The Mighty Has Fallen.

June 2006.
Tiny E studying grass under the silver oak in our back yard.




August 2006.
TinyE practicing first steps and playing under the tree in our front yard.






Last Friday night, a violent storm took its toll on the large tree that resided in our back yard. The stress of 80mph winds was too much for the rotting core, and the tree tore right down between the two trunks, sending the eastward side through all of our power and cable lines, taking them to the ground and smashing the entire east portion of our fence.

It landed four feet from the new addition we completed in 2006 – where Baby S and I were just finishing a 3:00am feeding.

The power outage and continued violence of the storm sent Dave and me scurrying into the front room, children in our arms, where we tried calling the power company to report the live power lines that were twisted around the fallen tree. After listening to the on-hold message for AN HOUR, we crossed our fingers that the tree wouldn't burst into flames and tried to go back to bed.

Waking again around 8am, our family was in a huge funk – no air conditioning, no lights, no way to cook breakfast for the girls, and worst of all (to me), three day's worth of rapidly thawing breast milk in the refrigerator. We eventually high-tailed it to the house of our (once again) saviors, Dave's parents.

Back in the cities, our other savior soon came along. The contractor who built our addition is also a good friend—let's call him Andrew—he sent his electrician over on Monday to repair the power mast (which was ripped from the roof) and we were only out of power for three days (as of this writing, the power company has YET to visit our house).

Andrew and his crew also took on the job of removing the fallen tree and cutting down the remaining portion.

With more sadness, Dave and I eyed the tree in our front yard as well — it has three separate trunks, a similarly rotting middle, and two of the trunks lean perilously over the front of the house and TinyE's room. When we voiced our concerns about this tree, Andrew offered to remove it as well, for no added cost. Two trees gone – for the price of one. I trust that all the activity in our yard this week will remind our neighbors to ask us for Andrew's name when they need the same kind of work done… and he will more than make up for his generosity towards us.

So this week we're saying goodbye to two quite wonderful trees that have shaded and protected our home through all the season.

Thanks to our friend Stu for the pictures he took Saturday morning, right after the storm.

And check out the news report that was broadcast live from our front yard (even though we told them that the real storm damage was in the back yard).