Tornado?

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It wasn’t a normal passing thunder and lightening storm.  They say tornados should sound like a train…but I couldn’t hear any trains over the sound of our house shaking.

And we  don’t live in a place that gets tornados…. or earthquakes…. or floods….okay so maybe the rules are changing.  But we do get hurricanes and this was way more intense then any hurricane I remember. Either way , I was up yesterday at 3:40am…and that was the last time I saw the time till the generator was successfully hooked up hours later.  Out of our bedroom window I watched the sky light up and could see the sheered remains of our walnut trees. Our house eerily shook like we were in an earthquake…and as I went to grab the baby…it subsided.  After it passed, I whispered into the night, “Please don’t hire those tree guys in the neon green shirts again.  Hire that other guy…the one looking for work….Find out if he knows his way around a chainsaw.”  He agreed as he drifted back to sleep.  I never went back to sleep…and I am not sure how husbands’ do.

  As soon as I could see, I grabbed the lantern and went outside.  I saw how our walnut tree had been polite enough, in its’ demise ,to duck under the power lines which were inconveniently right in it’s way of collapse.  I saw how our faithful blue spruce  ( 3 stories high) had also chosen to miss the power lines as it crashed 5 feet from  where my daughters slept.  I marveled how another one of our walnut trees had splintered and broke all around our vehicles with not even a wayward leaf stuck to the windshield.

By 6am the kids were up and we were clearing the road so we could get out.  The air a buzz with chainsaws as our road was completely blocked.  That friend…the one who might know his way around a chainsaw…was there by 8am…and was excited to get to work!  My husband worked on the generator and we had some power by 9am.

  But my grandparents farm…it is a mess. Fences ruined.  Gates smashed and tangled.  Entire hay wagons picked up and slammed through fences…releasing horses to go wherever they want…and in sheer panic they ran.  The trails we take on our Nature Walks…. impassable.  My 80 year old grandfather is like some crazed kamikaze pilot out there.  Soaked in sweat and dirt he is attaching 5story high pines , that once surrounded his house, to his tractor and dragging them out to the North 40 lot.  The clean up is intense.  And no one can seem to stop him or slow him…So today with chainsaws and clippers and our big family of nine we will walk the trails and we will start to hack away at the destruction.  Well we will see what we can do before the temperatures climb above 100….and then we will all jump in the pool and head home….because tonight is PFW…..and we are so excited for it.  Although we loved…LOVED going to the  wedding last Saturday we are eager to get back to PFW.  So perhaps I will see you there?  I hear He will be there….and it will be air conditioned.

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