Trees and Wind Don't Mix

The afternoon of my LASIK surgery will not be forgotten.  As I lay on the couch with my eyes closed (per doctor's orders), I could hear a storm brewing outside and my mother watching what was going on through the windows and on the radar.

After it had calmed down and moved on, my neighbor rang the doorbell to check if we were alright.  My mom went outside with her to survey the damage -- a section of a tree down in our front yard; sticks and branches down everywhere; and a large limb down that fell in the neighbor's driveway, feet from her van!  After I hit 4 hours with my eyes closed, I got to go outside (with my awesome wrap around sunglasses) to see what all I had missed.

Thank goodness for God's protection!  My parents' brand new Prius (by new, I mean 2 weeks old!) was outside in our driveway under a tree, but there were no limbs anywhere near the car!  WHEW!  We had thought about pulling it into the garage but that was after the rain had started and I couldn't go outside and my mom didn't want to go outside.

With the help of our neighbor's son, we got the limbs all cut up, piled up, and put on the edge of the road in hopes of the city picking them up.  We got mixed information as to whether or not the city takes care of it.  We'll find out soon enough.

(Limb down in the front yard)

(Same limb down in the front yard)

(Neighbor's son helping with a chainsaw -- thanks Jon!)

(We didn't take pictures of the limbs down all throughout the yard, but I took pictures of the piles.  This pile is on the back patio.)

(Here's another pile form the backyard.)

(Here is another pile next to the garage.  This is also where the big limb fell close to our neighbor's van, but we didn't get a picture of the crime scene.  We have a green garbage can provided by the city that we can fill with sticks, leaves, weeds, grass, etc.  Steve did break up some of the branches and filled the can quickly with them.  The rest we will just pile up next to the cans in hopes of the city picking it up -- and not fining us!)

(Another wind fatality.  This tree in the middle of the rose bushes had a wood stake helping to hold it up, but it hasn't fared well over the years and the stake broke in the wind.  We will be re-staking it in hopes of saving the tree, but it may be too late.)