David was heading into a three day work weekend. Shane and Jesse were going to tackle the pecan that still lay across most of our new sod that had been laid just a little more than a week past. Hunter's two best friends were coming to spend the day helping us out. Mr. S, dad to one of the boy's, decided he would stay and help keep them on the job for me. Let me tell you something about Mr. S; he is exactly the kind of friend one wants in a situation like this. He's not the only one who showed us how to be a really good friend, but his story is the easiest to write about....
He showed up on that Sunday morning after the tornado and stayed through the day helping us clear our way off the back patio and to the gate and the barn area. We didn't ask him to show up to help. He simply showed up and began working. This Saturday morning was no different. He showed up with the two boys and came into the house and said "what do you need done?" I pointed to the refrigerator door and its mass of lists of "to do". He took a list and the boys and he got it done.
They finished the french drain digging (that David had started the previous Saturday afternoon before the tornado hit us) and filled it with stones. They cleared the driveway area of limbs that we had just pushed out of our paths as we concentrated on the inside yard where the wedding would be held. They drug the driveways with a magnet and picked up pieces of metal and nails and other debris that could puncture a tire. And they added to the bon fire that was started on every day that our Farmer's son worked to salvage what he could from his family barn. The chicken coop was still on the slab between our two sheds and they removed what they could of that debris and helped the tree guys haul and stack the logs from the pecan tree.
Progress!
Sunday May 12th
It was Mother's Day; S and J showed up to work on trees even so - another God Bless Them is due. They brought their children with them and put them on raking the area outside the fences. But, by now, I was seeing that they worked in a way that was completely opposite from the way I worked! They would start on an area, make a mess, and move to another area before completing the work needed in the first area. When they would leave for the day, it would seem as though the tornado had come through the trees again.
Hunter and I would head out and clean up as much of their mess as we could, hauling debris to the next day's burn pile or out to the road, still saving what we could use for cooking and/or leaving the larger logs out there for them to move later. We'd also have to go on a hunt for our new yard tools that Shane would use (they are a tree and landscaping service with J being the tree guy and S the yard guy) and leave wherever he last used them (i.e. we found our new fan rake propped up against the debris pile set out for the county to pick up one night and found it in the middle of our driveway another night!).
Don't get me wrong! I appreciated that they were working their butts off to help us get everything safe for our guests; but the stress and exhaustion of getting it all done in time was wearing me down. The constant noise of a chain saw was wearing me down. These guys were young and they were doing us a huge favor but on Sunday, I still saw so much that needed done that my brain craved order and all I saw was chaos!
Don't get me wrong! I appreciated that they were working their butts off to help us get everything safe for our guests; but the stress and exhaustion of getting it all done in time was wearing me down. The constant noise of a chain saw was wearing me down. These guys were young and they were doing us a huge favor but on Sunday, I still saw so much that needed done that my brain craved order and all I saw was chaos!
Facebook Post Monday May 13th (Dallas) Going to Florida today. Wasn't gonna go till Thursday, but a Tornado kinda changed everyone's plans. Can't wait to see my sister get married on Saturday!
It was time to start thinking about the decorating. There were signs to make and flowers to purchase and pot and place. I took Hunter to school and met up with Mom and Nikki to purchase the flowers for the wedding. We had lost so many of our hanging pots and had so many places where the sod had been torn up by the trees and limbs, so we were basically buying not only to re-decorate the front porch in her chosen colors but also cover up areas that we knew we would not be able to repair before the big day. It took us visits to three different garden centers to get what we needed...and filled up every spare spot in our cars to get it all back home.
Mom and Nikki headed back home with me; neither of them had been there since the previous Monday and with all the work that they'd heard about, I think they were expecting something different than they saw. The guys were hired to not only take care of the trees but to replace the fencing; not only to take down the tree limbs or remove a tree but to stack what we were keeping and haul away the rest. Each night, they promised they'd get the fences done and the large logs stacked the next day.
Hunter and I had been picking up the smaller stuff every night to not only help the guys move the job along but also to help us feel that we had some semblance of normalcy to our lives. And each night we still had broken fences and gates that wouldn't shut and huge logs all over the yard.
When we returned home, the place where we normally park our cars was filled with logs they had simply thrown over the broken fence. Logs from the pecan they'd worked on removing from the yard and logs from the holly tree. The three of us could barely get to the gate from our cars stepping over logs. The back fence was still laying down - despite the promises to get it back up BEFORE Dallas arrived with a 3rd dog needing to be kept safe. Dallas and Lucy were on their way here that very moment.
I was done. I got out of the flower filled car loaded for bear. Luckily Nikki was there to stop me. We went into the house and Nikki said "give me the list of what they were hired to do and I will deal with them...I'll use the tearful bride if I need to!" Fifteen minutes later, I looked outside and saw them stacking the logs while Nikki stood there with her hands on her hips pointing at the list, pointing at the fence, pointing at the list and so on. She spent most of the next three hours outside directing and charming and getting them to get things done.
By the end of the day, those lads had the fences fully repaired (the posts were broken and needed to be replaced and the fencing restrung or replaced and attached); and there was a huge stack of logs to one side of the parking area allowing us to actually park at least one of our vehicles in its normal spot. They left at 9 p.m. !
These are not the actual logs in the parking area; these are on the shed slab from the pecan tree but, the logs were this size and smaller and thrown everywhere!
I was done. I got out of the flower filled car loaded for bear. Luckily Nikki was there to stop me. We went into the house and Nikki said "give me the list of what they were hired to do and I will deal with them...I'll use the tearful bride if I need to!" Fifteen minutes later, I looked outside and saw them stacking the logs while Nikki stood there with her hands on her hips pointing at the list, pointing at the fence, pointing at the list and so on. She spent most of the next three hours outside directing and charming and getting them to get things done.
By the end of the day, those lads had the fences fully repaired (the posts were broken and needed to be replaced and the fencing restrung or replaced and attached); and there was a huge stack of logs to one side of the parking area allowing us to actually park at least one of our vehicles in its normal spot. They left at 9 p.m. !
Facebook Post May 14th (me) - Tree guys FINALY finished up last night after dark. All 12 pecan trees, one Holly and both Cypress trees were either destroyed or heavily damaged. Fences back up with new fence posts installed. Outbuildings as cleared as can be until the barn is out of there (because it is sitting on our stuff and we are at the point where if we move the wrong thing it will come the rest of the way down). Insurance provided Pressure Washers here doing the House for us as I write this. Flowers for the Wedding ready to go in. 5 plus hours of playlists finally complete! Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel finally!
Progress
4 days till the Wedding
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