Never a Dull Moment

Last Friday was our once a month quilting group but I didn't make.  I was on a brief trip to California earlier in the week and needed to get back to East Coast Time.  So there are no quilting pictures to share today but I've got a few pictures from the storm that went through our area in the wee hours of the morning. 

Saturday morning I was enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee when I got a call from a friend of mine in Concord.  She and her husband were driving by my rental property and noticed a tree was down.  The storm had blown a branch out of the tree which landed on the garage roof.  I'm thinking OK, it's a branch, maybe a few shingles got damaged but I wasn't too concerned.  She asked if I wanted her to go check on it as there seemed to be no one at home.  So she did and sent me a couple of pictures.  That's when I knew I needed to get up there and take a few more.  My sister Dutchy joined me to check it out all out. 

Here's what it looked like from the road when I arrived.  Still not too bad but it did reach the truck that belongs to my tenants.

 
Then I walked around to the back to check the house which I knew wasn't hit but wanted to see for myself.  Here's what it looked like from across the yard.

The shed was OK and the house was fine but it's starting to look a little scary now . . . and as I round the corner of the garage here's the real damage.

 
=:-O   And just in case you can't see it here's a close up!
 

Now keep in mind that this tree is about 10 feet BEHIND the garage and the top of the branches were covering the truck in the driveway!
 

We're not sure but we think the truck is holding up the tip top of the tree and that's why it didn't crash all the way through.

So the good news is no one was home so no one was hurt.  I spent yesterday making calls. I've gotten in touch with the insurance company to file a claim and called 3 tree removal people for estimates.  I'm waiting to hear back from everyone this morning and of course it's pouring rain now so now the inside of the garage and the open walls and roof are all getting wet.  I knew I wanted to fix up the garage at some point but this was not the way I was planning to go about it!  But I am thankful that the brand new kitchen didn't get hit.

Anyway, it's hard to realize how big that tree is until you see this:

 
That's a trash barrel near the shed and this is just a LIMB off that tree.  It's BIGGER around than a trash barrel - OMG!  There are 3 more limbs the same size still on the tree which will have to come down to keep everyone safe.

So I'll keep you posted on the event that is my life but for now I'm going to take a shower and have another cup of coffee.