We usually hike a waterfall on our anniversary (and on Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's. We like waterfalls.) But this year it sounded like it would be too wet so I thought it would be nice to sit in the warm house and read through my accounts in my blog books of previous anniversary adventures. (I gather all my blog posts from the year into a book at the end of the year.)
However, we had an ice storm instead the night before, lost power, had 3 hysterical horses as trees and tree limbs kept snapping off and sounding like gun shots. An apple tree came down next to the horse barn and many branches of the big poplar next to the barn came down. No way were the horses going to stay in the barn. I let them out into the field. With every CRACK of falling timber, the horses raced away from the sound across the field only to race back when a tree on the other side of the field went down.
Lots of friends called to see if we were okay. I don't think any of them knew they were calling on our anniversary. A very memorable anniversary. Fortunately, we did not lose phone service. Johnny spent the day clearing our long drive from the road and then, on Valentine's Day, clearing trees off the driveway in front of the house so I could get to the horse barn in my EZ Go, that I haul manure in. I mostly just took photos. I had dropped a heavy long gate on myself a couple days before and was not in great shape. On Monday, Johnny worked on 91 year old neighbor Irv's water line, which had been destroyed in the storm. Irv still has no water and power as of today, Tuesday. Johnny is up there working on it as I type. I managed to cut my way through the mess in our yard to get into the garden. (We still have chard and violas that I use in salads.) The goats are getting lots of broken leafy bamboo.
I'll take photos and tell the gate story in another post. It was not one of my finest hours.
Yesterday, Monday, our power came back on at noon. Last night we had hot showers. It's amazing what a hot shower can do for a sore body and stressed mind.
What follows is the storm in photos.
Below is the path from house to goat barn with the shrubs and trees on either side iced and about 2 feet off the ground.
Although destructive, the ice was also beautiful.
The chicken yard fence...
These broken and bent tops of the poplar by the horse barn straightened back up after the ice melted.
One apple tree in the orchard next to the horse barn was completely uprooted.
Horse paddock gate with paddock behind. Horses were out in the field, refusing to come in.
Barely recognizable below is the bench on the dam between machine shed and orchard
Below is the top of the Linden tree, all branch tops broken off and littering our back yard.
The pretty birch tree out our side yard is not so pretty anymore... the top branches were all broken.
Below is the winter blooming jasmine, still blooming in the portion not covered with ice.
Here is the blooming Daphne before the storm...
And after, covered with broken limbs from the cherry tree above.
The passage into the garden, which I cut a hole through on Tuesday.
The drive going in front of our house, choked with limbs from the poplar tree.
The yellow is Johnny's rain gear as he saws down yet another broken tree in the driveway.
In photo above, a barely discernable tractor beyond the blockage is our neighbor, clearing from his end to help us out.
Johnny dragging yet another load out of the driveway to the back field.
Many people are still without power. But at least we are used to wild winter weather in the north part of the U.S. Now a storm has hit Texas and they are much less able to cope. Here's hoping the rest of 2021 behaves better.
But we did, after all, have a very memorable 54th anniversary.
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