Ice storm 2007

Here's our house last summer, during the National Night Out ice cream social:


Here it is Monday morning, when we thought things were bad:

And here it is this morning. Our poor trees.


Of course, some of our neighbors had it worse. This poor tree:


now looks like this:

They lost four big shade trees.


And this tree:
is now completely gone.

The ice was beautiful as well:


We lost power Monday afternoon. Fortunately I have lots of candles and candleholders in the house. And our gas stove meant we could have hot cocoa by candlelight:
and cosy up by firelight. In case you can't see the kids, here's the same photo with flash:

In reality, it was neither so dark as the first shots or as bright as the flash shot. And the power came on at bedtime, so it was something of an adventure.

Back to our tree woes -- here's some shots of the devastation in our back yard:



Owen and George are surveying the damage with me. We had our utilities flagged recently so there's a big yellow DO NOT CROSS line in the backyard that even a three year old could understand.


Sarah & family stayed with us for a night while they were without power. They helped us start the clearing out process:


More cleanup is occurring today -- don't ask me why, because it is bitterly cold and windy. Tomorrow will be in the 40s and calm. But they're out there today:

Charlotte and George, sawing off little branches.


Dean was supervising saw use, making sure the branches could not fall on the kids -- and still managing to pile up a bunch of branches himself.

Me? I'm blogging and making hot cocoa.