Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the thirty-first day of the month is "Activity."
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In general, we like to keep our Sundays pretty chill. The big adult chore is laundry for the day, but I also like to occasionally take the dog out for an extra-long walk or adventure, do a fun workout, read a book for hours, or we'll sometimes schedule some sort of social event. But the idea is that Sundays should be chill.
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| Hannah examining a downed tree on her morning walk. |
Well, that was not meant to be yesterday. We had to do laundry, do some more yard cleanup after the storm, and go to the grocery store to do a big stock-up to replace everything we had to throw away.
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| Laundry in progress |
So we worked on the yard. My husband even mowed for good measure. It's only the third time he's mowed this year, so we felt pretty good about that. We clipped and sawed and took a big load over to the compost pile which was opened specially because of the sheer carnage of our town - it's usually closed on Sundays.
The official story is that there was no tornado in our town. What happened is that there were two separate storm systems, one coming directly from the east and one coming sort of southeast, and they met in our town, leading to an extended period of strong wind (I've seen reports of 80-85 miles per hour, but that might exaggerated). A lot of news
reports say something about how our town was particularly hit by tree damage. I'll say it's definitely the worst tree damage I've seen since moving here.
For those of you who asked, Hannah has been a real gem about having tree limbs and branches everywhere. I thought for sure she'd freak out, but if anything, she's super excited to have so many STICKS! all over the place to play with.
Right after we finished taking a load over to the compost pile, the tree guy came to look at our leaning tree. He agreed it should come down and said he'll get someone out from the digger's hotline out there to mark things off and they can get us on the schedule sometime this week. If you're in southeastern Wisconsin and you need someone to take down a tree, we went with J
ason's Five Star Landscape & Design and they've been super helpful and responsive. We've used them to remove a tree in the past, as well.
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| Looming ominously over our house. At least it's not the neighbor's house. If it were, I wouldn't be able to sleep. |
For those of you wondering, no this isn't the
giant pine in our backyard. That tree didn't so much as drop a pinecone in the storm. It is invincible.
And then we had to go to the grocery store. What a day. Where's my day of rest, I ask you?
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Did you do any adulting chores yesterday? Complain about it here.
I drove four hours solo with a kid yesterday - that felt very adult of me and I was tired (not dangerously tired, but even though we made good time, it felt like the 4 hours took 10)...
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry your day was so full of adult responsibilities but you were so productive and I'm glad that someone is able to take care of the tree!!
Driving is so exhausting! Congrats on getting it done!
DeleteCleaning up after a big storm is so exhausting! Sounds like you got a TON of work done, and what a relief to have the tree on the schedule for removal. And yay for Hannah and all the sticks!
ReplyDeleteI was so proud of Hannah for just finding the joy in all of it!
DeleteWe had a tornado watch and parts of Ottawa had significant damage, but it all bypassed our little area.
ReplyDeleteYay! Hopefully it didn't cause too much damage and everybody stayed safe.
DeleteSO MANY CHORES. GAH.
ReplyDeleteGAH is exactly the right reaction.
DeleteAll the sticks! I never considered that upside for Hannah.
ReplyDeleteWhen the tree branch fell on our house there was that special tree company who said "we've got this" and they have our undying loyalty.
All you have to do is come through in an emergency and we will be your best clients forever.
DeleteWow, you had some serious storm damage in your area!
ReplyDeleteIt was the real deal for sure!
DeleteWe lost a medium sized branch from one of our trees, but nothing serious, thankfully. And our newly planted tree from last fall soldiered through with no issues. Phew! I was worried about the little guy in the back yard. ;)
ReplyDeleteWe had the tornado warning here and went in the basement for a bit, but then I livestreamed the local news and heard the areas of concern weren't right by us. So after a short while when it seemed like things had moved out, we just went up to bed. Still a fair amount of tree damage in our neighborhood, though definitely not the "worst" I've seen by far, here. So that was lucky. Sorry your town got hit worse than we did!
Despite the sirens going off, we never actually went into the basement. LOL. If we die in a tornado, it's because we have 100% faith that our house will never be harmed.
DeleteOne of the beauties of living in an apartment is that when we do have storm damage like this, it's not my responsibility to clean it up! Muahaha. I'm glad your home was spared and you just had some annoying stuff to clean up! And that the tree is going to be taken care of. What a relief!
ReplyDeleteYes, renting is better in this situation, that's for sure! Although, here's some neighborhood gossip for you. There's a guy who owns three rental properties on a street in my neighborhood and the renters have been telling him to remove this ash tree in the backyard of one of the houses for several years (the ash borer has essentially killed all ash trees in Wisconsin) and he never did. So of course, this ash tree fell over in the storm and onto the neighbor's brand-new garage - like I saw the final workers leave about a week ago. The landlord is telling the renters that THEIR renters' insurance should cover it!!! Meanwhile, the owners of the brand-new garage have their insurance company going after the landlord's insurance company. I'm sure they'll all figure it out in the end, but it's a mess and people are super mad at the landlord for not proactively taking down the tree.
DeleteGeez Louise! That is some storm! Most importantly, Hannah likes all the sticks, I mean, ha, everyone is okay. Storm cleanup is so much work. I bet your town really looks different now.
ReplyDeleteAs long as Hannah benefits, let's not worry about anything else!
DeleteI was too wondering if the damaged tree was the one you were concerned about previously. And....of course it isn't! 😳
ReplyDeleteGood to hear that you've found a good team to take care of the poor, broken tree and that Hannah seems to be adapting to the carnage on your walks.
Adulting chores are never fun, but must be done since we're adults. I know...it doesn't make sense to me either. :)
I feel like it should be someone else's responsibility to take care of my adulting chores. Why can't I have a personal personal assistant?
DeleteIt's so sad to lose trees! All of the trees in the boulevard on both side of our house have been cut down in the last 5-6 years. 3 of them were cut down after we bought the house because they are Ash trees so have that emerald ashbore (sp?) disease. It's sad to lose all of the shade they provide. I hope our Oak Tree stands the test of time because it makes our back yard SO COMFORTABLE in the summer months. Our front yard is so so so so hot because there is no shade at all. Trees have been planted but it's going to take years before they provide shade!
ReplyDeleteYou can plant older, more mature trees if you lose a tree. Most cities don't do that on city property because it's so expensive, though. I think if we lost our mature pine in the back, we'd try to replace it with another mature tree because it provides so much shade!
DeleteWow, this really sounds like what was going on in California earlier this year and other places, too.... it took crews weeks (!) to remove fallen trees and trees in danger of falling. What a mess. Here, the oversaturated soil had plaid a big role in mature trees falling over... have you had a lot of rain too before it happened?
ReplyDeleteNo rain here. We are actually still in drought conditions. That storm was probably all the rain we've had in weeks. All this was just wind damage. It is hard to believe that there wasn't a tornado, but it seems like it really was just powerful straight line winds.
DeleteYou really, really got slammed. I am so glad the tree is taken care of (presumably, by now?). And, I'm so glad that you, Dr. BB, Hannah (STICKS!) and Zelda are okay. Maybe this will help Hannah with her fear of strange things? Can we hope?
ReplyDeleteThe tree is STILL THERE. The tree guys keep saying "it's a small job" and "we'll fit you in at the end of a day," but it's not a small job to us! I do think it has been helpful for Hannah - she seems much more cool about new things these days!
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