RUG HOOKING BLOG

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I'm a mother of four grandmother of seven and great grandmother of three. I live with my husband in the house that we built with the help of my brothers and will have been married for 57 years this February.

Monday, July 14, 2014

WE SURVIVED HURRICANE ARTHUR

The rain and the wind started hitting us pretty hard at night and leaves and small branches were flying everywhere but I wasn't too concerned. I went to bed and slept pretty good.  In the morning, it was still storming pretty bad and I buttoned up my raincoat and went to the barn, did my chores and came home.

There were trees and branches down everywhere in our neighbourhood. George and I had breakfast and I went on my computer to check the weather report. I wasn't on the computer very long before  the power went out,  somewhere around 8:00am. I went upstairs with my camera to take a photo of my back yard and  looked out my upstair bathroom window and this is what I saw half way up the lane and my heart sank.


This was taken with my big lens and it was raining very hard so the photo looks cloudy.
Three of my good neighbours Weeping Willow trees were broken and one was totally uprooted, damaging the corner of his roof.

I told George and we both jumped in the truck to find our neighbour as we couldn't reach them by phone. That's when we saw that the big pine tree with the eagles nest was down. I won't go back to this story but you will be glad to know that both babies were spotted in one of the pine tree and the parents were with them.

Here are some of the photos I took that morning.


So much for squirrel proof  feeders. He opened the top and helped himself like a little looter.


My beautiful flowers were flattered.


The yard is littered with leaves


Up the highway, a fallen tree on the power lines.


My neighbours front yard after his willow trees fell.


Debris in the lane going to the highway.



still damaged trees in the lane


fallen trees in a private drivway


Another old neighbour who's yard is like a jungle to begin with.


My son Vaughan's driveway


My front yard covered with leaves


All these photos were taken while driving around in the car assessing the damage. This is my front yard again.


My old garage door...   All my windows in the front were covered with pieces of torn leaves like this.



Another photo of my backyard.


A big cedar broke in behind our back hedge and limbs are everywhere.


Another view of that broken cedar tree.


Liam and Reid are doing some cleanup.

I'm cooking carrots on the Coleman camping stove. The last time we used it was during the last flood in 2009.


My new little portable Bar-B-Q came in handy. I cooked most of the meals on this , even made some awesome fries in a cookie sheet.

We had a generator hooked up to our house to keep the food cold and for water and the occasional shower but we were pretty much in camping mode as we were sharing our generator with our daughter Jackie. We were without power for almost a week I think. Bill, you can correct me on this. I wasn't paying attention to how long we were without power.

The farm was run with a generator that was run by a big tractor but I didn't took any picture of it. It a three phase generator and was too powerful for my end of the barn as it burns out the light bulbs but I had hot water.

I cleaned out my front yard on Sunday and I was so sore the next day from all the raking and cutting branches.
 I really should edit this post but I'm running out of time so I hope you'll forgive me. George and I weeded till dark tonight and I'm in need of a shower and sleep.

Thanks for visiting and I'm so glad when you care enough to leave a comment.
Hugs,
JB

30 comments:

  1. Thank you for the pictures mom! They really give a good idea how powerful the storm was. I am very glad no one was hurt and the barns didn't blow over!
    It is very nice to hear the 2nd eaglet was spotted too!

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  2. Oh my goodness! That's amazing. I'm so glad you are okay and that your home wasn't damaged.

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  3. Oh my, so much damage and debris to clean up! I'm so glad you're all safe, and it's good to know the little eagles are all right!

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  4. That was a really nasty storm!
    Thank goodness all of you are safe. Julia, you make great meals even in the face of disaster! That's a nice little grill.
    Hope the cleaning up goes well. What a lot of extra work on top of all the normal farm work. I can see why all of you are exhausted.
    Glad you have your power back!

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  5. You got it way worse than we did. we got some heavy rains but no power outage and no trees down.
    Cathy

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  6. My, Julia,
    You definitely got the wrath of Arthur. I'm sorry for all the downed trees and lack of power but thankful you are all safe. I had no idea you were without power for such a long time. So happy you had generators.
    Great news that the eaglets are doing okay. Thanks for the update.
    That picture of the squirrel is too funny.
    Hugs :)
    Lauren

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  7. My goodness what an ordeal. So happy that your house was not damaged and that the eagles...and especially you and your family...are safe. Such a long time to go without power! Hope that is the last of the bad weather for a while. I don't think there is such a thing as a squirrel proof bird feeder!!
    Take good care,
    Robyn

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  8. Oh my! I am so glad you are all okay! It amazes me: the power of a storm. We think we are so powerful and in control...until God reminds us who really is. Hugs.

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  9. I know the blessing is no people or animals were hurt.....but oh those big trees. Glad you made it through.

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  10. What a chore it is to clean up after a storm like this! Thankfully you were not injured, nor left with any structural damage.

    Thank you, Julia, for your visits and comments to my blog! They are much appreciated! xo

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  11. oh, my goodness. lots of tree damage! so glad no major structural damage in your immediate area! still, the power situation was terrible. so glad you had generators.

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  12. Yikes! You and your family normally have so much work to do and then here comes Arthur to add to the list! You know your blog readers would all love to come up and help you guys! So glad that no one got injured.... stay safe!

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  13. I do know how long you were out of power. As you noted, you lost it at about 8:00 a.m. on Saturday (about the same time it went out at our house). You were reconnected about 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, so five and a half days, roughly. We got our power reconnected at about 8:00 p.m. Friday evening. That was by a wide margin the biggest outage I've ever been in. But understandable given the scale of destruction of trees. The city forester said he figured more than 4000 trees down or damaged within the city limits. Even after the power is all restored (2562) still out as I write this) there will be work to do. Lots of leaning and compromised trees need to be dealt with, otherwise if we get another big wind this summer there will be still more damage. And much of the province is in the same state as our area. Still, it's just very lucky that there were no injuries or deaths as a result.

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  14. Thanks for this information Tired Adult. I was so tired last night as I posted this, I left out a lot of details.
    JB

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  15. I am so glad you were okay and your house was fine. You are so resourceful. I just can't believe all of the litter and the broken trees. I am so glad you have big tractors.
    You are amazing and I need a generator. :)

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  16. I'm so glad that with all the destruction everyone was fine. Hugely inconvenienced with no power but it made me so appreciative of it when I got it back, my 4 days was enough. Those poor unfortunate ones still waiting for power, this was quite the hurricane & Arthur, the 1st one of the year with more to follow. The worry is now how NB will handle heavy rains without the absorption of all those trees lost. One battle at a time & we'll get through it. Your dinner sure looked good! nothing I could do with tea lights! lol I'm bring the generator with me next year, I've hindsight to how useful one can be at times like this past one.
    Glad to hear the eagles are OK & that you & your family are OK! Lucky that none of those trees hit your home but what a double take from the bathroom window! Wow glad our eyes allow us to only look forward, there's still more summer to come. :-) And a good look at what has happened & how we'll great ready for the next hurricane. I for one will be filling the bathtubs with water! lol
    Hugs,
    Cynthia

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  17. Oh, my goodness! Sweet Julia, that is terrible. I am so sorry about all that damage. But I am very happy to hear you, your family and neighbors are okay. It is sad to lose all those beautiful trees. I was thrilled to hear about the eagles. I hope they will build another nest near so you can keep enjoying them each year. Hugs!

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  18. They have yet to make a squirrel proof feeder that actually keeps them out in my opinion. Every one we have at least one squirrel has managed to get into them. Those they claim to be squirrel proof are not cheap either. If you do find one that works, let me know. Hugs

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  19. That's one resourceful squirrel. So sorry to hear about all the beautiful trees. We flooded during the 2010 Nashville flood and had to tear out all the drywall and flooring and rebuild, so Mother Nature is not a friend of mine! :-)

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  20. What a lot to clean up! Glad the eagles are ok. I'm hoping no more storms with names head your way. Sarah

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  21. Terrible storm and so much damage! Glad you and your family are unharmed and your houses made it thru. We don't realize how powerful Mother Nature is till we see this type of destruction. Glad too that the eagles seem to have survived.

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  22. So very glad that you're ok Julia!! Mother Nature is so powerful! Seeing all of that damage really makes me thankful that nobody was hurt. And that's one creative squirrel lol.

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  23. Wow, Julia...that is a lot of damage! I also am glad that you and your family (and neighbors!) are OK! We had a few bad storms in Vermont that left everything looking just like your photos...but we, and our house and outbuildings were OK. Hugs to you, Sunnie : )

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  24. Holy Cow, that is a lot of damage, glad you all survived it and so happy to hear about the baby eagles - good thing you have a handy dandy grill to cook on. We have to worry about Volcano's but luckily they have been fast asleep.....shhhhh don't wake them.

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  25. That is really a mess Julia...I'm just glad you're OK and I hope all is getting back to normal. It's such a pain without power. We don't have a generator and a few times we've been without the well and water. I'd never make it as a pioneer! Great pics and great use of a grill! Looked very yummy....have a better week this week Julia!

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  26. I’m glad to hear you were safe when the recent hurricane hit your area. It’s sad to see that it left so much damage. But that’s just how nature works, and we could only do so much about it. Anyway, I know it was only almost a week ago, but I hope the damages it left have already been fixed by now. Stay safe!

    Sharon Strock @ Storm Chamber®

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  27. I didn't realize you were in harm's way. We get hurricanes here too. Even though we are inland, the storms come into Mobile Bay and come right up through the middle of the state.
    You can never tell which one will blow by and which one wreck the place.

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  28. Oh Julia, I'm so sorry. Mother Nature was really in a mood that day!!! We had horrible rain, hail and flooding that day as well.
    It looks like you all pulled together as such the good neighbors that you are.

    Hope the clean up isn't too bad and that you can get back to "normal" whatever normal is on a farm.

    Bless you and you are in our prayers.

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  29. Glad you didn't go back and edit.....smart woman to pick your battles well:) Sending so much love and prayer for the clean-up to come....I remember a hurricane that left us without power for 8 days and it was
    wicked hot and muggy and just so much destruction everywhere. Something kind of nice, in the months to come, about the cleansed landscape once the cleaning gets done. Huge grace to you in the
    muck of it.
    -Jennifer

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  30. Wow what a powerful storm, thanks for sharing the pictures.

    Hugs Diane

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