Storm Trouble

Although we were able to get the half-dead tree down before the storm arrived on March 2nd, we ran into trouble from the pine trees.

The first hit was a big limb that came down on the Well House roof.  Here's a photo from during the storm...

The roof on the building is 100 years old and slate.  Not going to be fun to get that replaced! 

Here's a photo of it from behind the Well House... you can see the pointy branch on the pine tree, where the limb broke off.

The next hit was a huge pine tree that was behind the big barn.  It sideswiped the building- luckily not a direct hit, but it did knock it off kilter.

Another storm was scheduled to be coming through (will spring ever arrive?!?), so we had to quickly get the hole in the roof covered so it doesn't mess up the recently finished gym!

We have our work cut out for us... weekends full of chopping those trees up and trying to schedule the insurance guy, roofer, and a structural engineer.  

This was not a part of our spring plans!

A Little Thunderstorm?!?

Last Monday I came home after work to find the baby goats loose in the driveway... uh-oh, that's not good!

Turns out there was a 15 minute thunderstorm that wreaked havoc on our yard- we lost a total of 5 trees (almost as bad as Hurricane Sandy!  But thankfully, this time we only lost power for 1 day!)

A big walnut tree that was in the goat yard completely uprooted.  Thank goodness the goats (and chickens) weren't hurt, and it didn't fall on the barn.

But it did take down the fence...

Our older goat stayed in the yard, but the little guys thought it was party time & climbed the tree right over the fence!

Then I turned around and saw half a pine tree had gone down across the back driveway entrance...

That one broke two sections of the white picket fence.  

(Luckily it just fell short of the bigger privacy fence!)

After checking the rest of the property, we found three more trees down in the back.  

Happily, two of those fell onto the brush pile anyway! 

<looking for a silver lining>

Just when we thought we had the yard in pretty good shape... 

(we had literally just been saying this on Sunday!)  

Our biggest concern that night was finding a place to put the goats.  We moved their stuff over to the horse barn, and put them in one of the stalls.  They were NOT happy (they didn't have free access to the outside from there) but at least they were safe.

Each afternoon, we let the goats out for "play time", while Mike was cutting up the tree & fixing the goat yard fence.  Definitely not how we had planned to spend our evenings last week!

Next we tackled the tree across the driveway.  I didn't realize how much we used both driveway entrances until this one was blocked!

The rest of the trees are going to take a while, but at least the most disruptive stuff is cleaned up!

Hurricane Sandy- surveying the damage

We feel very thankful that we are all safe and were very fortunate that the house did not sustain any damage from Hurricane Sandy.  We're still without power, heat and water... fingers crossed that it comes back soon!  Thank goodness for the fireplace!

Reheating pizza in the fireplace
(Without power, we had time to get a little creative!)

We lost about 7 trees in the yard, and damage to others.  The trampoline also went flying, and the privacy fence is leaning a bit, but that's about the extent of the damage.  We were VERY lucky!

This tree was one of our favorites- it stood in the middle of the field.
I don't know if we'll be able to save the part that's still standing.

Lots more trees down on the side property line.
Luckily, many of these were already dead & slated to come down.

The trampoline had been on the opposite side of the car in the background!
Must have flown right over!

Three shutters flew off & broke

Now the clean-up begins!