LONG POST COMING…… BEWARE…..
Okay well I'm back blogging. I not only miss rambling on
here a bit but I hate that I've taken so much time off from sharing pictures
with my family. Okay yeah yeah Mom I am finally getting around to posting some
pictures. No more getting on my case. I can't find where Clay put the card
reader so I can't get the loads of pictures that I have on there but I DO have
some of the pictures from the tornado and I'll share that tale.
So a few weeks ago now, or was it a couple weeks?, anyhoo, a little ways back a
tornado ripped through the hollow behind our house. It was an interesting life
experience, that's for sure. So... we're watching tv on a Tuesday sometime in
the last few weeks. Okay before I go on, can I say that for the last two
Tuesdays before that it rained horribly and the satellite went out and I missed
watching the Biggest Loser. I think the Lord is telling me something about
watching that show. Because the tornado came and had me miss the third Biggest
Loser. But I digress.
So we're watching tv. They of course obnoxiously right as the Biggest Loser
started, cut to the weather and there was a big storm a-coming. So we spent the
next half an hour watching them talk about potential tornadoes and baseball
sized hail and 100 mph winds. It was fascinating. It was during the Biggest
Loser but fascinating nonetheless. So there comes a point when one of the big
supercells (or whatever you call it when it's a super strong cell of a
storm) well so it looks like it is coming somewhere by where we live. So
I ask Clay. Where on this map are WE? "Ahhh way over here. Don't be a
worrier, blah blah" Um.. right. So I get the laptop and check and low and
behold it's coming right for us. So amidst more talk of me being a worry wart I
convince Clay to move the van to under this small cedar tree in case of hail.
He does. I continue to be a worrier and make sure all the children are sitting
on the couch by me. :)
But it doesn't rain. It wasn't stormy. Or windy. Or rainy. It wasn't at all. We
kept talking about how is there supposed to be this monster storm when it
wasn't storming. It didn't suddenly stop, it never started. So we're talking
about that. I mean the news people said the storm wouldn't be here for at least
15 minutes or more. Sure weather people. And then it got QUIET. Yeah that eerie
quiet. So Clay goes and peeks out the door. He cracks it about 18 inches or so
to look out.
And he sees it. The big black cloud.
And he hears it. The sound of trees imploding. The sound of
the giant tree in front of the house coming down.
And I see it. The look on Clay’s face. The look of terror.
The look that says get the children up this moment and get them under the
stairs. 15 minutes my rear end weather people.
So Clay goes to shut the door and he can’t. He had to push
as hard as he could to get it shut and latched the latch to keep it shut. The
power went out. Cassie screamed. I yelled for everyone to get under the stairs.
And we sat. There wasn’t time to be scared, or freak out, or worry. It all
happens so fast. And the Lord gives you peace that is beyond your
understanding. Perhaps for the children more than anything. Frankie luckily had
his spy glasses with lights on them he got for Christmas. So he had those lit
as we sat in the dark and listened to the sounds going on. Then it was over.
Almost anticlimactic in a way.
Are you bored with my story yet? I’m getting there. Can you
imagine how many times I’ve told it? Well.. what’s once more?
So we all get out from the stairs, find the two tiny half
melted candles we have from the last time the power went out. Okay, you’d think
we would have gotten candles after that last time so we wouldn’t have had
candle nubs to use the tornado night but nope. That’s not how we roll. And… do
we have candles now? Oh come on. Don’t you know us well enough by now to know
we wouldn’t have gotten around to getting candles?
The next few hours were spent with Clay going up to the pay
phone to make different calls while I finished reading Mr. Popper’s Penguins, then
going on to read the book Heidi by candlelight. We also had the yummy dessert,
sliced bananas with chocolate syrup drizzled over. If you haven’t tried it,
it’s great. It was when we were at the
table eating when Frankie noticed this:
Okay I admit. That is when the flames started getting bigger. BUT that is not with cropping. That is me standing on our back porch taking that picture. So...our nearest neighbor is a sawmill. Up until now we couldn’t
actually SEE the sawmill from our house because of the thick woods but of
course now we can. Sawmills regularly burn. The tornado of course fanned the
flames. Clay called the fire dept and they said they were too busy. Lovely.
They said that if it started to threaten us or our house to call them back.
Even better. So now we had to stay awake until the fire got big enough to call
back. And it did. I mean there are mountains of sawdust as large as our house.
Clay went over there and said that was what was on fire. So eventually the
flames were gargantuan and Clay drove down and called back. The finally showed
up at 2 am. Sleep? What’s that?
So we finally get to sleep. I drift off thanking the Lord
profusely for his mercy and excited to see what the outside is going to look
like.
I awoke to the sound of chainsawing as Clay was
clearing the large tree out of the front. Turns out that tree fell right where
our Minivan was. Yeah the one I was told I was a worry wart about when I made
him move it. Yeah I said “I told you so”. I don’t get to do that very often you
know. Turns out Frankie had been up with Clay for hours. They had already
walked the whole woods and cut trees. So here are some pictures. Let's start with some general tornado carnage pictures. These next few show how the tornado just mowed down the trees as it went past. The force is amazing.
Okay in this last one it might not be clear what that picture is. It was a thick wooded area. Yet right down the middle it got run over my a tornado lawnmower. It was thick trees. Now it's leveled. This is back behind our house. It ran through the hollow behind our house. It skipped up into our yard as the hollow splits right behind our house then it decided to go one way and kept going.
This next one coming up is one of Clay's favorite things. It never ceases to amaze him the force of the tornado. These trees weren't just broken off, they were twisted off. Does that make sense? They look like pencil tips. Pointy. This is also behind our house.
This next one is our yard. It also used to be thick woods. In the dead of winter you still couldn't see the horizon like you can in this picture. Our entire treeline is GONE. We felt a tad secluded in the back but now it feels open and bare.
Next, a moment of silence for our trampoline.
And somehow despite minor damage our chicken coop made it through fine despite a tree falling on it. Like our house, the chicken house was full of occupants that the Lord spared from any injury. I bet those birds were freaked out though!
A quick note about this next one. Cedars are WEAK. Every single one of our cedars broke. No, not roots coming out, but broke. Hmm I can't find the picture I have of the big cedar broken in half. Well tomorrow., But here's one to show you how lame that the best winter trees we had were so weak.
The next 2 or three are to show how the children find the whole thing one giant playground. I guess it is and I would to if I were them.
Okay it's late and I'm tired. All my cute pictures of the children are on the other computer. So I will leave you with a picture that is SO common here. Every time I look sweet Cassie has this baby, smiling at him, making him laugh, showing him things. His head isn't that bad now. That was a bad period. Ignore the owies on his head :)
Goodnight!
