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Sunday, February 16, 2014

Mother Nature Shows Us Who's Boss

If you've watched the national news lately you saw where I live. Yep, little ole Aiken, South Carolina was on the national news. Why? Here's a hint:

And one more:
Yep, in one week we've had temperatures in the 60's, snow, an ice storm and an earthquake!!! We were without power for 3 1/2 days but others are still waiting. Aiken county was the hardest hit in the state. The earthquake? A 4.4 quake hit in the middle of all this. Yeah, ya just gotta love Mother Nature. When she gets going she can really do things up right. We got our power back yesterday, and were so happy with Aiken Electric Coop. They really worked day and night to get power back to so many homes and businesses. Thank goodness my husband is a great planner and saver. He bought a generator and converted our fireplace to gas several years ago. We were warm, had lights, fridge and TV. What a blessing. We were also lucky that no trees hit our roof or any windows. However, our beautiful yard looks like a war zone. Neither of us could sleep during the storm. Giant tree limbs cracking under the weight of the ice sounding like cracking rifle shots as more and more trees continued to fall victim to the ice. We still had power Tuesday night, but cringed as we heard the explosion of a couple transformers blowing. Wednesday we lost power and that night the devastation continued, and worsened. So many large trees were totally destroyed. It's really heart breaking, but we are well and healthy and that's what counts. We spent Friday and Saturday with the chain saw and a trailer. Cutting up fallen limbs and hauling them out of the driveway and in one part of the yard. When  you see the enormous piles of debris it looks like we accomplished an awful lot, until you look at all that's left in the yard. Pictures below of just one part of our yard. We will be digging out and cleaning up for weeks to come.

Yesterday in the midst of a huge tangle of branches, I saw a patch of daffodils just about to burst open.

Our largest tree.