This came as a surprise!

Sitting out here enjoying the rain and the breeze as hurricane Michael drew closer... 

thinking, this is as bad as it's going to get, so I'll make a little video. Something to blog about...

Well, as it got later and darker, the winds got stronger and louder.

Friends, I know very good and well that the bit of damage we got is nothing compared to the devastation in Florida and even in other parts of North Carolina...

it was just so unexpected...

Around supper time on Thursday, in fact, I was in the middle of cooking supper when the power began going off then coming back on, over and over until finally we had no power at all. Heavy blowing rain, tree limbs, pine boughs, and pine cones began hitting the house and littering the porches and yard.

I've never known Poppy to be as nervous and worried as he was during all this wind. He felt like a tree might hit the house at any moment.

and one did fall! How lucky we are, this tall cedar landed dead center between the house and the shop...

All this happening at the edge of dark made it even scarier. I hate not being able to see what's going on.

We were out first thing the next morning to see how things looked. Lots of new stuff litters the ground, to be sniffed out.

and around the corner, a maple tree split and fell into the pond...

This old tree should have been cut down years ago but was home to a Pileated woodpecker and a nest of baby squirrels, so we left it. :(

looks like Poppy is missing one of his fishing chairs...

That's not an animal in the water, it's the end of a brush Poppy is using to clean the leaves off the drain pipe. 

Come Friday, the early morning sun sure looked pretty.

I have hauled off load after load of sticks and tree branches and pine cones, and haven't even made it to the back yard yet. 

Our good neighbors Kristine and Robert who live, (as our other neighbor Miss Ann says), "down in the bottom," called and said they would like to have the big cedar tree that fell during the storm. Absolutely! You are most welcome to it, we told them! Kristine makes beautiful crafts using only natural things from the woods.  

So Kristine and Robert got here early yesterday and we started hacking away at the big cedar tree...

Robert used the chainsaw

Poppy used the four wheeler to pull some of the big heavy logs. 

Kristine used her very own chain saw with jaws that close around the tree limbs. A much safer saw for women to use. Now, that's what I need! She cut most all the limbs from the big cedar. I forgot to take a picture. But here, she is showing me how the saw works on a smaller tree. 

By the time we got to the bottom of the tree with the root ball still attached, Robert's chainsaw was dull. Probably a good thing as they were tired and needed a break. 

So they left for home with the second truck load of cedar, and will come back later for the rest of the tree. What a big help this was to Poppy and me!

Sweet Weetie watched from her cool bed in the monkey grass.

Well, I've talked your ears off and probably bored you to tears with all the pictures, but maybe you will come back. :)

Love,
Henny