Blogworthy

Well, we got a little more excitement than we bargained for this afternoon. As I told Allan, "I think this is worthy of a blog." So, here's the story. Many of you know that we bought a house at the end of September. One of the features that most attracted us to this property was the 'little house' or shop in the back. Shortly after we moved in, we asked the power company to take out some dead trees. But I noticed there was also this pine tree that seemed to be towering above the shop and was making me very nervous. Someone, supposedly w/ his own tree business, even came by and said one good storm could snap the top of that tree and send it crashing into the attic of our shop. I was starting to think maybe we should just go ahead and fork over the money to have the tree taken out, even though I don't think it was technically on our property.

Fast forward to this afternoon. I had worked the Lactation Clinic in Starkville and had just gotten home w/ the kids. Michaela was resisting a nap and she and I sat cuddling on the couch. It had been pretty breezy all day. Suddenly, it is hard to describe, it was like a big gust of wind slammed into the house. And as I looked out our back window, there seemed to be a strange horizontal shadow bouncing up and down. I thought "Please don't tell me that was a tree." I, of course, immediately thought of that pine tree. But then I thought, if that tree just crashed into the shop, it would have been a lot louder. I was afraid to go look. But I did . . . and it was the pine tree. It was inches away from our shop - caught on the power lines. I don't remember what was coming out of my mouth. I think it was along the lines of "oh no, oh no, oh no". Our neighbor, Stan, had heard it too and came out. I told him I would call the power company and ran inside. At first, the lady asked if we still had power and I said yes. She said she would put in a work order. I asked if they would be out today and she said 'probably'. But it didn't sound convincing.

About this time, Allan pulled up, home from work a lot earlier than I was expecting. He looked perplexed as to the expression on my face and why I was standing talking on the phone looking out the door. I pointed behind him - he hadn't even noticed as he drove up. "Oh! Are they coming out?" Allan looked closer and said "Call them back, that support beam is leaning!" See photo above. Allan rushed right for his camera and took these photos.

One worker showed up immediately. But had to wait a little while for one of the bucket trucks to show up. In the meantime, he was assessing the situation. He pulled out a telescoping saw and began cutting away branches, trying to take some tension off the wires.
A view from the side. See how it is leaning on the wires? Just inches from our shop? Closer examination showed the tree had uprooted from the super wet soil underneath. I guess the electrical wires actually saved our shop! Thank you to 4-County Electric for coming out so quickly to take care of this matter. I told Allan, "On the bright side, now I can stop worrying about that tree!"