An English Garden….?

One of my favorite memories is of being sent out to the garden that grew along the privacy fence of my English Grandparents yard to pick "new potatoes and mint" for dinner; boiled with salt and the mint,  and then eaten with Salad Cream, those potatoes were something I long for even today and try every so often to recreate.  

My grandparents left the narrow middle of their "yard" for sitting and planted beds along the three sides of the fencing; along with the potatoes and mint and beans, they also had flowers of every color under the sun spilling out and into the pathways.  Coming from acres of land here in the US, I was always amazed at what my grandparents (and Grand Aunts and Uncles as well) could grow in their small back yard.

The new layout of our back end will leave me with a small area to landscape and garden.  While I would love to recreate my grandparent's garden  along the fences of my back yard, there are things that I would have to contend with that my grandparents did not.  Several types of venomous snakes common to our area come to mind first, followed quickly by the fact that there is no neighbor on the other side of the fence taking time to make sure that weeds don't overtake their garden first and mine second!

So, there will be no overflowing combination veggie and flower fence gardening for me.  Instead, I continue to plant flowering jasmine to cover my fences and put fern and bulbs in the beds below them.  The fern grows so thick that it eventually grows on both sides of the fence choking out weeks that grow profusely in the irrigation ditches that surround us.  And every now and then those bulbs will poke up and through with a beautiful amaryllis or lily….but I won't have to reach into an overgrown garden to grab a veggie or herb and worry whether a snake has taken a nap wrapped around my potato…and I'll gaze at Florida Rose Bushes that need little more care than a cutting back every other year or so.

Instead I will plant Rosemary bushes all around the Gazebo and use fast spreading border grass as a ground cover between those plants…and build a rock garden with mint that will spread out to an area where for ten years grass has failed to grow….I'll grow my tomatoes and peppers and everything else in containers that alternate with the rose bushes and bring to mind those days of veggies and flowers all growing together…

I've given nods of acknowledgement to certain things that I loved about those English gardens; I used boxwood to line part of the patio path that leads to the Gazebo and I'm thinking about putting them in the little garden area that juts off the back door of the house.  It used to be used as an herb garden for old Mrs. B I believe but I've had no luck with herbs there…

Will the end result resemble the English gardens I remember from my childhood?  It's doubtful, but as long I can walk out my back door and down a garden path to pick a tomato or a pepper or cut a sprig of rosemary or mint, I'll be able to remember those summers with my grandparent's….and I can be content with that!

Smoother sailing ahead….

After 11 months of staring at chaos, I can finally look outside and believe that this journey through the aftermath of the tornado is nearly complete.  Over the past three days, we've moved the shed a few feet forward and a few feet over; this placement is more "pleasing to the eye" than the when it was placed along the back fence line. We moved some fern to soften the hard lines of the pump house and shed. The shed will only be used until we begin to build the new structure next spring so I'm just using planters along its edges instead of any kind of permanent transplanting.  The planters are filled with newly purchased flowers that will soon brighten up the view.  Soon the Gazebo will have hanging plants placed….

The shed's new placement allows for the kayaks and boat to be hidden from the view of the back patio, gazebo and not be what one is staring at driving up the new driveway.  The Kayaks will be hung from the back of the shed or perhaps from 6 ft fence sections that will be brought in later; the boat will actually be where the trailer is now. Three of the four sides of the fencing is now moved/repaired; this back line of fencing is the last to be replaced.  We've been using the sections of the kennel temporarily as we can take it down to bring in heavy equipment. (That kennel has come in really handy as fencing as we completed work on each section of the back yard.)

We pulled up edging from the rock path that will be covered with sod and while we didn't yet get it placed to mark the edge of the new parking area, it is lying roughly where it will be placed allowing us to visualize the final result.  

We'll dig up the grass from there and put it in the old pathway (not shown) and then bring in gravel rock.  Extra pieces will line the boxwood gardens that line the patio (making those gardens much easier to maintain in the future).

We placed six fence post solar lights up the north boundary fence to light up the new gate and driveway.

And we liked the look of the solar lighting so much that we have decided to place them on top of every other post along the front as well to point the way to the new driveway. (The sign is placed on the ground to stop folks from driving through the wire fencing at night now that it is lit up.  The gate will be built this weekend.)

More solar lighting will come in along the bulkhead when it is built and along the top edge of the culvert when we've completed breaking up the old slab and placing the pieces to help mark the edge of the culvert.  The wood for the bulkhead is stacked ready to begin that build.

We can now walk out the back door and actually visualize the final result; no more staring at a design on a piece of paper and hoping that it will look good.  We've had to do a lot of practicing patience and adjusting during this long road out of chaos, but finally, we are reaching the finish line (for this year anyway.)

On our way to the year anniversary of the tornado, our project to "do list" finally fits on one page; from pages of "to do" items that took up the front of the fridge to just one sheet of paper that sits on my desk…

Build Gate

Build Bulkhead

Hang Kayaks on back of shed

Break up slab

Bring in gravel rock for parking area

Complete transplanting, fencing and lighting

Go fishing and kayaking again!
Go On Cruise!

Can't wait to cross off that last one!  Half Moon Cay, here we come!

The process of mourning...

From August 2009 until just recently, I rarely posted here.  The passing of my mother in law took the joy out of writing in this on-line journal.  There was a lot of (extended) family tension as her estate was settled over the course of a year and a half.  I wrote, as I've done since I was a child, but not here, not where others could read about the sad state of affairs.

In 2011, we began the year having gotten through the probate process and I thought I'd begin to write here again; but in March of that year, within three weeks of each other, we lost our two Black Labs, Murphy and Indie, and again, any joy I found in writing here was overshadowed by their loss.  I found that most of what I wrote was filled with the grief of their loss.  

Grieving is a process.  2012 was a slow year of emotional recovery.  

It was also the year I retired my ten year old Dell and switched to Mac.  Along with my new MacBook Pro, I got iMovie and iPhoto....and all that those programs would allow me to do.  I realized that I could finally get all the old family movies on unwatchable VHS tapes onto DVD's.  (The last of our VCR's had given up its life a few years ago.)

I went through all those VCR tapes and transferred them one by one onto my laptop and into iMovie; I scanned all the old photographs into iPhoto and my Genealogy software (Reunion). And I spent months editing those bits and pieces of footage into "movies".  Then I put them all onto DVD's and shared them with family.  

There was footage from my niece's 6th birthday party held in October 2004; a party where we all dressed as fantasy characters mostly from Disney Movies; there was limbo and apple bobbing and after the sun went down, family karaoke for hours!  What fun it was to relive that day and finally get the video not only to my niece but to all the family members that were there that wonderful day.

There was footage from a 1993 trip to Universal Studios with David's brother's family.  There was footage from a 2000 trip to Hawaii Nikki took with that same family.  There was footage of Dallas' year as Drum Major of his high school marching band; too many band and chorus concerts to count, soccer games for Hunter with Nikki as the referee and David as Coach of his team and footage of my performing days!  

There was a lot of footage of our Shanna, Murphy and Indie; that was the most difficult video to edit in the beginning, but as I worked on those old videos and put them into a "movie" I was able to let those beloved pets go and remember them with joy instead of sorrow.  The process allowed me to think about getting another puppy and to move toward the day when I was ready....

Meet our new baby....introducing our 13 week old Black Lab, Angus Demetrius!

6 weeks old - We first saw Angus on May 2nd - two days before the Tornado hit us.  This was taken on May 29th when we returned to pick him out of the three black males in his litter!

The day he came to home - 8 weeks old June 20th!

9 weeks old - Gazebo Time.  We try to spend the last hour of his day in the Gazebo training him in "quiet time".  Eventually we'll be able to actually get back in the hot tub and relax while he is out there with us...right now with all the new puppy energy?  Well, let's just say that we are in training!

"Count Your Blessings" Part One

"Count your blessings,

 name them one by one; 

Count your blessings, 

See what God has done"

When frustration rears its ugly head causing David and I to quickly lose our patience, we both try to stop and think of the many blessings that we've experienced during this trying time in our lives. We have them listed in our iPhones for those times when we just can't get our minds to focus.  Because sometimes, the chaos that still exists in one portion of our property makes us angry and short tempered.

Blessing One:  We were in our home when that tornado passed right by our house.  There were photos falling off of walls, destruction taking place all around us, but we survived.  Not only did we survive the tornado, but our home escaped severe damage needing only minor repairs.  

Blessing Two:  All three of our farm cats happened to be inside that night.  They come in for dinner but usually one or two or even all three escape back outside as soon as they are finished.  That night they were safely inside the house instead of in the barn that collapsed, or the metal shed that had timbers from the barn go through its roof, support beams snapped in half, and hail coming through the roof or the wooden shed that had a corner of the barn and part of a tree come down on it.

Blessing Three:  This one would turn out to be a short lived blessing; our three chickens survived the storm despite having the barn come down on their coop.  Three weeks after the storm, a stray dog killed two of them - our precious Little Roo and Hecky Pecky.  

(That is what happens when irresponsible pet owners drop off their pets just because it is "country" and they think the animal will have a hope of survival.  IF they survive the road traffic, they'll end up shot after they kill our chickens! - Put them in a shelter!)  

Huffy Puffy, our one remaining hen now sleeps inside our mud room in a puppy crate until "after we rebuild" and she has a safe place to live.  During the day, she hangs with the cats....

The coop was between the metal shed and the wooden shed.  It is under all of that debri.  This was taken on May 5th before we began to clear away the trees that covered the whole area between the barn and our patio, house and Gazebo. When we took this photo, our chickens had just come out from under it all.

Blessing Four: Neither of our two vehicles were parked where they normally are; the pecan tree that came down with the barn covered not only the wooden shed and our back fence, but the parking area.  Both paid off vehicles would have been totaled and the insurance checks received would likely NOT have paid for even one new vehicle.  We would have gone from no car payments to TWO car payments.  

This was a HUGE blessing with all the expenses of the wedding and the cost of our rebuilding.  The RV, for which we are still paying, escaped any major damage as well.  

Blessing Five:  The Gazebo had just been roofed in February of this year.  The framing had just gone up to add the screening and half walls.  Despite what appear to have been 100 mph winds, only one corner of the roof was damaged and only one frame post was broken.  The Hot Tub cover blew around the interior of the Gazebo and took out that one post although it did move another interior support post a few inches. (David was watching this from the mud room window when the Holly tree came down on the pump house taking out our water...it was only then that he took shelter with us in the Harry Potter Cupboard under the stairs!) The 9 year old hot tub lid was on the list of things to be replaced over the course of this year; insurance now replaced that lid when the repairman found it was cracked from the impact while there fixing a leak that also resulted from the storm damage.  The hot tub was drained the night of the storm for a cleaning to prepare it for family who would be staying with us for the wedding.  The storm also took out the GFI and the sensor panel for the hot tub.

After all the insurance claims were handled, we realized that we had not carried enough coverage for ALL of our outbuildings...had the Gazebo been destroyed, we would not be building a new barn/garage! 

To be continued...."Count Your Blessings" part two tomorrow....

We made it!

We'd spent Thursday night with our daughter and soon to be family decorating the fences, stringing lights and going over last minute plans.  

On Friday morning, David and Dallas headed up to get the Sound System while Mystie and I completed all the inside tasks for the arriving family while we waited for the delivery of the dance floor and the chairs.  That night, we'd have the rehearsal dinner!

As I prepared for the mad rush to come, I pondered all the little things that didn't get done; the Gazebo was 90% screened; the lights would go up but with a temporary rigging job rather than with the wiring hidden.  The half walls were supposed to have been painted white but would be the yellow of concrete board. 

The paving stone pathway that led from the front porch to the back patio had been badly damaged from the dragging of all the debris after the storm.  I was concerned that someone would twist an ankle, but there was no time left to relay those stones.   And the lawn was full of holes where limbs had gone straight into them driven deep by the wind.  The newly laid sod had been pushed a full six inches over the barn slab and there were now gaps between many of the individual pieces. 

We still didn't have shoes and slacks for David to wear with the shirt and tie that Nikki had gotten for him to wear.  

But we were out of time.  What didn't get done just would have to be ignored.

It was time to Party!  

We made it.

The Wedding!

Sign hiding missing trellis made using part of the old chicken coop

It's Thursday May 15th.  Dallas and Mystie have taken Hunter to school for me and David is working.  Tonight, Nikki and her Maid of Honor, her man and her soon to be Step Daughters would be coming over to begin the decorating.

But for the moment it was just me at the house.  There were no contractor's trucks in the driveway.  The trailer full of debris had been hauled off the night before.  I walked the property with my video camera in peace and quiet; I could hear nothing but birds singing and the sound of our sprinkler going.

Order.  

Out of Chaos.  In 12 days.

Facebook Post Thursday May 16th (Me):  

Done.  What doesn't get done, doesn't get done.  Pooped.  I'm ready to PARTY!

Two more wake ups and the Big Day would be upon us!

Almost there.....

Facebook Post Wednesday May 15th (me) Gazebo screen UP! Door ON. Siding going ON as I write this....Yard Guys will be here sometime to finish up the final pickup of logs and other things still around the property - replace brand new sod that was laid four days before the tornado in places where it was swept away or ruined by the weight of a 100 year old tree laying on it for four days....and mow for us since our John Deere is out of commission! Lay the rest of the stone.....Put up the new coop....finish potting flowers....Hey, we may actually make it!

We'd decide on Wednesday that the Gazebo wouldn't get painted (white) before the wedding. We were out of time. The next day would be spent finishing up the exterior decorating (lights on fences etc.) and Friday morning we'd have the deliveries made of chairs and dance floor and needed to start getting ready for all the family members coming in from out of town on Friday for the Rehearsal Dinner.

All our focus had been on getting the yard safe for our guests and the Gazebo walled and screened in order to serve food at the Reception for the past 8 days; the inside of the house was a mess and the camper needed to be readied for overflow family accommodations.  It was time to shift our focus totally to the Wedding!

While Wednesday was a very busy day, it was a fun day.  We could see that we would make it now.  All of the friends and family who'd shown up had helped us to accomplish what many admitted later they thought we would never be able to do.  Our homeowner's insurance had paid for the whole house to be pressure washed.  We'd found someone available to make our trees safe and help us repair fences and gates and sod and get our landscaping looking beautiful while all around us the damage to other's property was still visible. 

There was a lot more stress to come as we pulled it all together and a whole lot of things that we'd not get to do at the Reception that we'd planned on doing,  but our daughter was going to get her wedding at her home just as she'd wanted! 

And while we worked and laughed and realized we had this thing handled, God decided to remind us that he had a sense of humor; that he is always there in every situation we may find ourselves in.....

The field tornado followed the exact same path as the real tornado had done, reminding us all of all that we had come through together, with God and good friends and loving family.  My new Son in Law and I would see another of these whirling dervishes as we waited outside in the front yard for the rental company to unload the dance floor and chairs on Friday morning.  It was another reminder of who was ultimately in control!

2 days left till the Wedding!

Getting it done....

Friday May 10th - 7 working days left till the Wedding
We drank our morning coffee accompanied by the sound of chain saws.  It would be an almost constant sound for the next 6 days.  Jesse and Shane had gotten the most dangerous of the "hangers" out of the trees and had temporarily propped up the front fencing for us on Wednesday evening; they would now get the rest of the hangers out and trim and paint all the damaged limbs in our 11 remaining pecans and one of the cypress trees.  They would cut the holly tree up and remove it for us.  They would cut away as much of the pecan that had fallen in back as they could safely take care of; its roots were under the barn wall (the concrete that those roots lay under stand up 4 feet straight in the air under the debris).  In fact, those roots (and that upright concrete slab) are still there to this day waiting for the remainder of the barn to be removed.

Those 6 days would test my patience.  The constant noise around me when I am used to the stillness of the country  - where the music of birds and breezes ruffling the leaves and a tractor working a distant field are the norm -  was wearing.  It seemed like every ten minutes, the dogs would be barking as Jesse or Shane knocked on the door to point out a place where the damage was worse than thought and we'd need to take off another limb.  Visits from Contractors to finish the well system or fix the hot tub or inspect a roof or the R.V.; a constantly ringing phone, and a yard that required an hour or two of clean up every night after the trees were worked on were all mentally exhausting.

This photo gives a glimpse of what we'd see at the end of every day the trees were being worked on.  

Hunter and I would head out just before dinner and start hauling the debris either to the front for the county to 

pick up or to the burn pile that was lit every day.  We'd save as much of the pecan wood as possible for cooking.

 This was mostly from the damaged Cypress tree that sits just outside our kitchen window - it was planted by 

Ella Wilton in 1909 shortly after their immigration from England.

We were averaging about 4 hours of sound sleep before suddenly waking up with a start before sunrise; those lists hanging on the refrigerator door were the first thing we checked while having our coffee.

Hunter went to school dealing with not only end of the year exams but also his SATs and ACTs and final concerts and banquets.  He spent each evening home out there helping us to clear out and salvage. 

When home, David continued to work in three different directions; he helped Shane and Jesse where needed; he worked on putting up the screening and the walls of the Gazebo; and he continued to enter the totaled metal and wood sheds salvaging what he could of our contents. Then he'd go to work a 12 hour shift at his real job.

I played the Wedding Music Playlist I was creating every chance I got to remind us of why we were doing all of this so quickly while all around us the damage remained untouched.  Our farmer still had trees down across his driveway; driving in to town we passed places where other than small cleanups nothing had been touched.  (Our farmer's trees were only removed from his driveway two weeks ago - six weeks after the tornado.)  

When our spirits got heavy and we'd didn't think we make it; or we'd ask "why in the world did this happen to us", we'd remind each other of how blessed we were to have gotten folks to work on our place so quickly.  Our home insurance adjuster called contractors and told them what had to be done before the wedding and what needed to wait until after the wedding. Our vehicle insurance adjusters (3 of them) were patient and understanding of our continually putting them off until after the wedding.

But Jesse and Shane were the real blessing.  While the fallen and broken trees around us turned yellow and died because no one could get a tree company to get to their jobs, our trees were being repaired and/or removed on a daily basis.    There was no denying that God had sent them our way.

And at night, I organized all the photos and video we'd taken for the insurance adjusters into a "movie" we could look back with our future grandchildren years from now and remember this time.  Making that movie was not only a way to tell "Our Wedding Story" but it was therapeutic for me... in the photos and videos, I could see not only the progress we made each day, but also the love and support of those friends and family who continued to show up to help us out.

Progress!

6 more days until the Wedding!

Overwhelmed!

Let me start by saying this....Photos and TV videos cannot accurately show the devastation a storm like this can bring.  When you look at the footage from Oklahoma, you are horrified by what you see but the totality of the destruction just can't be processed unless you are on the ground walking through it.

I now understand a whole lot more what those folks are going through, I have yet to watch much of the news coverage of Oklahoma's recent tornado.  I did see the video where the old woman's dog came crawling out of the wreckage of her home and knew a bit of her joy to see him because we'd just gone through that with our chickens.  I can't watch the rest of the coverage because it is just too soon after our own storm. 

The chickens were in their little red coop when the barn came down. 

Like the dog in Oklahoma, they survived!

Right after the storm had passed on Saturday night, friends were offering to come down in the morning to help us clean up.  I texted that although we couldn't see much yet, we knew "it was bad".  On Sunday morning as we walked around taking photographs, I was sharing some of them on Facebook.  I truly thought that my friends could see the extent of the damage. It wasn't until they arrived that I realized that what I was just writing about was the reality... the photos had not prepared our friends and family for what they would see.

The shock was visible on their faces.  We'd been more prepared because we'd had glimpses of it all the night before; we'd had hours to begin processing it.  Not that it was easy by any means.  Not only were we facing thousands of dollars of damage and months of cleaning up, but we had our daughter's wedding on the property in 13 days.  Shortly after returning from town and walking the whole property, I'd temporarily lost sight of David...but I could hear him. Totally overwhelmed by it all, he stood in the middle of the downed pecan tree yelling at the top of his lungs something I can't repeat in polite company~

What a blessing our friends Pat and Dale were to us that day.  Dale asked David and I where did we want to start.  We had no answer so Dale took charge and said "let's clear you a path to the Barn and out the back gate".  The chainsaws were fired up and going within minutes.  Our daughter (who arrived with coffee shortly after!) and Pat began hauling the pieces of our pecan and holly trees to the road.  Soon, Hunter's girlfriend and his best friend and that best friend's father showed up and began to clear the front and side yards.  My Mom arrived and began by clearing the front porch and setting things to rights from there to the front gate.

FPL trucks were everywhere trying to get our power back on.  Lines flowing to the station had been cut by flying debris from two directions.  Once they repaired those lines, they had to turn us back on one house and one barn at a time.  We heard that they had at least one fire during the process.  Before they got to us, they had to disconnect the power lines to the barn.  It would be 6 p.m. when the power returned.

The County would send trucks by the end of that day to haul away the tree limbs we stacked from driveway to driveway in a 4-5 foot stack (in fact, the County sent trucks out every day until Wednesday; I can't say enough good about how they handled it!).

By the end of the day, the front and side yards were cleared of debris; the front porch and patio were cleaned; and we had a path to the barn area. Power was on but our well system had been destroyed.  We headed to our daughter's house for dinner and showers.

12 days to our daughter's wedding.

Angels on our rooftop.....

The sun finally came up.

We'd known that our Holly Tree was down on the Well House but we hadn't realized that one of our 100 year old Pecans had fallen when the barn came down.  It now lay across the entire space between that barn and our patio.  My camera flash had not picked up that tree as I stood in the back door the night before trying to see the damage. The photo below is what we should have seen that morning (except that we'd been laying white stone in the pathways and were almost finished and we'd just laid new sod; the photo below was taken about one week before the storm):

The Holly Tree just missed taking out the gazebo while the Pecan Tree's top lay literally inches from the new patio.  The hot tub lid had blown off the tub and through the frame of the wall knocking out one post (David saw it blowing around the inside of the gazebo right before he saw the Holly come down during the storm - when he should have been in the Harry Potter Cupboard but I digress).

The Camper looked funny looking at it from the patio; it seemed that its front end was going down hill.  We'd learn when we left to go get coffee that it had been blown off its support block.

We went out the front door and surveyed the side and front yards. The tree house tree was topped.  It's limbs lay on our front fence corner and our 50 plus year old azaleas.

Sheet metal roofing was in the trees (Click on the next photo for a larger view).

Yet, even though photos had fallen off the walls as the tornado first began to hit us, it appeared that other than a missing screen or two and a piece of wood sticking out of one screen, the house escaped any real damage.  The photo below shows the windows to the room where photos were falling off the walls as I ran upstairs yelling for Hunter.  One screen disappeared and the other had a piece of wood stuck in the screen.  What you can't see is the bathroom window screen is also missing. (We'd later learn that the downstairs bathroom roof would need to be totally replaced.)

Still without power, David and I went to town for coffee and this is what we saw on our return drive around the road that surrounds the field that the tornado had traveled across.  Underneath all that mess was our chicken coop, all of our lawn machines, building materials for the completion of the gazebo and well, just about everything we owned that didn't belong in the house.  The tree you see between the gazebo and the barn is where we usually park our vehicles; it had smashed the back fence and part of it lay in our parking spots.  What a blessing that we'd parked both of the vehicles beside the barn instead of in their usual spots.  It is likely that both of them would have been totaled under that tree. 

Just as we approached the house, Hunter texted to say "The chickens SURVIVED!"  The following photo had been taken before we'd left the house for coffee. Approaching the coop from the front of the yard, this is what we could see of their coop.  Based upon what we could see, we were sure the chickens had not survived this since we had not heard our rooster crowing.

Here's a closer shot of the coop, you can see the wire of their enclosure.  After we'd cleared a path to the barn area, we could see the little red house they'd slept.  Its legs had been demolished and the boxy coop had smashed to the concrete below, but somehow it had stayed pretty much intact.  The chickens made their way out of it about 7 a.m.

Later that morning, the news folks would arrive to interview us.  David agreed to be on camera.  I didn't want to speak on camera but the interviewer was GOOD...after interviewing David, he promised me "only one question".  The adrenaline now pumping through my veins at the realization of just how close we'd come to losing our 100 plus year old home got me started.  After telling him about the few minutes during the storm, I finished by telling him that anyone looking at the destruction that stopped just inches from our house before jumping to the other driveway would have to believe as I did that Angels were sitting on our rooftop batting away sheet metal and tree limbs.  I still believe that.

Elkton family loses 100-year-old barn in storm

ELKTON, Fla. -- It was a terrifying night for families in St Johns County.  Many today believe it was a tornado that ripped though Saturday night.

"A couple limbs bounced off the side of the house, knocked pictures off the walls," said David Wilke...... (Read more....)

And then we got down to the business of cleaning it all up.  After all, we had a wedding to get ready for!

(P.S. One thing we learned during this is that there is a danger of reporters not quite getting you say correctly edited; readers here know that the Barn is not ours but belongs to the Farmer across the street.  It used to belong to our property in 1909 until the mid 1960's when our Farmer bought it. And I lived in the Mid West as a child, David and our kids are Florida born and raised)

The Aftermath...

In the soft lantern light, Hunter and I sat in the Living Room with our iPhones updating friends on Facebook and texting others who were trying to find out if we were okay.  Looking back, we still weren't aware of how close a call we'd just had.  The darkness that surrounded our house on that cloudy, starless and moonless night hid the extent of the damage that lay just outside the walls.

David, along with about 6 of the local farmers, was outside checking on our 93 year old Farmer across the street.  Afterwards, the men all exchanged their stories; we learned that another farmer had been out doing a night time harvest of one of the potato fields to save as much of the crop as possible.  Through flashes of lightening, he saw the tornado hit the process plant behind us and tear off its roof.  The sheet metal flew through the power lines as the storm made its way across the 80 or so acres that separates us from the plant.  He saw it headed straight for us.  We hear that to this day, that is all the man will say.  Radios going, stories were being heard from all over our little community.  We gradually learned that it appeared that no one was injured (we would learn the next day about a miraculous escape of one of our local teens (see video below).

A bit later, David saw the FPL trucks working all around us and went to get our truck so that he could warn them that there were power lines to the now collapsed barn that sits on our property line.  The danger of fire was great should they send power to that structure.  When he got to our truck, he realized that the entire drivers side had been swiped by something.  A loud "clunking" sound was what he heard as he opened the door.  It was drivable however, so he went down to warn the workers.  As he drove out the driveway, he tried to see the damage inside our fences...All he could tell was that things were "down".  My camera flash only lit a part of our yard and neither of us wanted to risk walking under any of the trees until daylight.

We would later learn that FPL arrived so quickly because one of their trucks was at the power station located across the fields from us.  The man also saw the tornado as it made its way towards us and was talking to the office during the storm.

Eventually, David came back inside and let me know what he could see of the damage.  When we went to bed that night we knew the truck was damaged, the barn was down and the Well House and Well were under the Holly Tree.  It looked bad, but we were alive. We'd have to wait until daylight to really see the damage.

A Warning means there IS a Tornado!

It's just a minute before 9 p.m. on May 4th 2013.  13 days left until we have our daughter's wedding here.  We aren't watching the non-stop reporting on local channels warning us of the severe weather in our area. 

The wind had picked up enough to make me aware of the need to move away from my office windows and I was just about to do that when I heard David coming down the stairs.  As he came through the kitchen door he says, "Nikki just texted us; we are under a tornado warning".  As I closed my laptop and stood up from my chair I questioned " a watch or a warning?"  "A warning".  He went on to say that Nikki said it was right above us; I threw my laptop on the kitchen table saying "that means there IS a tornado David; where is Hunter?" and I raced up the stairs as David went to get flashlights.  

As I hit the top, I'm yelling to Hunter "Get out of the shower, TORNADO" while simultaneously there are crashes from his bedroom as photos are falling off the walls.  I, rather stupidly I realize now, ran into his bedroom to see the damage.  King is racing out from the game room at the same time.  I hear Hunter open the bathroom door and the three of us race down the stairs.  Three steps from the bottom, the power goes out.  David hands me a flashlight and then one to Hunter as we pass him on our way to the Harry Potter Cupboard under the stairs. 

King, the valiant tripawd, beats me to the door and as I open it, he races all the way in and lies down in the very back of the narrow cupboard.  (When telling Nikki about her former pet's beating us in, she said, "well of course he did.  He was thinking "disabled first"!) I make Hunter get in next as I'm moving TV trays and other objects into the dining room and telling David and Callie (our yellow lab) to get in the cupboard.

Over the next minute or so (which let me tell you felt like about half an hour) I'm alternating between reassuring Hunter that if we had to be in any house in the world during a tornado, this 100 year old farmhouse was the one to be in and that I'd seen houses with only a staircase and a bathtub still in place while living in the mid west states, with telling David "the windows IMPLODE in a tornado" as he went from window to window downstairs trying to see what was happening.   Poor Callie, true to her Lab nature, went from me standing in the cupboard's doorway, to David trying to get him to get in there too. 

The hail hit next.  I have never in my life heard hail like that.  I knew then that this was the real thing. Nearer the window, David could hear the "train".   Our three cats were all inside, something that is very rare around here; the youngest began howling as the three of them made their way into the archway between the dining room and living room.  I texted friends asking for prayers. 

David put a hand on the window in the living room and felt it moving.  He then went to the back of the house and looked out the mudroom window and saw the Holly Tree come down and take out our Well House.  He suddenly truly realized that he needed to get somewhere safe.  Our farmhouse is surrounded by 100 plus year old trees, anyone of which could hit the house. 

As he came back into the Dining room, we heard several large bangs.  More trees coming down.  We suspected the barn was down.  

Then it was over.  No power.  No water.  No starlight or moonlight.  We'd made it.  We let Nikki and other family know we were safe.  And then we started to assess the damage.  David went to check on our old Farmer across the street.  I got out my camera and used the flash to see what I could without venturing outside.  

Soon, we heard trucks as the Farmers all came out to check on everybody; they were moving debris from the roads as they went along. Power Co. trucks were here within a few minutes.  I lit our oil lamps and calmed all the inside pets while silently whispering a good bye to our chickens and praying that no more trees would come down on the men who were out checking on everybody.

Tornado Warning!

Just before 9 p.m. on May 4th, I was sitting in my office organizing music for the wedding.  I was vaguely aware of the wind picking up outside the windows and had the fleeting thought that I might need to move away from it.  The huge Cypress that stands just outside has a tendency to lose limbs the size of small trees in high winds and after we get a lot of rain; it has done so in the past and limbs have gotten caught up in the power lines and swung just outside those windows.  I tend not to be too close to them in certain weather conditions. I began to finish up what I was doing to make the move to another room....

The Living Room T.V. was on but was muted so that I could listen to bits and pieces of the playlist I was creating.  David was upstairs making notes and watching a recorded game on the bedroom T.V. and Hunter had just gotten in the upstairs shower. Obviously, no one was paying any attention to what was going on around us.  This is not usual for us since I'm typically a weather watcher calling family and friends to say "conditions are ripe for a tornado, stay aware please - Love you!".   Spending 8 years of my childhood in Ohio and another 5 in Indiana, I'd been through tornados and knew the destruction they can leave in their paths.  

Nikki and J.C. were at their place watching the weather reports - since the networks had interrupted regular programing to make those reports minute by minute as the storm moved towards our place.  Just before 9 p.m., as I was listening to the winds pick up outside that office window  Nikki texted David.  "Dad, there is a tornado right over you!  The report says its at" and she named the three roads that surround our farmhouse.

........

Since February, every spare minute of daylight was spent getting our place ready for the wedding.  The inside was ready. The outside was getting its final touches.  The gardens were weeded, all the pruning was done; edging had been laid around the patio to hold back debris from the surrounding gardens.  All that really remained was to finish the Gazebo and finish laying the new pathways from the patio to the back gate and barn area, pressure wash the house,  and bring in the flowers that would be in the colors that Nikki had chosen for her wedding....

 

We'd spent three days laying pathways.  Using a 2x4x12 to keep the edging straight as we dug down almost four inches to allow for the stones that would soon line them.  Before the rain hit us on Thursday night (May 2nd), we'd already put down 2 trailers full of stones.  I'd laid two full pallets of sod.  On Friday, David had brought in the last trailer of stones which was sitting in our parking area waiting to be put down.   One more day of work and those pathways would be ready for the wedding. 

David pulled the truck up beside the barn after unhitching the trailer.  I'd parked the car between the truck and the fields hoping to be able to spray weedkiller in the stone parking area after shoveling the new stone into the pathways sometime that weekend.   In nine years, I'd say those vehicles were not parked in their regular spots only about a dozen times because we need to keep the driveways clear for the tractors to work the fields.  They'd been harvested that week so we knew we had a month or so to not worry about that and we needed to get that parking area weeded...we'd be very glad that we weren't parked there.....it was one of the blessings we would be granted that night.

Catching up....

Back in January, our newly engaged daughter and her man let us know they wanted to have their wedding here at the farmhouse...and that she wanted to wear my dress!  Needless to say, we began making and revising our spring project list immediately.

First on the list was to make the bathroom downstairs presentable for 100 or so guests!  That poor bathroom has been on the project lists for each of the past 5 years but never seems to get any attention..that obviously had to change.  So in February, we did a quick makeover on it.  Check one item off the list.

Next was to finish up the long term Gazebo Project.  We actually began that project back in 2006, but like the bathroom, only parts of it were completed every year.  We knew that with a May wedding, it would need to be completely done to have a bug free zone for the catering.  So on went the Metal Roof.

And we began to work on the yard laying stone pathways and new sod. The first week of May was going to be spent finishing up all of these projects.  The screening and half walls were to go up on the Gazebo and the trailer filled with stone was parked where we normally parked our vehicles...everything was ready for the last push towards completion.....And then came the rain.

Three days of it.  Meteorologists were saying we had gotten three months of rain in those three days.  Our new paths were doing their job; we could see that we had a water free path to the back gate and to the shed and barn in an area that previously would have been under water.  

We also could see that our new patio, which had been laid to direct water away from the foundation of the farmhouse was propelling (no, I'm not misusing that term - the water flowed like a river) the rain water to the gazebo.  On Saturday afternoon, David was out in the rain beginning to put in a French Drain that would cause the water to go out into the ditch and away from our Well House and Gazebo.  

Nikki and her Fiance came for Pizza that night so that we could discuss last minute wedding plans; we only had 13 days left till the big day.  Was it all going to get done?  Would I have 4.5 hours worth of Music ready to go for the ceremony and reception?  Did we have a Sound System ready to go?  Enough chairs?  Enough tables?  Which songs would we be using for the special dances?  

Around 8 p.m., they headed home and I went back to work on the Playlists while David went upstair with a notepad and pen to write down everything that he still needed to do.....

And then......

Changing plans~

Strong winds. Lots of bugs. Dappled sunlight. Heavy vehicle traffic in the surrounding fields and roads (i.e. a sod roller that shakes us like I imagine a small earthquake would do) . And a paving stone patio that refused to work well with others (partly due to chickens that love to peck near it) and dirt that refused to support sod no matter how hard we tried. All of these contributed to our overcoming an aversion to a concrete patio and path from the backdoor to the Gazebo. It all went in yesterday.

Over the past 8 years, we learned that bugs are so heavy for 4 - 6 months each year that we are "housebound" for way too many days. We wear bounce sheets tucked in our collars to do yard and garden chores during those months. Sitting on the front porch is a rare thing because either you are being blown so much you don't have to do a thing to rock in the chair (!) or you are being bugged beyond tolerance.

We can tolerate the bounce sheets and the winds; what we find we can no longer live with is being housebound for so many months of each year. The plan was simply to lay concrete inside the frame of the gazebo and roof and screen it. Until it wasn't. The more we talked about it, the more we convinced ourselves that putting in a patio was the right move. Having to reset pavers each year was getting old. The area between the house and gazebo is shielded from the winds most of the time, but keeping grass there was nigh on impossible due to high traffic. And so, last years project of completing the gazebo was put off until this year.....

We placed permanent "holes" on all sides of the patio and walkway so that Tiki Torches will stand firm in the winds and being buffeted by playing dogs and protected from the pecking of the chickens.

And there are fire bricks in the spot where we will build a small fire "pit" for those evenings when there is a chill in the air.

Now comes the job of making that stretch of concrete "fit". This means lots of container planting. We found 2 pairs of concrete planters that will be filled with something in the "heirloom" realm; I've dug out my "Restoring American Garden's" book and been making a plan. The kitchen garden (the brick one just outside the back door and along the foundation) has been planted with Rosemary and Marigolds (they help a little to keep bugs away).

The idea is that folks won't notice the concrete because of the plants that cover it and the pretty torches that line it. I hope that the seating areas draw folks in and make them want to sit and enjoy the view while sipping ice tea or an ice cold beer in the summer and Irish Creme laced hot chocolate in the winter near a small and cozy fire. I know that that is what I''ll be doing!

And if the torches aren't working well enough to keep away the bugs, we'll be able to move into the screened gazebo and sit in cozy chaise lounges or melt away the stress of the day in the hot tub!

There is a lot of work ahead for us....but I am ready!