ICE STORM DAMAGE, CLEAN UP, AND MOMENTS

We had a little bit of freezing rain on Thursday, February 11th, then got hit with a whole bunch more in an ice storm on Friday night, one week ago today. I stayed awake the whole night listening to trees splitting and branches crashing in our yard and all over our neighborhood. It was crazy! 

First, let's look at the damage. 

In the early hours of the storm when the first layer of shattered ice on the road lit up by the street light looked kinda pretty.

A big branch came down and blocked the road, so Silas and Devon headed out to move it. Two neighbors were in their yard and ran over to help. Then two guys who pulled up to our corner at that moment hopped out of their truck and joined in. This whole week has been filled with community members helping each other out and it's awesome.

Heavy equipment was rolling down our street through the storm, clearing branches and trees so vehicles could get through.

Here's a broad view of the front and side of our corner lot. 

Saturday morning from our driveway. The longest branch we found was 23 feet from tip to tip, but more like 24-25 if you measured along its curve (which we didn't bother to do).

Saturday morning from the sidewalk.

Saturday morning from the road in front of our home.

Saturday morning from the corner of our yard. The next picture is closer and a different angle of the branch on the fence.

Our new fence is now broken in. This is one of three branches that hit our living room and Naomi's room. You can also see the branch that hit the truck in the background. They finally got it cleared, then another huge one crashed on the cab after the gal got in to drive it away. She and I pulled that one into our yard and she drive to a safer spot. Minimal damage to her truck and none to Silas' car, which also had a branch land on it. So thankful!

Saturday morning from the street on the left side of our home.

Saturday morning from the right side of our home.

Saturday morning from the other side of the fence in the previous picture.

Saturday morning from the right side of our back yard. This is the tree you see behind the gate two pictures before this one.

Saturday morning from the back yard.

I think the rim of icicles around the trampoline looks cool!

Saturday morning from the back yard. Tim had to cut split branches from this tree.

Saturday morning from the left side of our back yard.

Saturday morning from the left side of our back yard. This huge branch is one of two that hit our bedroom. Part of the other can be seen at the top of the picture.

Back yard view of the four huge trees on the front and side of our home (and a photo bomb by a back yard tree on the left). They all snapped at the top, as seen in the following pictures. We'll have to bring the pros out to figure out if they'll stay strong or be susceptible to disease now that they basically have huge open wounds. If any of them fell in any direction, it would be disastrous. We'd want to remove them before that happened.

Back side tree. 

Middle side tree.

Front side tree. 

Front tree. I'll be really disappointed if this one has to come down because it provides a tremendous amount of shade for our front yard and home during hot summer afternoons. It has the least amount of damage, so we'll see what the pros say.

The next two pictures were taken after we cleaned up a bit, but they fit in with all the other damage pictures. The fence on the front left of our home took a beating.

The fence on the left only lost two boards and the tip of a third. Amazing, as this fence parallels a row of huge trees that dropped branches all night long on Friday and sporadically through Saturday.

Five huge branches hit our roof and the only damage was this punctured eave. So very thankful!

Next, lots of cleanup. 

The storm only lasted through Friday night, but ice-laden branches fell all throughout Saturday. They're super heavy and dangerous, so other than snapping the pictures above, we opted to stay inside. Sunday finally warmed up a little bit, so there was quite a bit of ice dropping from branches as it melted. We finally got to head out Monday morning to start cleaning up. We spent several hours on Monday and Tuesday turning a disaster zone into an organized disaster zone - cutting and stacking firewood, then making big piles of debris. 

Front yard firewood. 

More front yard firewood.

Front yard debris. This pile wrapped completely around the tree. 

Corner debris.

Side yard firewood.

Road side debris.

More road side debris. It's hard to tell in the picture, but these piles extend beyond the tree to the end of the fence line.

Back yard firewood. And, yes, this was posted earlier with all the damage pictures. It counts for both, so I'm putting it in both sections. 

Back yard debris.

More back yard firewood. 

More back yard debris.

And more back yard firewood.

And more back yard debris.

Even more back yard debris.

Tim cut broken branches off this tree as we cleaned up. We'll eventually have to decide whether to cut the other branches to even things out or take the whole tree down.

Some friends dropped off their burn barrel for us to borrow. So kind of them! We spent about 30 hours over four days constantly feeding it with debris. 

Finally, the moments. The context of most of these photos is that we were without power for almost exactly five days. 

Why use a regular flashlight to read in the dark if you can make one with Snap Circuits?

No power, no problem. Tim and Naomi cooked dinner outside two of our powerless nights.

Teaching math in the dark.

Ally, who's one of our nieces, needed a place to stay for a night. Our home may have been dark, but it was warm, so we got to see her for a quick visit.

A friend asked me to check on her in-laws, which turned into the in-laws spending about ten hours with us on Sunday because their home was 44 degrees and ours was warm. We visited, read, potlucked lunch and dinner, and played Uno to pass the time. They left some things at our house when they went home to sleep, but their power came on late that night and they walked back the following day to pick stuff up as we were starting to clean. We had friends, who just happened to drive by to check out our storm damage at the same time, snap a picture of Tim and I with Rich and Trudy, our power outage partners, before everyone went on their way and we got back to work.

Monday's teamwork involved Tyler and Naomi making lunch for everyone. 

Devon sawing a bunch of branches.

Tim using a chainsaw to cut limbs into firewood.

And me filling our yard debris bin (so I could jump in it, of course), stacking firewood, and making piles of debris.

Tuesday's teamwork involved Naomi stacking firewood and helping Tim deal with the branches that fell from our tree into the neighbor's yard.

Tim cutting more firewood and cutting broken limbs off one of our trees.

Devon hauling lots of big branches to be cut or piled and helping to deal with the debris that landed in our neighbor's yard.

Tyler cutting a bunch of branches and piling lots of debris.

Me stacking tons of firewood and piling even more debris. 

And Devon, the one who likes to climb, and Tim the one with the chainsaw, teaming up to remove broken branches from a tree.

Evidently Tyler enjoys jumping on branches as much as I do. 

That evening we headed over to our power outage partners' home to take hot showers, run some laundry, and potluck another meal together. Tyler and Trudy played cribbage. 

That's our laundry, but it's not our couch. So thankful for people to share resources with during the aftermath of the storm!

Tyler and Rich also played cribbage.

Wednesday night, about an hour short of five full days, our power came back on. 

The start of our second burn day. 

And the end of our second burn day. It was just a little muddy!

Being without power for five days was a bummer, but many were without for much longer. Having our week consumed with hours and hours and hours of dealing with the storm mess was inconvenient, but others had significant damage to their homes and can't live in them. We were always safe and warm, which I don't take for granted. And we have some firewood for next winter.

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for wind chimes. What's one thing that you're thankful for?

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for two friends who are using their family's medical lives to educate their Facebook friends this month. One has a son in his early twenties with Marfan syndrome and is taking advantage of Marfan Awareness Month to explain various aspects of the condition. Another has a seven year old daughter with a feeding tube and this year her daughter's dictating their posts for Feeding Tube Awareness Week. I appreciate their willingness to share information, include pictures of real life with these medical situations, and answer questions from people who want to learn more about circumstances they have no personal experience with. What's something you're thankful for?

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for crocuses in bloom. What's one thing you're thankful for?

MISCELLANEOUS JANUARY PICTURES

All the pictures from January that didn't end up in any blog posts, but that I want to remember.

1/5 - I was a mess, in tears on my bedroom floor, when Tyler walked in. He said nothing, sat down, and put his arm around me. He's always been the most snuggly W and apparently his physical affection is exactly what I needed. I calmed down, we snapped a picture so I'd remember his kindness, and we moved on with the day.

1/8 - We've never been to Hawaii, but have some relatives who live there and sent us this beautiful calendar of Hawaiian flowers. 

1/21 - Tyler recently bought some earbuds with a gift card he got at Christmas and thinks it's really awesome to listen to music with them when he cleans the kitchen. He tries really hard to act like it's no big deal, but starts laughing every time we say something about how cool it is. 

The littlest W got the two oldest ones all to himself for the evening. 

1/22 - Tyler cashed in some tokens he'd earned at Senestraro Family Orthodontics to get a new LEGO set. 

1/23 - Just a couple friends returning from some time in the snow. 

Photo credit: Desi

1/25 - Naomi and Tyler were making hot chocolate when the mug Naomi was pouring boiling water into exploded, turning Tyler into Blister Boy. It was obviously painful, but I'm so glad he wasn't burned worse than he was. 

1/29 - We've had a mandatory nap or down time, depending on the kids' ages, every days since we became parents. Then 2020 happened and our consistent routine fell apart at the seams. We're making an effort to get back on track now, so Naomi and Tyler spent time playing with some activity books while listening to the Invisibility vs. Flying debate on Smash Bang Best. 

Fifteen boxes of failure. Years and years of science experiments we never did. The good news is that I'm not alone in my slacking in that area of homeschooling and my kids can still become fully functioning, contributing members of society. The other good news is I'm condensing and purging this stash down to only what we'll use soon. 

1/30 - I had about three weeks away from Facebook, then came back two days early in a strategic move to allow myself the freedom to spend more time than usual on my first day back, but also maintain some new boundaries I set for myself moving forward. I snapped this picture for my first post so people would know my awkward braces smile was back in the mix. 

Naomi had some gift cards to use and asked if I'd take her shopping, so we spent a couple hours having girl time. It was fun!

 

BOOKS I FINISHED - JANUARY 2021

*****

Our Story Begins: Your Favorite Authors and Illustrators Share Fun, Inspiring, and Occasionally Ridiculous Things They Wrote and Drew as Kids, edited by Elissa Brent Weissman

This book highlights twenty-six authors and illustrators, allowing them to talk about and show examples from the early days of their writing or artwork. Arranged in the order of the person's age at the time of the work they're sharing, it also includes photos of them at that age. A fun glimpse into the history of authors and illustrators you may or may not be familiar with, but also a great resource for finding new books to read.

*****

Until We Meet Again: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Holocaust, written by Michael Korenblit and Kathleen Janger

Along with Janger, Korenblit tells about his parents' experience of living through the Holocaust. Still teenagers living with their families when their world turned upside-down, the young Jewish couple lived through years of unfathomable circumstances, multiple significant losses, and a long-term separation where, in addition to never knowing if each day would be their last, they also had no idea if the other was still alive. As with so many Holocaust stories, theirs is one of tragedy and horror, but also of hope and perseverance. 

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