This years storm was like no other I have seen. It truly sounded like the was a freight train ran right over our house. J was at school when the storm hit and I was at home with the kids. Though tornados are rare in Virginia, they are not unheard of so I gathered the kids and the animals and put them in the basement. Aiden was awesome with his sisters making sure they stayed in my office chair and even getting them each a toy to play with, while I ran up and down the stairs to assess the severity of the storm.
We lost a big limb out of the Poplar tree right beside the car port. It would have made the perfect base for a tree house, however I lost the vote for that one and it was decided that it needed to go.
Aiden and I got to have some fun climbing on it before J and Dan and I cleaned up the mess. Aiden even got to have some kids over to play while the grown-ups worked. Aiden, Alyssa and Alexis had lots of fun playing in the water hoses and sprinkler. Even after a day of hacking away at the branch there was still a big chunk left in the yard.
The neighbor that hays the field came by with a tractor and tossed what was left to the side so they could hay and we could mow. Thank goodness for great country neighbors or we would still be working on that monster.
We lost power early on in the storm when the Maple tree split and jerked the power line out of the pole. The phone line and internet line survived the storm, but with no power to the main pole either we were out of internet for this storm too.
The power was down for 5 days, but I called them and bugged them enough that they made sure I was the last stop that last day before they went home. Luckily our neighbors got their power back the next day too.
The cats were intrigued by the tree being on the ground, instead of it standing up like it was supposed to. Tiger Butt and Bastian did lots of talking as they walked through the tangle of limbs around them.
The part of the maple tree that fell was just long enough to squash my whole garden, so once we figured out the power line in the yard was not a live wire, we went to town cleaning up the debris that had fallen.
I used branches from the tree as I cut up the branches I used what I could to make stakes, and stand my tomato plants and basil back up again. I was devastated that the tomatoes we had raised from seed had met uncertain demise, but I was determined I would at least give them a shot at recovery.
Just two weeks later my garden has bounced back and I even found 3 small tomatoes while I was adding more stakes and ties. I can't believe how well my plants took off, but I am relieved that I still have a chance of getting some home grown tomatoes this year. ((Now to figure out how to keep the bugs and deer from getting to them))
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