Hurricane Ike! Yikes!!!

Big Boom!!
Just missed the bedrooms!
Bird's Eye View
Wood for Winter!
A Job well done!

Who would have thought that we would have a worse hit from Hurricane Ike than our southern relatives on the gulf and atlantic coasts? Go figure!! Jon and Jan (Hilton Head) and Marcia and Ross (Naples) have yet to have the structural damage that we just experienced in the heartlands! Thank God that I had just decided to abandon my comfy bed in the study where I was taking a nap as the winds began to kick up. By the time they got up to their sustained speed for 6 hours of 40-50 mph with gusts of 70-80 mph, I was headed to the living room to watch the show out of our huge picture window with Bob. As we were "oohing and ahhing" over the incredible force of the gale on our trees in the woods, we heard a huge boom! After gaping at each other for a few seconds, we looked outside and saw...well, take a look at the pix. If that tree had been a few feet taller, my study and the guest room would have been toast! Evidences of God's blessings are to be found everywhere!!

It looks like a war zone here, with trees down on lines on nearly every street. We are being told that by Sunday, power, cable, and phone lines should be restored, but we aren't holding our breath! Thank heaven for our generator, which is keeping our refrigerator and plenty of lights running so that we are living in relative comfort. The same can't be said for many of our neighbors, with whom we have been sharing ice, refrigerator space, etc.

The wind storm of 2008, which they are calling it, will be in evidence for a long time to come. So many old trees are down, and even in our yard the landscape has changed significantly. The tree company took down at least 4 trees and lots of "widow makers". The good news is that the area where I plant my little herb garden is going to have lots more sun in the future! There are silver linings in everything, and that's a fact!