Brother Wind has spoken

Hello everyone here’s a rather quick update and check-in.  Thank you all for the well wishes and good vibes it really is a lovely community here in blogovannia.  Listening to the wind was the high point of the storm.  Watching the first tree succumb was fascinating and horrible at once.  A large pine tree of about 85 feet tall was blowing wildly in the wind.  We were perched in the opening of the french doors in my bedroom when suddenly the tree began to lean.  I was shocked that it literally laid down and for a split second I was not sure what I was seeing.  Then the tree began to rise and when it hit about 40 degrees it snapped in two about 15 feet in the air with a sickening smack.  It all happened so quickly.  I’ve never seen such a thing in my life.  I’ve seen trees yanked out by the roots, cleaved in two, or just burst apart but I have never seen one bend to the earth so gracefully then rebound with such grotesque fury.  In total we lost 7 or 8 big trees, mostly pines with one each ash and maple.

Our power was restored about two hours ago.  Phone lines will probably be repaired by Wednesday.

Boy Howdy are we ever glad we parked the cars in the field next door!  A large pine tree was the second tree to fall and don’t you know, right in the driveway, yanking out the electric and phone service lines, which had already gone dark.

No damage to the people or animals here.  Nor to the house/cars/barn/fencing, a very good start.  We managed to keep the barn freezer well below zero with the pre-frozen ice buckets and a couple pounds of dry ice which is a wonderful thing, since we have a lot of meat in there.  A great many people in our area were much less fortunate and the city is a mess still.

It’s wonderfully satisfying to have weathered the storm.  Having the ability to stay on the farm and being self sufficient even without being connected to the power lines is really worthwhile.  We never did ‘without’ anything more than electric light and computer and aside from hauling A LOT of trees/limbs/wood things at home were pretty regular.  A friend stopped by today and said they had been staying in a hotel!!  I wish I had known we surely could have made space for them.  Even the cell phones did not work here for the first two days.

Thanks again to you all for the kind and thoughtful comments.  I hope those of you who had a visit from Sandy are all well and getting things back on track too.

*anna