We had a bit of excitement this morning. Just about 2 minutes after my husband left for work, I heard a big thump sound that was very reminiscent of the thump of the trees that came down during Hurricane Isabelle a few years back. The problem was that at 7am there’s not that much light and it was pouring out with a fairly stiff breeze.<\/p>\n
About 30 minutes later, I looked out all the windows again and thought I saw a dark mass on the road below our driveway. So, buttoning up and bring my heavy leather work gloves, I set off down the drive. About 50 feet from the end of our driveway several branches had come down out of the trees. The trees here in Maryland are tall, I mean they’re really tall, most are taller than our 3 story house — just for reference. So when a branch comes down in a storm (and today’s storm was pitifully weak) they often shatter and break up. I cleared off a lot of the smaller branches and bits and pieces but some of them were 9 to 12 feet long and about 6 inches in diameter so there was no way I could move them off the road. I called my husband and explained the situation to warn him when he came home.<\/p>\n
Now a bit of explanation, we live on 5 acres about a quarter mile from the main road. The road the branches came down on is a dirt farm road that connects the four houses on it to the main road. This dirt road doesn’t get plowed, doesn’t get garbage pick up and is usually one of the last fixed if\/when we lose power. So, since the branches only meant that the people in our house and the one just a bit farther up couldn’t get home until the blockage was cleared. My husband was at work, and the neighbors usually left about the same time he did — so I assumed the neighbors were gone too. Me, I work from home.<\/p>\n
Bit later I hear a car out front, look out, and see the neighbor’s car backing into our drive to turn around to head back to their house. Hmmm. This might be a problem since the HE neighbor always goes in earlier, this must mean the SHE is stuck. So, I’m dithering about walking up to her house because I think the two of us might be able to clear the blockage but then,\u00a0 it’s also possible that she’ll just take a day off — so dither, dither. Then the car comes back down the road, and I hear the door slam and a chain saw.<\/p>\n
Well, a chain saw — I wouldn’t have dared try starting ours; they scare the heck out of me. But, I bundle up again and head down to see if I can help. It turns out, HE had a late day today. She’d already left for work. So, he cut the chunks up, I moved the smaller ones, he got the bigger ones, and in about 5 minutes it’s all cleared up.<\/p>\n
Hubby comes home expecting to have to chain saw his way home and clear for the neighbors to find it’s already been done. So, it was a nice neighborly day of mutual help and cooperation. I really love living in the country — even if the trees throw their branches at us. Now if I could solve the falling leaf problem…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We had a bit of excitement this morning. Just about 2 minutes after my husband left for work, I heard a big thump sound that was very reminiscent of the thump of the trees that came down during Hurricane Isabelle a few years back. The problem was that at 7am there’s not that much light […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hearth-and-home"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t