Tornado's and Chain Saw's Oh My

This photo is part II of the tree that fell on our house a week or so ago. Hubby here taking a wee break after cutting down the 2nd half of the tree that fell. (if you missed it it's in the previous post Here).

The following day the electric company started on trees all around us so we've heard lots of chain saw lately. In fact as we speak, I'm hearing about 3 of them. This is the 4th day they've worked on one large tree in the corner of our neighbors lots, which is more in our yard then there's. Doesn't look like they'll get it done even today. sigh

Over the weekend my SIL's and I spent some girl time at Lake Erie. We had a wonderful time consuming Pinot Grigio, laughing, and eating.....Then the Tornado's in Northern Ohio put a damper on our activities. Sadly, there were 7 deaths in the Tornado's around us. Thankfully, we did ok. My condolences for those who's families were torn apart from the loss of property and loved ones. Keep them in your hearts.

I've started a new scarf, in an effort to teach Julie how to knit; and have tried to photograph it for you all.........but, my camera doesn't seem to realize I have good batteries. I'm charging them again with fingers crossed that something isn't wrong with my camera. Most of you know, it's not very old.

TREES, storms, and what's keeping from blogging!

Step 1 of many. Working in the yard, weeding when I heard a crack ....I was standing right beside this tree; well about 3 feet from it. Dropped what I had in hand and ran the opposite direction. Yes...this old broad can still run; though in truth faster then I knew. lol
A 5 minute strong wind and pouf the tree was down on top of the house. Called hubby pronto. He arrived from work and we began pulling, and sawing, our way to the house to check for damage. We truly were lucky. Thank You, only the gutter appeared to be damaged. The next night we began cutting all this up, rented chain saw and trailer and also cut down the 2nd half of the tree which you see on the left at a angle. We didn't want it to fall and possibly hurt the cute little guy next door when he was swinging or something. So 3 days later, 4 trips to the dump later. This mess was cleaned up.

Then, the 2nd storm hit and we lost a major limb in the front yard. A even bigger tree slated by the electric company for removal started the next day of messes. The crew came and began the work. Pulled large limbs from our back yard through to the front ....I didn't even bother to take a picture of the mess I was so disgusted. Where things hit in the back yard we have holes, deep ones. They weren't careful, and left lots of stuff piled on top of our landscaping. Some items are totally flattened. They didn't even clean up after their day of work. We expected them back the next day to finish the job, as the tree still isn't totally down. They didn't show. Meanwhile day 2 and our grass is now all matted. The important thing here is this is NOT our tree they're working on; but our neighbors across the back. This is the same tree we spent 2 days last year working on when a big junk fell in our yard because the electric company wouldn't do anything at our say so...not our tree. The neighbors informed us it was our problem since it was in our yard...even though it's their responsibility to take care of their trees. Two large work trucks have our street blocked, hubby can't even use our drive. The neighbors who's tree this is have no mess, they have a large circle drive where the equipment could have been pulled up pretty close to the tree, saving them time and energy. Go figure.

So, the next night hubby and I moved all the junk we could lift from our yard and put it by the tree in the neighbors yard. Hubby called, and called, and called. FINALLY, got someone to answer so he could register a complaint. We were told they would be here today. Writing this now at 3, and they've just shown up. However, the equipment is still on my street...and not on the neighbors street which means they'll still be tromping through my yard. Why, I really don't know. Thought after we called maybe it would change?

Spent another day in Urbana checking on my aunt with my Dad, and managed to get some cleaning and laundry done today. Between that and my work schedule....I've not been here as much. Knowing my time is becoming more limited I deleted the EntreCard widget from this blog. Sorry folks for the ads that were canceled, hope some of you will continue to visit as I will still visiting you all from my Travel blog dropping etc.

Have worked a bit re-designing my SIL's blog. Please take a look. I'm pretty happy with her Animal Talk Blog but think more work is needed on her Ignite to Write. Though it's coming along.

I hope things calm down soon so I can get back to regular blogging. It's Friday, definitely TGIF for me. Hope you all have a good wk-end lined up.

Maybe hubby and I are becoming to good at this tree business?

Spring has Sprung, FINALLY!!

Nothing prettier than a tree blossoming in early Spring. I love all the pinks, whites, and purples. Better yet, I love the smell in the early evening. Truly heavenly. Spring has finally come to central and southern Ohio. Spotted this breathtaking tree on a recent jaunt to Chillicothe and had to get a quick photo. Hubby was stopped at a stop sign and I quick took this out the car window. Hope you're all having a pretty spring. We still have cold temps, particularly at night and frost; but oh the colors and smells. Take it all in folks, it won't last.

Have finished 2 scarves for The Bridge, and am working on a blanket for The Midwest OddBalls Groups. The name of the blanket is Besty Ross. Cute name, and I bet you can guess what the colors are. I'm the 2nd person on this blanket and will get a photo when my piece is done.

Don't be Afraid of the Dark

Don't be afraid of the dark, we weren't when we participated in Earth Hour; but it appeared ALL of my neighbors were. How disappointing. Spot lights on when they let their dogs out, dogs don't need spot lights to see. In fact they probably see better without a bright light blaring at them. And who wants to be light up with a spot light during a private moment? Not me. Anyway, back to the point. Earth Hour came and went. I was sad to see lights on in almost every room of every house around us. Lights on in and out of the house, far too many lights on for people to be in everyroom really in need of the light. Here in lies the problem. People are wasteful. I know people weren't in everyroom, I know how few people live in some of these houses and I know how many lights I saw on.

It took some doing; but we were 100% off the grid. Seriously, we went room to room and unplugged everything we could find. Hubby checked the meter and it still showed we were pulling some juice. We retrace our steps room to room and found the clock on the microwave was still on. It's apparently wired separately, as is the censor for the garage door. We pulled the circuit breaker to get those off, rechecked the meter and bingo! We were now completely off the grid. We were pulling no juice. We remained outside enjoying our wine by our fire pit long past the mere 60 minutes of the "official Earth Hour". I doubt we made up for all those around us; but we gave it our best effort. It was a learning situation for us, who knew some of those censors stayed on when you clicked the lights off at night at the switch? We didn't. So it was a good exercise for us; caused us to be more aware. Much like when I ware a pedometer to see how many steps I walk, it causes you to be more aware.

I spent some time yesterday at Staples learning about special breakers that can sense when something isn't in use and shut off electric to it. I plan to check further into this and will keep you posted what I learn.

Why should we all practice some of the lessons from Earth Hour? The above Tree came to mind. The World is Beautiful, we must protect it. The pretty tree is one such example. I'll close here with my favorite poem of all time.

TREES

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

This poem was written by World War I Veteran Alfred Joyce Kilmer who died in France serving his country. He received a Purple Heart. Alfred was born in New Jersey and has a rest area there named for him; as well as schools, and a street or two. You may better know him as Joyce Kilmer; did you think Joyce was female? A common mistake.

So today I'm sharing with you my love of trees and nature through a favorite poem, and asking you to be gentle on this Earth. Take care of it.
REDUCE...REUSE...and RECYCLE

Damage from Ike

So many people had damage from Ike, we had quite a bit in Ohio. We were losing a limb about every 15 minutes during the 75 mph winds that hit central Ohio on Sunday. We were one of the 500,000 people without electric. Schools, post offices, and many businesses including grocery stores were closed due to no electric. Ice was hard to come by. This is my front and back showing some of the downed limbs and parts of trees. We got our electric back Tuesday night about 9, my folks got there's back the following day, Wed. at about the same time. There are still folks who are without, and still plenty of trees in need of clean up. We worked on the front yard first and my husband made 4 trips to the dump with a large full and over full rented trailor. He was able to get the stuff from our front, and 5 of our neighbors, as well as the stuff from my folks yard. Last night we began to work on the back tree and have all the stuff we can do without more help. The large limb in the back is stradling the fence, and is quite heavy. This tree actually is our neighbors, but fell in our yard.

Thankful though we didn't have more damage, and know what we experienced is nothing compared to what those in LA and Texas went through with these recent hurricanes.

Hope all are getting back to normal.

**heading to post office and then to work (mailing 3 red scarfs for The Red Scarf Project).

Muir Woods

Continuing to share my vacation pictures as I get a group edited. These are from Muir Woods. Most interesting thing to me is how a woods of these magnitude can be soooooooooo close to San Francisco, so close to civilization. These trees are awesome! How forward thinking to preserve them. You can see the size by how small hubby and I look when standing near them. It's not possible to look up enough to see the tops of tree without feeling like you're going to topple over backwards.

The picture with the rings shows the life span of this large tree. Cut down in 1930, thats the most recent date and going back prior to 1100. The date in the first ring is too blurry for me to make out. Wonder if I have a brosure that will tell me. hum....

We're looking sleepy, I think in the pictures; which we were. We got up early and wanted to get there before all the tour busses. Our plan worked well, as we were leaving the lots were filling up.

The black inside the tree is from fire, we saw a lot of that, and somehow these trees survived. We were told by another visitor that the fire causing that black was 200 years ago. We didn't read that anywhere ourselves so not sure if that's true. Again...wonder about the brosure, must check.

Long and tiring day at work yesterday and more of the same promised for today. Legs and feet sure felt it last night. Managed to make a few squares last night, but was too tired to work on Mom's yellow shawl. Perhaps I'll get more done today.

Hope you enjoy your peaceful walk in the woods!