Moving Along

Cleaning up after the tornado has been difficult, but we have been able to hire a tree company to remove the trees from the house and cut down anything imminently dangerous to the house area.  The electricity is back up and we've put a tarp over the hole in the roof.   And we got an estimate on repairing the roof. We cut up some of the downed trees and started piling them near the wood pile to be split for firewood when we get to it.  I am going to clear the area next to that for placing logs that I want cut into boards.  We have been trying since the storm to get an insurance adjustor out here and finally today Allstate sent somebody.  It looks like most everything, including replacing the high tunnel and the missing plywood roof on the chicken skid will be covered.  They should even cover rebuilding the chicken wire fence around the coop run and removing the trees that crushed the fence. 

That is a huge relief.  Once we get the nod from our agent we can call the builders to come and fix the roof and gutters.   We will need to hire a logger to remove the damaged trees from the woods.  I am not looking forward to that, but it has to be done before the value of the wood drops to nothing.

Tom took a walk down the snowmobile trail to the bridge and it is practically impassable.  He says the bridge over the creek is badly damaged.  The DNR built the bridge and I wonder if they know it is unsafe. (There's been enough planes flying over surveying the damage.) It may take a while for them to repair it and snowmobile season isn't far off.  

I wonder when the electric company will get around to clearing the trees out of the easements -- they told us not to do it.

I was glad we were able to clean up the yard enough for Tom to cut the grass.  I don't want mice coming up to the house in tall grass.  At least the yard looks better.  It's going to take me a while to get used to the view with so many trees gone, and knowing that more trees will have to follow. 

Yesterday was rainy so I made a big chicken pot pie and cherry cobbler to take over to Dad's because my Uncle Larry, who is a builder, was coming to give Dad an estimate on repairing the farmhouse.  Must have been good because I got back both empty pans this morning!  I thought that would last him a couple of days.  At least I know he's eating.  I'm glad Uncle Larry can repair the damage for Dad.  One of the builders who came by today to give us an estimate told us that he has so much work now that he probably wouldn't do the job if we asked him to. 

And since it was raining, I went through Tom's garden and brought a big bag of beets and mustard greens back to the house to can.  Tom thinks that canning isn't worth the effort, but I disagree.  As far as I'm concerned, the quality of the food is worth the effort of canning it.  There is just nothing like opening up a jar of canned food in the winter time and smelling summer!

Well, now that the insurance inspector has come I'll start working on clearing up the chicken area tomorrow.  I hope it's not as hot as it was today.  Maybe there will be a decent breeze, too.  I also want to get out to the garden in the field and see if I have anything to harvest.  I do want to get to the farmers market.