Around 8:30 this morning our hydro went out. Not surprising considering it was pretty windy out. When we kept hearing a knocking sound at the door we decided to look out the window to see what the noise was from and noticed a plastic chair that was on the porch had blown against the door. Shortly afterwards there was a rather loud "knock" at the door and so we looked out the window and the chair was no longer there .... no could we see it anywhere on the yard.
A look in the other direction showed that our swing set had blown over
Another window indicated that our play slide set was going for a bit of a ride (it was originally on the other side of the property).
I went outside to gather the lawn chair and a few other items before they took off on us. I assured Matthew that the actual slide part was laying flat on the ground so it wouldn't blow away, nor would his ride-on cars ... I was wrong
Mid morning we were busy in the kitchen when we heard some load rattling and banging and looked out the living room window in time to see our metal garden shed bounce off the side of the house and then continue on it's way across the road ... a small piece of it had a little runin with the tree on it's way across the road
The rest of it bounced across the road and then landed in the field on the other side of the road
Well as you can imagine the shed was not empty and that meant I had to make a made dash outside to gather up as much of our belongs as possible before they all disappeared across the road, or who knows where also. I have never been outside in winds that strong and literally felt myself being blown over at times. I was also rather afraid of what might come blowing at me with the next gush of wind ... especially with the leftover shed pieces still laying about. Patio stones had actually been lifted up and moved with the shed when it blew off. I managed to put whatever stones I could on top of the leftover shed pieces to keep them in place.
The garden shed was behind the shop where you can see stones spread out. This picture was taken after I had cleaned up all the chairs and buckets and balls and such. Behind the porch railing you can see our little wading pool. When I went inside it was standing behind the shop (it had been between the garden shed and the shop). I had looked at it and thought I should probably move it but knew there was no way I'd be able to get it into the shop as the wind was too strong for me to carry smaller items already. I had to make another trek outdoors when I seen it making it way across the yard to find some more bricks to put inside it to hopefully keep it in place
The items that were closer to the house I just threw in the entrance hall ... I wasn't going to bother trying to drag them to the shop. While I was outside Matthew was crying up a storm in the house and when I got back in he kept asking if we could go somewhere else where he couldn't hear the wind (yes we have an old house so it can get rather breezy indoors when it is outdoors)
If you look closely at this picture (you probably have to click on it to enlarge it). You can see some yellow behind the bush on the right side of the picture. I had thought that the ditch would stop the slide playset from going across the road .... I was wrong again. It is now in several pieces throughout the neighbours field
The above picture shows one of the several tree limbs that came down. Last time we had a bit of extra wind I had suggested to Rob that we park the van away from the trees so nothing would fall on it. He assured me that he had just trimmed the trees by the van so it would be fine.
Well thankfully at this stage it is still fine ... but if you note the closest tree in the picture that is divided in two at the base ... you will also note that the right side of this tree is split near the top. It is stuck in the tree beside it and hopefully nothing blows it from there as it could do some damage if it blows towards the house.
Around 1pm I received a call that they were closing school for the day (hydro had also been out there since early morning) and asking parents to pick up their kids as it was unsafe for the buses to go. Apparently our brand new bus that just made it's very first run that morning had a tree blown into the windshield and damaged it. On our way to and from school we seen some of the other damage around us ... trees blown over, fence, sign, swingset blown over, barn (really old and needed to be taken down) blown down, even some of the road signs had been blown flat to the ground. Shortly after 3pm the hydro came back on. It continues to be windy, but nothing like it was earlier.
We stand in awe of how the weather can change from one minute to the next and remember that this also is controlled by God. We are thankful that there was no serious damage or injuries and realize that this is only small in comparison to what some go through with hurricanes and earthquakes. Our property definitely needs some work to become more "windproof".
The last few weeks have been rather stressful for Rob with a few all-nighters to try get his papers done ... and thankfully an extension on one of them to prevent another all-nighter immediately after the last one. Two more papers to go ... four more weeks to go!! Overall this year has gone well as far as keeping up and the stress level. We knew that March and April were going to be brutal and all we can do is keeping counting down the days until the end of another year.
