.  They are city and we're county, go figure.  In the time I sat on hold, David was able to drive across town and pick up the boys.  The look on his face gave away that he thought I was exaggerating when he pulled in the drive.  Between the two of us and a neighbor, we managed to quickly clear part of the drive so I could get the van in and out. 

We are so lucky the limb on the back of the tree didn't come down.  Our kitchen would be smashed.

 This was a limb from the neighbor's tree.  Somehow it missed their roof and the power line directly under it and ended up in our yard.  Our garage screens and siding got beat up.  The good thing was this is also where we park our trailer and it wasn't at our house at the time.  It would have been buried. 

Funny enough, this is a limb they wanted to have removed. 

All in all, we lost two trees, a gigantic limb from a tree in back, and the massive one off our front tree.  I thought our damage was bad, and then I drove around our neighborhood.  The next post will include clean up pictures and some shots from around our neighborhood.