*.* Drip *.* Drip *.* Drip *.*

The temperatures are climbing and the ice is beginning to melt! Everything in our yard looks...broken, but... beautifully white and glistening a wonderful silvery sheen as the sun hits the ice trapped branches. Once the snow and ice is gone, the mess left behind will not be so pretty. We have at least 15-20 full 50foot oaks littering our yard and edges of our lot, and many more trees with enough branches fallen or hanging precariously from the wooded canopy that they too will be lost.

The yard was in pretty decent condition on Tuesday morning. We took a few pictures and were grateful we had power. By 3pm, the sleet set in and the storm decided we would be one of the lucky thousands without power. Zach became giddy about the slumber party we were going to have by the fire and entranced by the vision of our house by candle light. He LOVED sleeping in his sleeping bag near the fire and roasting marshmallows through the day.


Below is a view of our side yard from the driveway on Tuesday afternoon, followed by a view of it wednesday morning. All of these trees usually stand about twice the height of our two story home. None of the trees you see in the first photo survived. This is just a glimpse of the mess.

























NEXT is a view of that same side yard zoomed back a bit so you can see even MORE trees tipping down. The tree in the driveway came from nearly 100feet up the hillside to the left. I am sure its difficult to imagine the massive size of these trees. The canopy of each is near twice the size of my Yukon, and each is around 50 feet tall.

The most impressive part of Tuesday night was the scene outside. Since we live in a very wooded part of the city, the night was filled with the sound of trees falling every few seconds (no exaggeration here). Some small branches, then very large trees. Thunderous explosions lit up the sky every few minutes, with brilliant reds and greens casting on the low clouds and shining through the crystallized woods like neon light tubes as all around us transformers exploded. You could have easily convinced someone a full scale military operation was taking place out there....it sounded, and looked, like artillery and weapons firing all around. In between falling trees, you could hear branches squeaking and creaking like old rusty hinges under the tremendous weight of ice and the movement of a slight breeze. Adding to the eerie echoes, was the unbelievable calm and silence of a typical winter storm combined with a powerless, traffic free, motionless city below. So still you felt you could have heard someone calling your name if they were miles away.

Power flickered on around 5am. Then off again. Good news was that most fast food was open and we didnt have to be too concerned about food. The lines at walmart Wednesday snaked from the registers to the back of the store. Trent only popped over to pick up a Carbon Monoxide alarm in case the fireplace filled the house with something noxious thru the night. Power came back around 2pm wednesday. Perfect timing as the house was quickly getting unbearably frigid.

Most of the streets around us are impassable due to downed power lines and trees. The area looks as though a major tornado passed through. But, we are warm, and safe and there is no damage to the house. Trees are still toppling under the weight of the ice and melting icecicles falling into thier branches. The woods are crackling and popping and dripping and still thundering with large, large 50-75 foot trees falling all around. Chainsaws are buzzing in the distance.

I will put together a slideshow of the destruction and add it here when i have a moment. Also, check back in a few...Took both kids to the Dr for their checkups, so i have updates on that too.