Cleaning up After Hurricane Irene

Last night the purring outside later turned to a soft roar. The sound was like someone had turned on all of the water faucets in the house. Our westie would growl every now and then mimicing the wind. He was a little restless pacing around the house.

This giant hickory tree (above) went down along the fenceline. It popped the metal gate high above it and knocked a fencepost down. What you see is the tree roots---just like Alice and wonderland disappeared down under. We were very fortunate to just have this one tree down. There were small branches scattered around the yard and fields. Our electricity held strong. As we were driving today we couldn't help but notice all the trees that could have went down and toppled the electrical lines. I will tell you this healthy looking hickory tree had a rotten center that we couldn't see, of course, until it was sawed off at the base. Good thing it went down during a storm when everyone was inside!