The Big Storm (Sunday night, Oct. 24 - Monday night, Oct. 25)

Sunday night we finally got our first rain in two months--and it came with a tremendous storm.  Trees snapped off in half or were completely uprooted all over our area, knocking down power lines and damaging houses.  Our power went off at 4:30 a.m.

We woke up Monday morning to gray skies, drizzle--and no electricity.  "No lights," Charis said.  No coffee maker, no stove, no microwave, either!

A tree was down in the road right outside our driveway, so Herb got the tractor and pushed it out of the way, only to find a bigger tree tangled in power lines a little farther along.  I was supposed to meet a friend for breakfast in Chickamauga.  She said she'd pick me up at the end of our road, so I skirted the power lines and started walking while  Herb went home to make cowboy coffee and Charis' oatmeal on a propane camping burner.  Now that's a devoted grandfather!  :)

Several more fallen trees and almost 2 miles later, I finally met up with my friend. We were both ready for coffee by then--and so, it seemed, was half of Walker County. It looked like just about everyone whose power was out had decided to go out for breakfast!

By the time my friend dropped me off, our neighbor had cut up the tree with his chainsaw, but the power lines kept us trapped all day. They didn't get pushed out of the way by electric company workers until late afternoon, just in time for us to get Mexican food for supper in Chickamauga. That sure beat trying to cook for three on a tiny gas burner!  (Kara, by the way, had spent Sunday night at Leahaven, so we called her and told her to stay there where she had power!)

We had very slight damage. The wind blew over the garbage shed and the chicken coop.  Herb found the three girls sitting right-side-up in the midst of the upside-down, poop-covered coop!  A huge tree snapped off and fell right against the side of the Chicken Palace, jarring loose a small roof support, and the wind turned up the loose corner of the roof.  Charis got to watch Didi screw down the loose roof and Mimi hose out the poopy chicken coop.  

When bedtime came, we explained to Charis that "no lights" meant there was no white noise maker or ipod music or night light at bedtime. She really seemed to understand and went right to sleep--maybe just to get away from Mimi's singing in place of the ipod! About 8:30 p.m. the electric company crew arrived at our end of the road and started to work with four noisy trucks and bright spotlights. With the help of an eyeshade and earplugs, I finally fell asleep. At 2:30 a.m. my own white noise machine suddenly turned on--we had power! And still those faithful men labored on till at least 4:30 in the morning, getting everything done right.

We were so thankful to the Lord for His protection, especially after seeing houses not far from us that had trees fall on them.  We've got a few more bits of roof to screw down, this huge tree to get removed, and the garbage shed to set to rights, but all of us, our animals, and our property came through the storm in one piece.  Another storm came through on Monday night, bringing a tornado to Chattanooga, but our power stayed on this time.  The most significant result we had to show for all the sound and fury was 2" of rainfall--something else to be thankful for!