Our View…boy has it changed.

This was our view last May about three days before the tornado hit us.  You can see the two ancient pecans that were destroyed in the storm and the backdrop that was the 100 year old barn.  You barely notice the cars parked because of the fence that ran between the old wooden shed (destroyed) and the gate just the other side of the pump house (destroyed); the fence was covered in Confederate Jasmine and had a lemon tree, a cumquat tree and a large rose bush on the yard side.  You can barely see the chicken coop sitting just in front of the old barn and between the two sheds.

This was our view (taken the same day) looking from the barn to the house.  All of this was changed in a storm that barely lasted 4 minutes but has taken us 11 months so far to even begin to set it all right again.  The next photo was taken the day after the tornado and after we'd spent about 8 hours with chainsaws cutting our way from the back porch to the barn.

And the next one is what we've been staring at for the last four months.

A slightly different angle…shot just after we'd spent our first day on a Bobcat moving dirt and rock and the shed.  Note all the junk on the slab behind the fence is NOT ours.  That constitutes the remaining contents of the old barn that has been there since September without him doing much of anything except walk around with his hands on his hips.  WE cleaned up all the trash debris from over there in November - glass, wood, broken pottery, and bits and pieces of barn wood.  

And this is the view we saw after another day on the Bobcat……at least the Barn Junk is out of sight for the most part….

But this is what had us slightly depressed after spending the day moving dirt to form what will eventually be our new driveway and parking area….and had us doing a bit of re-thinking about the layout of it.  There is yet another boat to come in the fence plus three vehicles.  There just isn't room the way we have it now.  Something that looked big enough and "should" have worked according to measurements just won't work after all…plus, I have to say that I don't want to be looking at boats and kayaks from my back patio.

So we walked around and did some more measuring and decided that we'll move the old metal shed (that is only temporary until the new barn/garage is built next spring) forward to line up with the front of the pump house.  This will allow us to hang the kayaks on the back of the shed and park the fishing boat behind the shed hiding them from any view but from the back driveway and allow room for two of the vehicles to pull in right beside the RV. The third vehicle will park behind the RV.  

I immediately knew that for me it was the lack of trees and other landscaping that was bothering me the most…although it is not really noticeable in the photo, it is a sea of various shades of brown.  The grass has been so trampled and damaged from all the reconstruction that it is mostly weeds right now.  Removing one of the paths (the one that sort of leads to the shed but used to lead to our back gate) and replanting grass there will be a big help.  Moving my stone planters in front of the shed to hide the bottom of it will be a temporary solution to looking under the shed while sitting on the patio.  And finally, once the rock is brought in to mark the parking area, adding a black edging and planting a foundation row of boxwoods or something will break up that "sea of various shades of brown".  

You also can't see in the photo, but we've already planted Confederate jasmine on the new fence just the other side of the RV and down the new driveway.  Once that takes off, that will provide a back drop and again draw the eye away from the "sea of …" …you've got it.

And if the Farmer's son ever gets all his junk out of here….

The Barn: Saying Goodbye

Yesterday, our Farmer's son pulled down the remains of the old barn.  He'd salvaged as much as he could of what had been stored inside it for nearly 100 years.  It's been a slow process for him as he dealt with his job, putting both of his parents into nursing homes in the last three months along with the rains and the heat and bugs of a Florida summer.

If David was home while work on the barn was being done, he would spend a lot of time just listening to Douglas as he talked about his memories of that old barn.  How Mr. B showed him how to garden and to work on farm equipment; how he was dared by Mr. B's daughter to ride his bike out the hay loft and onto the ground below, how his Dad and his brother and a couple of others used tractors to pull it back up after Hurricane Dora in the 1960's.  

There are things we can't get to working on ourselves until that old barn is completely hauled off.  We can't have our concrete slab hauled off nor can we get the old metal shed pulled out.  There is a pecan tree on our property that is now leaning so far over with compromised roots that we have a tree guy coming on September 17th to take it down...but David empathized with Douglas and practiced patience as he waited and listened to the recounting of memories as he worked through his emotions.  We all went through that Tornado and its aftermath, but Douglas's journey is different than ours.  He has a lifetime of memories tied up with that old barn and the house he grew up in across the street from us; a house that no longer has both his parents there with him.   He is hauling away bits of his childhood.

Counting Blessings Part Two...

We stare at chaos.  We stare at all that remains to do to fully recover from the tornado.  Sometimes, we snap at each other.  One problem is that the old barn is hindering our progress; another is the rain that we have been getting this summer. It seems each time David gets the tools plugged in and ready to go, the rain comes down and its a race to get it all put safely away again.  So, what to do?

We keep moving forward with the little things.  Today I'm beginning to move out roses, ferns and border grass from the garden that is placed on two sides of the old metal shed.  Since the barn/garage will (eventually) sit where the shed now sits, those plants have to be moved away to make room for first, the new slab that will be poured and then for the construction of the building itself.  We continue to stack wood from the trees that came down.  David works on little things; he put a cat door in the Gazebo wall today (the cats will temporarily have no place to go once the old barn and shed are gone) and worked on a few other things in there.

Every little step forward makes us feel just a bit better, but still, we stare at chaos.  So, when frustration begins to take over, we count our blessings.

Blessing Six and Seven:  We replaced the water treatment system in 2004.  New systems are much more energy efficient.  Our system was nearing the end of its life span and had to be repaired last year (2012), we had plans to replace it this coming fall after we got through the expenses of the wedding.  The tornado took down the Holly Tree which came down upon the well house and the treatment system, destroying both of them.  Although we were without water for almost 48 hours, we now have a new energy efficient treatment system.  Only a few days before the tornado struck us, David warned me that he would be rebuilding a new well house in next year's project time because the old one was starting to have some rot and also was too small to be able to easily work on the pump and treatment system when needed (normal maintenance). His plan was to build it to be a mini version of the Gazebo.  Insurance paid not only for the new system but also the new house that is currently being built.

Blessing Eight:  The new Barn/Garage; we planned on building one when we moved in nine years ago but put aside that plan because of the state of the old barn that bordered our property.  Four hurricanes in 2004 and numerous tropical storms in the years past - specifically Faye who stalled over us for three days - took their toll on that old structure.  We had spoken with our Farmer across the street many times about either our buying the barn from them or his doing some repairs on it...with no success.  All we could do was pray that it would go eventually go down in a way that didn't come down on our structures.  (One might possibly be thinking "well, why did you put your structures so close to it? The answer lies in the way the property boundaries were laid out when the yard was cut out of the farm so many years ago, there was no where else to place those structures.)

In the end, it was trees that took out our structures and the old barn.  With three months of rain in only three days followed by a tornado on that last day of rain, those trees didn't stand a chance of surviving such a direct hit.  When the 100 year old pecan tree was uprooted by the storm, its roots lifted one corner of the barn as the tree fell onto our shed and slab.  The barn roof and siding blew off in the storm as the structure itself came down and went through our metal shed along with hail stones the size of golf balls.  Finally, the winds blew the barn as it fell so that its remains literally lay on our buildings.

This is probably the most difficult "blessing" to remember as we count them off one by one; because this is the one that will take the longest to complete.  The old barn has to be hauled off bit by bit before we can remove our old shed and the destroyed concrete slab.  We can't even begin to rebuild until all of that is done.

But in the end, this will be probably the greatest blessing beside our survival of the tornado.

We just have to keep remembering that!

"After we rebuild"

When we moved here a little over 9 years ago, we planned on putting up a barn/garage.  It would have been built beside the old barn that bordered our property.

After a few weeks of settling in, David and I took our first good look at that old barn.  We realized that it was infested with termites as was the wooden shed that was on our property and which we soon tore down and burned.  

Speaking with the Farmer across the street, we learned the history of that building; a history which included the fact that after Hurricane Dora tore through here years ago, the farmers had taken three tractors and "pulled that barn right back up".  It quickly became clear that putting a lot of money into a new barn/garage would not be wise. We'd need that old barn tented for termites and structurally inspected to ensure that it wouldn't affect our building.  Obviously that wasn't going to happen. 

Over the years we had discussed buying back for our property some of that which had been sold to our Farmer.  

Various things always seemed to get in the way of that being done.  Had we succeeded, we would have put up our own barn/garage in a different area of the property.  

So we made do....

The tornado destroyed not only that old barn, but all of our outbuildings as well.  

While the Farmer's son says they'll rebuild their barn, I doubt that that will actually happen.  They don't actively farm any longer; they lease their fields to other farmers who grow potatoes for Frito Lay.   Regardless of whether they will ever rebuild a barn, we will now be building our own barn/garage....finally. 

We'll haul away the destroyed metal shed and haul away the destroyed slab once the barn is completely off of them. 

Then a new slab will be poured and the barn/garage will be built. It will be able to house not only our camper and two vehicles but also provide a work room and storage room.  

We plan on having a covered porch extending out towards the front of our yard for not only working on projects under cover but in the open air, but also to protect sound systems and open bars for any future large gatherings we have here.  (The plan is to never again have to answer "no" to the question "do you have a back up plan in case of rain?" : ) 

We'll also now be able to recover some "yard" that is currently being used as our parking area.  A new chicken coop will most likely be built there with a covered area for the chickens to safely hunt and gather during those times that they have to be penned for a few days. 

We've been able to salvage the metal roofing from the wooden shed to use on the new Well House. It is under construction as I write this.  David designed it to be a mini version of the gazebo.  It's "footprint" will be larger than the old well house so that working on the system will be easier in the future as well as providing us a temporary place for storing our garden tools (rakes, shovels etc.) until the new barn/garage is built.  

"After we rebuild", this place will look a whole lot different.  I mourn what we lost...two beautiful old trees and that historic 100 plus year old barn.  The charming view we've grown used to is no longer there.  I no longer can gaze out the kitchen window at that barn and I wonder as I stare at the destruction whether I'll ever love the "new" view that will eventually be seen. 

The place will have a new charm since we'll be using wood salvaged from the old barn that the farmer is selling us and will be built to look "old".  But it won't have the same roof line because of how it will have to positioned to fit our property boundaries.  And it won't have the story that that 

old barn had...it won't be filled with "Made by McCoy" pottery that was put there who knows how many years ago; it won't house an antique tractor or tricycles more than 40 or 50 years old. 

"After we rebuild" is a phrase that is getting old about now.  Its taken much longer than anticipated for the farmer's son to remove the barn debris.  There is so much that we can't do until that is a completed job.  I am tired of looking at the chaos that still exists over there.  But, I also know that he is facing the same obstacles that we are...Florida heat and afternoon thunderstorms; the flies and gnats and other biting insects that we deal with during the summer months; not to mention all the responsibilities of caring for his elderly parents at their home and maintaining his own place in a nearby town.

David and I have resurrected an old childhood habit that I learned growing up in a Baptist home...

"Count your blessings, name them one by one.  Count your many blessings, see what God has done!".....  

More about that tomorrow.....

What the barn looks like today....that is our Moggie sitting up on the destroyed roof line!

A Huge Mess...and a Mama almost has a Melt Down!

Saturday May 11th - One Week From The Wedding!

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!

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.  

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

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!

Still relatively sane~

Facebook Post Thursday May 9th (me) - 8:30 a.m. Update - Still relatively sane, check. House foundation, interior walls and metal roof inspected and found safe with minimal damage (a miracle) - Check. Water treatment system installed and running - check. Metal roofing out of tree tops - check. Hangers out of tree tops (dangling limbs) - check. Contents Loss List under way - Check. Wedding playlist within 30 musical minutes of being completed - check. Today's agenda - clean up the limbs and metal that were in the tree tops and are now on the ground. Confirm all the wedding deliveries. Get the John Deere out of the rubble and to the shop for an estimate. Replace all the food lost in the power outage and stop eating take-out every night. And once again...play that wedding music as loud as possible....

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Although our power had been back on since Sunday evening (May 5th) there were still lines down across our driveway on Thursday.  The power company said they belonged to the phone company; we'd flagged them down and told them about them on Sunday..and on Monday...and on Tuesday and again on Wednesday as they continued to drive through our community making repairs.  I had called the phone company on Monday; today I would call them again. Finally, they'd send someone out to get it seen to...or so I thought.  

Only issue was that when the phone company arrived, it wasn't our phone line.  It was the Satellite line.  Another call to that provider and another five days would pass with contractors driving over that line. It was a blessing that we never lost T.V. service despite the wear and tear on that line for 9 days after the storm.

We were also expecting a visit from the power company.  My Tree Lads had told us they didn't feel comfortable getting up into the trees that run the driveway beside the power lines so I placed a call to the power company to have a "specialist" come out to arrange to have the limbs cut back far enough that the men could get up in those trees.  This wasn't the first time we'd placed a call like that with no luck in getting the trees cut back; I hoped that with the damage we had sustained that this time a supervisor would approve the work. 

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When we arrived home from yet another trip to Home Depot and a quick run to the grocery store, friends were already at the house with a chainsaw and wheelbarrow picking up metal roofing and the limbs cut down the night before.  David got right to work with them while I headed in to put away groceries and make several more phone calls to various contractors, speak to insurance adjusters, and work a bit more on the contents loss list before joining them.  

After a few hours of picking up debris, we got to work on getting the John Deere out of the shed.

                                                                    ----------------------

Facebook Post Thursday May 9th (me) 3:00 p.m. So! I think my calmness may be a bit frazzled...David just saved a Contractor from a tongue lashing from me! Some prayers might just do me some good (and protect a few folks from an overworked and overstressed Mama!).

The power company "specialist" came by and said "oh, those limbs are far enough away from the power lines, you don't need us to cut any back".  Luckily for him, he said it to David.  I'd been this route with these folks before when we couldn't get anyone to cut back the limbs from those trees. Lessless than a month after the last "specialist" said we were fine, a huge limb had fallen into the power lines and hung swinging outside my office window for hours until they finally came to take care of it.

David came over and told me that yet again, this so called expert was denying what two tree companies had said was true.  And yet again, despite the fact that a tornado had ripped through our property and there were "widow makers" hanging from the driveway trees,  here we were getting the same story all the while no one was willing to get up into those trees to get rid of those hangers UNTIL the power company cut the limbs back from the lines.

Stalemate.

I started at a near run down the driveway to chase the truck as it was backing out; David caught up with me and said "Lori, wait.  This is a battle we'll fight later; take some photos and get the tree guys to put it in writing that they won't cut the limbs or get the hangers until the power company does its job".  Reluctantly, I agreed.  I knew that it would not be in either mine or the power guy's best interests for me to get into it right then.  My calmness was frazzled.

Despite the frustration with the power company, the yard was picked up after the tree lads work the night before; the John Deere was at the shop; my freezer was filled again, and the pecan tree that had lain for days across our back yard and on our back fence was just a wee bit smaller ....and I'd made it through the day without verbally taking anyone's head off .

PROGRESS!

8 days till the Wedding!

                                                                

Trees and Fences.....and Frustration~Frustration......

Facebook Post May 7th (Hunter) Despite it being smashed, dilapidated, and nearly destroyed, the chickens still use the tool shed as a roost. Stupid, brave birds...

On Wednesday the 8th, I began the day with optimism but as it wore on, frustration began to wear on me.  Phones, door knocks, text messages, scared animals that wouldn't leave my side and barked at the slightest noise and all the things that I saw that needed to be done to hold Nikki's wedding here....I was beginning to think we had undertaken the impossible.

Most frustrating were the fences at this point.  Three of the four gates were damaged. Basically two of the four sides of the fencing were destroyed with huge trees or limbs from trees lying on them.  Our chickens had no safe place to sleep and the dogs could escape the fenced yard at any point they so desired.

Front Gate wouldn't close because one of the posts was broken

Side gate under the collapsed barn

From the front, you couldn't even see the fence; its under those limbs from the topped tree house tree.  Also under those limbs were our beautiful 50 year old azaleas.  

Closeup view from inside the fence line

Backing up a bit, this was the top of the tree house tree.

Walking under the 11 remaining pecan trees and the two cypress trees was nerve wrecking.  Every one of them had "hangers" that could come down at any minute.  And every evening Hunter and I would have to go out and do more cleanup left behind by whatever contractor had been by that day.  (The roof inspector for the house pushed a huge tree limb off and broke a pot that had been placed for the wedding...the damage didn't seem to stop.)

If you click on this to enlarge it, you'll see a "hanger" that fell on Tuesday

Each time I left the property and returned, coming around the corner to the back of the property I was faced with the reality of what we still had ahead of us.  I held back tears as I looked at the destroyed barn and the destroyed Holly Tree that had been a feeding place for hundreds of bees this time of year,  knowing that part of the charm of our home was gone forever.

The Barn.  Photograph by John Binkley 2008

Then I'd walk the property to see if it had been looted while I was away although how I would really be able to tell if it had been was beyond me because it was all such a mess!

By 5:00, I still hadn't seen the Tree Guy that was supposed to come by.  I was tired of waiting.  I texted David and said I was going to call the two guys who had left me their card the day before.  They were done with work for the day when I called their number and explained our situation.  One of their wives took a message and told me she'd let the guys know we had the wedding in 10 days; headed to town to buy materials for another job, they turned around and made a beeline to our house arriving shortly before 6 p.m.....

Just after hanging up the phone, the Tree Guy showed up.  As he walked up to my gate I said, 

"Let's not waste each other's time.  I have a wedding here on the 18th.  Can you get this job done by then?"

He said "No."  

I said, "Thank you anyway."

While he was giving our Farmer's son his estimate, my two Lads pulled up and walked the property with me.  Before the other Tree Guy had finished with our Farmer's son, my two guys had their chain saws out and were taking the trees off the front and side fences and were up in the tree getting rid of the most dangerous of the "hangers".   Before they left and within an hour, they had the front fence cleared and temporarily propped back up.

We placed ladders where the fence was down to at least slow down the dogs.  Luckily, they didn't want to leave our sides when we'd go out with them.  They were in as much shock as the rest of us.

They'd be back on Friday morning. And Saturday morning. And Sunday morning.  They would finally finish up repairing our trees the following Wednesday night (May 14th). They would repair the fences for us and also mow and rake and edge for us to help us get it all done for the wedding.

God Bless Them!

Progress.

9 days until the Wedding.

We've got this....

Facebook Post May 8th (me): Moving forward....Hair done did, check. Shoes for wedding, check. Insurance claims moving forward, check! More clean up done, check. A long but productive day yesterday....Today's agenda....House inspected for hidden damage; Remaining trees removed from structures by professional. Well system finished up...guard the place against potential looters.....and keep sane by playing the Reception dance music at the highest volume possible.....

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Our refrigerator door was covered in lists; one for what needed to be done immediately (water system fixed, hangers out of trees, trees off of fences, fences repaired, driveways cleared), one for the normal wedding tasks (get fitted for tuxedos, buy shoes, get hair done, check on tables and chairs and sound systems, finish the play list, update the caterer on RSVP's);  one that detailed all the things that I needed to do for the four insurance claims we had going; one of outside cleanup things that I could do myself, one of things that David had to do, and one for Hunter to work on.  

Hunter's list hung beside another one that had all the dates and times of everything going on in his life as the school year ended... exam schedule, banquet and concert schedules, SAT and ACT testing schedules etc.  Since he doesn't have his license yet, my Mom stepped in when needed and drove him where he needed to be.  (Thanks, Mom...can't tell you what that meant to us!)

Those lists were probably what helped us get it all done and ready for the 100 plus guests we had coming.  Every day we'd scratch something off that we'd gotten done.  When folks showed up to help us and ask "how can we help?" I'd point to the lists and say there you go and hand them a pen to scratch off what they'd done for us!  On Monday, I had learned the real meaning of a commonly heard phrase.  From Sunday onwards, through the process of cleaning up and making the place safe for the wedding, I also learned just who and what a real friend is!

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Monday May 6th - Nikki and J.C. arrived after lunch to help us continue to clear away what we could do safely.  David had made a path into the shed so that we could access at least some of our things.  He'd also cut away more of the pecan tree so that we could attempt to fix the back fence so that we could at least shut the gate.  And he cut away more of the holly tree to access the water system.

The water guys arrived around 2 p.m. and using a tow chain pulled what remained of the holly tree back up into its water filled hole so they could get to work.  They were able to get the pump working and bypass the destroyed water treatment system so that while we didn't have really good tasting water, we did have water running. 

Before they left, our insurance adjuster showed up and was able to cut them a check for the new system so that they could get it ordered and put in asap.  It would go in on Thursday (May 9th).

Tuesday May 7th - David and our Farmer's son (who had been working on clearing the barn away) both had to return to work leaving me to "guard" all the property that now lay scattered about.  Pressure washers, push mowers...anything that we had been able to pull out from under was now laying out in the open.  "Lookie Lous" were walking right up into our yard just to take a look and had been doing so since Monday afternoon.  You know those signs "protected by Smith and Wesson"?  Let's just say I was ready for trouble if it should come my way....

My phones were ringing off the hook with calls from Contractors and Insurance Adjusters (one for each vehicle - I soon lost count of how many times I explained that, while damaged, the vehicles  were drivable and right now we were simply trying to get our life back together and would deal with the vehicles later.)

At one point I was dealing with three different Contractors on the property doing inspections and giving estimates plus "Lookie Lous" and David texting for updates and.....I was barely hanging onto my sanity.  

Now that we had water, the most important thing to me was to get the trees off the fences and get those repaired....but we still had not heard from the Tree Guy that our Farmer's son had called.  A couple of young lads drove up and gave me their card...luckily I put it where I could find it because on Tuesday evening, I was getting tired of waiting..........

10 days left until the wedding....

"You can't see the forest for the trees"

Sunday Evening May 5th

Facebook Post May 5th: (Me) Many of you have texted or called and asked if the Wedding is still on!  You bet it is!  Now it will be a celebration not only of Marriage but of Life itself!

Despite the DishNetwork Cable that lay on the ground across our driveway, our T.V.'s were working when the power came back on.  So after returning from Nikki's house, we all sat down to try and relax a bit.  

I'd been recording "Smash" during the 8:00 hour the night before; in fact, David had been watching something when it came on while I was in the office working on the playlists.  He'd hit mute and headed upstairs to watch his game.  So, Sunday evening I sat down to watch the recording.  Fifteen minutes into it, they broke into Severe Weather coverage at our local network and tracked the circular motion that had prompted the Tornado Warning that I knew nothing about. 

What a weird feeling to watch that Doplar Radar map and see the system heading straight towards us.  I actually saw the map focus in on our 3 roads...and then the recording ended.  That is when our power had gone out as I was heading down the stairs with Hunter and King. 

As I wrote earlier, the fact that I was unaware of the approaching storm was not normal.  But, in hindsight, I feel blessed that I was totally oblivious until seconds before the tornado hit us.  There was no time to be frightened.  There was only time to react.  

Facebook Post May 5th: (Nikki) Thanking God my family is alive and whole, now the wedding site on the other hand....but things like this bring it all into perspective. I dont care if we are standing in a tree! We are still gonna party..celebrating life and love!!! I love you, Mom, Daddy, and Hunter! We got this!
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Facebook Post May 6th: (Me) Update...The Chickens are ALIVE. The water is on and the whole system will be replaced tomorrow. Still have phone and satellite lines lying on the ground but the power is on, water is flowing, and i have internet! Feeling pretty good tonight!

Monday May 6th

Adrenaline is a funny thing.  It is needed when one is in the middle of any sort of stressful situation.  For the next month, David and I would find that we hit the floor after about four hours of sleep.  It didn't matter what time we went to sleep, four hours later we were up with cups of coffee waiting for the sun to come up and for businesses to open.

It would turn out that Monday was the calmest day we would experience of the next 10 days.  We had the time to really walk our property with the insurance adjuster and see the damage.  

We made a run to the Home Depot to replace tools that were under the barn or the collapsed wooden shed or inside the as of yet unentered metal shed...I can't tell you how many times on Sunday we heard "do you have a ? tool?"....we'd point to the barn and sheds and the person would go "oh".  

After that run to town, I experienced the true meaning of the phrase I used as a title for this post ...walking up to the sagging back gate I saw what looked like a sapling growing in my jasmine garden.  Aggravated because I'd been weeding gardens for weeks in preparation for the wedding,  I leaned over and said "how in the world did you spring up so fast?" and began tugging at it to pull it out of the ground.  

view from inside the fence Monday a.m.

I heard David chuckle behind me and as I looked up and began to turn around to ask 

what was so darned funny...it hit me....

view from inside the fence Monday a.m.

That was not a sapling springing up in my garden.  

It was a little branch....

on a limb..... 

of the 100+ year old tree....

that lay on our fence.

I couldn't see the forest for the trees.

THAT is what the phrase means. 

Its when your brain is so overwhelmed by the destruction before you that it can't process it all at once.  It focuses in on the little things and then moves outward.  

We'd experience a lot of that over the next days. 

11 days until the wedding......