Billy and I drove down to Lynchburg on Saturday evening. After we found out about it, we asked Billy's mom to come watch the girls, for which we are so thankful! I'm glad I've been freezing extra milk for Piper, and so glad she takes a bottle when we need her to...I was able to leave her without really worrying too much. We just kinda assessed the damage on Saturday night, talked to some of the neighbors, and made our game plan. Then we went to the movie theater to kill some time in the air conditioning (we saw Prometheus...it kinda freaked me out, as I'm not really into alien movies that much, but Billy wanted to see it!), since most of Lynchburg is still without power and we didn't really feel like sitting in a hot house all evening. I am forever grateful for our friends, the Moizes, for letting us sleep at their house while we were in town, as there were no hotel vacancies and it would've been so hard to drive early in the morning on Sunday, then work all day, and then make the 2-hour trip home that night.
So we got up really early Sunday morning and worked on the tree, and I'm amazed at how quickly we were able to get it done. My Poppaw lent us his chainsaw and it got the job done! I used a pair of clippers while we worked on the top of the tree. After I clipped as many branches as I could, I focused on dragging brush and logs into piles. I felt bad because once we cleared most of the top of the tree, the logs were so big and I couldn't move some of them by myself. I also had to wait while Billy cut a few pieces at a time before I could move anything, as I didn't want to get too close to him and have him cut me in half with the chainsaw, hehe =). Actually, I am so impressed with Billy and his chainsaw skills. Considering how large the tree was, and that we were using a smaller chainsaw, he did an amazing job. He was also very "safety-conscious" and took his time. I'm so glad I'm married to a man who is wise and patient with things like this, and doesn't just rush into doing something and get reckless.
It was definitely a job...we worked for about 6 hours straight in the 95-degree heat, but we got what we wanted to done. We'll have to go back again this weekend, probably, because we've still got to repair the fences and clear out the brush/logs, but we've got to find out from our insurance company what they want to do as far as looking at it and giving us an estimate on the damage.
Poor Lynchburg looks like it got hit way harder than what we got in Harrisonburg. It's like a disaster zone there, and our neighborhood still doesn't have power there and they're estimating it won't be until Friday or this weekend before it comes back. Our poor tenants have a 6-week-old baby...I can't imagine enduring this heat without power (especially with a little baby!).
It could've been so much worse, so I'm thankful that it was just a tree, shed, and a couple fences that got damaged and that we were able to take care of it ourselves. Still not sure how we're going to get the rest of the stump out of the ground...the tree uprooted but it's still partially in the ground, so we'll probably tackle that this weekend.
Here are some pictures of the tree:
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| Our poor shed...Billy was pretty bummed about that, since he and Tommy just built that last year |
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| Through one yard... |
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| And into another (this was after we had cut most of the top of the tree) |
And, of course, no post is complete without this little cutie:
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| Ellie and her cheesy fake smile =) |
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| Wearing Daddy's hat |
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| Trying out the safety goggles |
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