How the Mighty Have Fallen

In the past I may have complained a time or two about the "leaving" process when it comes to the farmhouse or the cottage.  There is the inevitable cleaning of the fridge, which I hate!  There is the sadness I feel when my flower boxes get shut in the dark garage for the winter.  There is the never ending list of tasks we must do to leave the house and the property safe and sound for the "off season".  This year there was an added a level of difficulty because tossing out seven bottles of salad dressing and countless odds and ends is way too easy.  Our added challenge came in the form of a hurricane named Dorian.

Friday, September 6, 2019
All is calm and beautiful!

We were good little hurricane veterans and prepared in spite of the deceiving blue skies.  We took in all of the outdoor furniture and potted plants from the cottages and the farmhouse.  We tacked down anything that could fly and become a projectile.  We filled many jugs with drinking water and made sure we had batteries in our flashlights.  We moved our grill to the back deck out of the projected wind direction.  It was Friday, Sept. 6 and Hurricane Dorian was scheduled to arrive in our little corner of the world the next day.  It was hard to believe how drastically things would change in one day.

With everything safely tucked away we woke up Saturday morning to a breezy, cloudy day.  We decided to see if the nearby farmer's market was open.  Only 3 vendors braved the windy morning so we bought a lovely heirloom tomato and some lettuce, because sadly ours is done.  On the way home we stopped at the fish market and bought a cooked lobster to make lobster rolls for lunch.  We also went across the street for some hurricane chips because what are hurricane provisions without some junk food?  We got home, made lunch and found a way to stream ESPN Game Day!  We were pretty proud of ourselves as we waited for Dorian.  And the wind continued to blow.

Bring it on Dorian, we have a lobster and some chips!

We sat and watched Game Day streaming from Austin where LSU and UT were playing later that day.  We had big plans to hunker down inside and watch the big game that night.  Perfect way to pass the time while Dorian blew through.  The wind continued to pick up but all was still good....until 3 p.m. when blip, blip, blip and then silence.  No power.  UH OH!  Dorian threw a flag on our perfectly planned afternoon!

As I looked at the storm through my kitchen window I noticed one thing we had forgotten to take inside.  My favorite whirly gig was about to take flight.  I asked TJ to go out and take it down before it blew away.  He put on a hoodie and raincoat and headed out into the storm.  We were bored and having a bit of fun when I decided to video the rescue.  I did my best reporting, "This is Scotia Woman reporting live from the Lorneville weather channel in the midst of hurricane Dorian."  I was Marlin Perkins to his Jim Fowler.  "While Jim faces the gusting wind and flying tree branches, I'll stand behind the house out of the wind and document his brave rescue of the whirly gig."

We were cracking ourselves up!  He did the perfect acting job.  I mean it was windy...but not that windy.  I think we may have pissed Dorian off.

We decided to go and check on my parents who were still at their cottage.  As we approached their cottage this is what we saw.

A tree behind their cottage had fallen on the electrical wires.

That explains the power outage.  We had to park at my sister's cottage since we were not sure we could safely drive under the wires into my parent's driveway.  By now it was raining and the winds were blowing hard... just like a hurricane.  We ran across the flooded yards and into my parents cottage.  It was still a bit warm inside but dark and eerie.  My Mom was in the process of packing up for their trip back home in a couple of days.  It is a long process only made longer and more challenging by a wheelchair bound husband and now...no power and the sound of the unrelenting winds and rain beating against your cottage.  She was a bit frazzled, as was I by this time.  There was no way we could move them out of the cottage in this weather.  We could barely stay upright just running across the yard.  Moving a man in a wheelchair was not an option.  They had to stay the night.  We made sure they had water, food, flashlights, blankets and a plan.   We left feeling very guilty that we had a wood stove to keep warm for the night.  They were going to be very cold!  Not a good feeling.

My stylish rubber boots came in very handy here!

There are not that many of us left here which turned out to be a good thing!  There were enough people that no one felt isolated but not too many who were inconvenienced.  The storm continued. We discovered our friends were going to spend the night across the road at my-cousin-who-has-a-generator's house.  We joined them for a couple of hours.  Not really a "hurricane party", more of a wine drinking, listen to that wind, look at those trees, are those the deck chairs sliding across the deck?  Party.

We also enjoyed their running water/flushing toilet.  What you may not realize is that when you live in a house with a well and a pump and the power goes out, the pump cannot run...so no water.  No water, no shower, no flushing toilet, no hand washing, no fun.  You can flush the toilet by pouring water into the tank and then flushing, but we only had so much water.  We were very conservative!

It was time to go back to the farmhouse for the night.  TJ and I had decided earlier in the day to spend the night in one of the back bedrooms of the house.  The wind was coming from the north and our bedroom is under some very large trees on the north side of the house.  It seemed safer to be in the back.  We drove up to the house and TJ saw our chestnut tree practically bending over backwards in the wind and told me to wait in the car while he checked around the house.  He was gone for a while and when he got back in the car he had a stunned look on his face.  He said, "You have got to come see this."

2 of our 3 GIANT poplar trees had been uprooted.

We went inside to see if there were holes in the roof but we could not find any...in the dark of night.  The magnitude of the trees was overwhelming.  They are not just big trees, they are huge trees!  How they missed our house is a miracle!  There are a few branches resting on the roof but it could have been devastating! We went to bed and continued to listen to the howling wind and rain.  I have no idea how I slept so well, but I did.  I guess with the trees down, I did not have to worry about them falling.

The irony of our video is not lost on me.  Where we earlier in the day had been laughing and joking was now covered with a tree.  Dorian did not have a sense of humor, only revenge.

Taken from the exact spot I filmed the video the day before.
YIKES!

Before Dorian, our lovely trees.

Thanks to Dorian, the mighty have fallen.

In the light of day things looked very scary!  We were SO lucky!  It will still be a herculean task to cut down those 3 trees, then cut them into small enough chunks to be taken away....somewhere.  What do we do?  Our insurance company is working on it but with so many other people in the same boat, we are just a number.  We are hoping for a plan of action before we have to leave on the 16th.  The power was out for three days.  I am thankful for my pack rat of a husband who never throws anything away.  He dug up an old propane stove out of the basement to make coffee and tea in the morning and warm up food for lunch.  Having a wood stove helped keep us warm.  Hurricanes in the south are usually warm weather events.  This one was not!  My poor parents woke up to a 50 degree cottage the next day.  It did not take much persuading to convince them they needed to get on the road the next day and stay in a hotel for the night.

Who knew that candle lantern made such cool shadows?

As close as I will get to camping!

My pioneer husband keeping my tea water hot
and my cinnamon roll warm!

With Mom and Dad safely on the road home, TJ and I continued to pack up the house for our departure plus deal with the fallen trees and many missing shingles and leaks on the cottage roof.  Thanks Dorian!  Maybe we were getting a little too high and mighty ourselves.