Saturday's Storms

David was out finishing up in the shed sorting through paint cans; I was inside finishing up the Corn Relish I'd just made for dinner; the clock said 6:00 p.m. - that was when it happened. It was a good thing that I was done with the chopping of onions and peppers - Murphy, my constant companion, always guarding my back, jumped about 3 feet and bumped into my legs.

Later, as we lay in bed with the windows open to the after storm breezes, we heard a tree fall. If you've never heard one fall slowly, it can only be described as the sound of a car turning on a dirt road in slow motion. David got up to see if it was one of our many pecan or cypress trees. It was too dark to see anything and since we knew it hadn't hit our barn, shed, coop or house, we went on back to sleep.

Yesterday morning (Sunday), our Farmer Across the Street called to say he's got something to show us and that he'll be needing our help with that something....so we finished up our coffee and grabbed our flip flops and headed across the street...

This cypress tree was planted by the grandson of the owner of our house as were many of the trees on our Farmer's property today. Our farmer's children climbed that tree and sat in its branches reading books and hiding from the many chores they faced each day. It was about 70 years old...and it was huge and beautiful and shaded a patio that held tables and chairs and a brick oven and barbecue.

Over the next few weeks, a whole lot of neighbor helping neighbor will be going on across the street - the calls have gone out and the chain saws and other tools of clearing out and logging the debris are being cleaned and readied. There's not much hope being held out regarding the rescuing of the furniture that now lies under that huge tree - but there's a shed that was missed by inches and house that was missed by a few feet.....and a lovely couple that will be getting a lot of extra company for a while....so all is well.