Rita Adventure: Part Deux
Day two.
We arise groggily to find that we have no electricity. Sometime during the night there must have been a surge. Thankfully nothing caught on fire, and hopefully no appliances were compromised (though we won't know that until power is restored). We have a generator that we can fire up, to run the well pump and anything electric we need. In the meantime we have plenty of food, bottled water, and even a propane stove. My parents are awesome. They have stockpiled enough canned goods and rice and beans and all KINDS of stuff that we could survive there without anything else for probably months. You guys ROCK.
Anyway, we spent most of Saturday taking turns sitting at the sliding door at the back of the house (the front porch was and is unstable, and who'd want to sit there watching traffic zoom by anyway when the back opens to their gorgeous acreage?). There was always at least one of us there keeping a vigil over two trees very close to the house whose roots seemed to beall but disconnected to the ground. The trees swayed with every wind gust, and, should one or both trees topple, we were all prepared to make a mad dash for the relative safety of the hallway.
Though winds were fierce enough to have laid down several trees, they had calmed enough by midday so we could have that sliding door open. We all thought that something had fallen on one end of the house, since there seemed to be a creaking noise on the roof. We didn't actually go outside enough to check until later in the day. Even Darrin took a turn at sitting with my mom at the open sliding door. Oblivious of the danger we had survived thus far, he derived great pleasure from trying to "catch" the wind in his hands.
Later, we ventured outside, still keeping a pensive watch on the teetering trees, but feeling safe enough to survey the damage. Shingles were everywhere, but the roof was intact! A branch had fallen and was on the roof, so that must explain the creaking noise. No trees had fallen on the house. No, wait....
Miracle #3: No trees had fallen on the house...although one tree did fall TOWARDS the house. It sat, suspended in time, held at a 45 degree angle by two other trees that happened to be between it and the house. There is a God.
In fact, no tree fell on any building on my parents' property: house, well house, dog house (a disused 2-room chicken coop). Even the old buildings on their newly-acquired land next door (making their yard a comfy 5 acres) had been saved, and now we get to the next amazing bit, but first you need some backstory. The new land had a house on it that was probably 100 years old, lots of damage, but maybe someday they can fix it up and actually live there. It also had two small houses or buildings on cement block foundations, one of which they had wanted to move closer to their residence (a few hundred feet maybe), and set it up as a shop for my mom. The other shop is decidedly dad's workshop, and mom would like a shop for her crafts and sewing and stuff like that. Anyway, they had just a week ago begun trying to move mom's future shop. They had laid down some small tree trunks for it to roll over, chained the building to their backhoe, and had managed to pull it maybe 50-100 feet, as far as they could manage without more people to help.
Miracle #4: a tree fell where the future shop building HAD BEEN. They knew they wouldn't be able to move it very far without help, but had felt such an impetus to get it moved that they would go ahead and move it however far they could manage, and later get help to move it the rest of the way. Can't anyone convince me (or them) that it wasn't God Himself whot planted that urge so they would move the shop such a short distance before the storm. If they hadn't, the building would have been crushed, irrepairable. Wow.
My sweetie decides that since the storm is waning as the day goes on, and people in town are already cleaning up the debris on the roads, he's going to head back home to see how things are there. Hopefully, everything's okay. After all, the storm hit HERE instead of there, right? Just in case our home is without power or anything worse has befallen it, we decide he should go home with the two cats, but Darrin and Mommy should stay with my family here. Sure, we're without electricity here too, but at least we're with family and we have supplies and we're safe. Before he leaves, around dusk, something else of note happens.
We're all sort of hanging around; what is there to do realy yet? we can't even clean up at all, since FEMA must actually SEE the damage firsthand to help you. So, we're all outside still checking things out, still keeping a wary eye on the wobbly trees, when I see Trapper the dog trot up towards the porch, and it's not a chew toy that he has in his mouth. Oh dear. I'm thnking, he's an opportunist, right? Taking advantage of fallen trees to scavenge for new food sources and playthings. So, I get my mom to go see what it is he's got. (Though she didn't have any intention of owning another pet, Trapper came to her one day out of nowhere and refused to leave. So it is, we have a new pet.) He releases a small, wet, furry bundle into her hands, and after some arguments, it is decided it most resembles a squirrel. Yes, it simply must be a baby squirrel. Unsure of its fate after having been so very cold and wet, we figured we would at least try to save it. We bundled it up in towels and plastic around that for insulation, leaving just the face visible. We think it's breathing, but we'll see. Meanwhile, Trapper's nowhere to be seen again...until he comes back, with another odd something in his mouth. Oh no, I think, still sure he's just a carnivore. trapper is, after all, a HUGE creature, probaby the sizwe of a full-grown labrador, and he's obviously just a puppy, maybe a few months old.
As I watch, he places his parcel on the ground, where he had brought the first baby, and then backs off a bit, and looks at me. I go toward him and he points to the tiny creature with his nose and looks at me again. This is no ordinary dog, I think. Without the ability to speak, this dog has just told me, "I brought another baby. I know you can save it. I can't; I'm just a dog. Please help." His seond bundle is another baby suirrel, cold and wet, but making hopeful little squeaking noises. We bundle it up as the first one, and we have them both in a cardboard box.
Miracle #5: Trapper, a huge, clumsy puppy, finds and rescues two baby squirrels, bringing them to us IN HIS MOUTH without so much as scratching them.
My sweetie leaves for home and arrives in three hours, which is the usual amoutn of time such a trip takes. Our house is exactly as we left it, with power and phones and everything. Thank you God.
And the rest will have to wait for my next post.... Darrin's awake from his nap, so it may be awhile. Stay tuned.
We arise groggily to find that we have no electricity. Sometime during the night there must have been a surge. Thankfully nothing caught on fire, and hopefully no appliances were compromised (though we won't know that until power is restored). We have a generator that we can fire up, to run the well pump and anything electric we need. In the meantime we have plenty of food, bottled water, and even a propane stove. My parents are awesome. They have stockpiled enough canned goods and rice and beans and all KINDS of stuff that we could survive there without anything else for probably months. You guys ROCK.
Anyway, we spent most of Saturday taking turns sitting at the sliding door at the back of the house (the front porch was and is unstable, and who'd want to sit there watching traffic zoom by anyway when the back opens to their gorgeous acreage?). There was always at least one of us there keeping a vigil over two trees very close to the house whose roots seemed to beall but disconnected to the ground. The trees swayed with every wind gust, and, should one or both trees topple, we were all prepared to make a mad dash for the relative safety of the hallway.
Though winds were fierce enough to have laid down several trees, they had calmed enough by midday so we could have that sliding door open. We all thought that something had fallen on one end of the house, since there seemed to be a creaking noise on the roof. We didn't actually go outside enough to check until later in the day. Even Darrin took a turn at sitting with my mom at the open sliding door. Oblivious of the danger we had survived thus far, he derived great pleasure from trying to "catch" the wind in his hands.
Later, we ventured outside, still keeping a pensive watch on the teetering trees, but feeling safe enough to survey the damage. Shingles were everywhere, but the roof was intact! A branch had fallen and was on the roof, so that must explain the creaking noise. No trees had fallen on the house. No, wait....
Miracle #3: No trees had fallen on the house...although one tree did fall TOWARDS the house. It sat, suspended in time, held at a 45 degree angle by two other trees that happened to be between it and the house. There is a God.
In fact, no tree fell on any building on my parents' property: house, well house, dog house (a disused 2-room chicken coop). Even the old buildings on their newly-acquired land next door (making their yard a comfy 5 acres) had been saved, and now we get to the next amazing bit, but first you need some backstory. The new land had a house on it that was probably 100 years old, lots of damage, but maybe someday they can fix it up and actually live there. It also had two small houses or buildings on cement block foundations, one of which they had wanted to move closer to their residence (a few hundred feet maybe), and set it up as a shop for my mom. The other shop is decidedly dad's workshop, and mom would like a shop for her crafts and sewing and stuff like that. Anyway, they had just a week ago begun trying to move mom's future shop. They had laid down some small tree trunks for it to roll over, chained the building to their backhoe, and had managed to pull it maybe 50-100 feet, as far as they could manage without more people to help.
Miracle #4: a tree fell where the future shop building HAD BEEN. They knew they wouldn't be able to move it very far without help, but had felt such an impetus to get it moved that they would go ahead and move it however far they could manage, and later get help to move it the rest of the way. Can't anyone convince me (or them) that it wasn't God Himself whot planted that urge so they would move the shop such a short distance before the storm. If they hadn't, the building would have been crushed, irrepairable. Wow.
My sweetie decides that since the storm is waning as the day goes on, and people in town are already cleaning up the debris on the roads, he's going to head back home to see how things are there. Hopefully, everything's okay. After all, the storm hit HERE instead of there, right? Just in case our home is without power or anything worse has befallen it, we decide he should go home with the two cats, but Darrin and Mommy should stay with my family here. Sure, we're without electricity here too, but at least we're with family and we have supplies and we're safe. Before he leaves, around dusk, something else of note happens.
We're all sort of hanging around; what is there to do realy yet? we can't even clean up at all, since FEMA must actually SEE the damage firsthand to help you. So, we're all outside still checking things out, still keeping a wary eye on the wobbly trees, when I see Trapper the dog trot up towards the porch, and it's not a chew toy that he has in his mouth. Oh dear. I'm thnking, he's an opportunist, right? Taking advantage of fallen trees to scavenge for new food sources and playthings. So, I get my mom to go see what it is he's got. (Though she didn't have any intention of owning another pet, Trapper came to her one day out of nowhere and refused to leave. So it is, we have a new pet.) He releases a small, wet, furry bundle into her hands, and after some arguments, it is decided it most resembles a squirrel. Yes, it simply must be a baby squirrel. Unsure of its fate after having been so very cold and wet, we figured we would at least try to save it. We bundled it up in towels and plastic around that for insulation, leaving just the face visible. We think it's breathing, but we'll see. Meanwhile, Trapper's nowhere to be seen again...until he comes back, with another odd something in his mouth. Oh no, I think, still sure he's just a carnivore. trapper is, after all, a HUGE creature, probaby the sizwe of a full-grown labrador, and he's obviously just a puppy, maybe a few months old.
As I watch, he places his parcel on the ground, where he had brought the first baby, and then backs off a bit, and looks at me. I go toward him and he points to the tiny creature with his nose and looks at me again. This is no ordinary dog, I think. Without the ability to speak, this dog has just told me, "I brought another baby. I know you can save it. I can't; I'm just a dog. Please help." His seond bundle is another baby suirrel, cold and wet, but making hopeful little squeaking noises. We bundle it up as the first one, and we have them both in a cardboard box.
Miracle #5: Trapper, a huge, clumsy puppy, finds and rescues two baby squirrels, bringing them to us IN HIS MOUTH without so much as scratching them.
My sweetie leaves for home and arrives in three hours, which is the usual amoutn of time such a trip takes. Our house is exactly as we left it, with power and phones and everything. Thank you God.
And the rest will have to wait for my next post.... Darrin's awake from his nap, so it may be awhile. Stay tuned.
posted by Brandi Rae | 1:41 PM
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