November 2nd After Hurricane Milton Tree Story part 2

 

this post is continued from yesterday's post, titled, Oct 28th Hurricane Milton Tree story part 1, yesterday, we will fast forward from Oct 28 to Nov 2nd and once again I was in the bathroom when I heard yet another Beep Beep Beep and grabbing the iPad I raced to the window on the world and there was a Man in bright green standing in our street next to 4 orange cones and a ROAD CLOSED SIGN. 

I could see nothing and to Bob's surprise I burst out the front door with iPad in hand and went to talk the man at the sign

ny last photo of my flower pot holding Stump, good bye sweet stump

I could see over the tree, a red scoopy thing JUST LIKE THE one from the day before, that tried to put the tree in the same type of truck and could not... I said to the young man from Missouri, are you taking my tree today? he said yes, mam, we will take what we can on this street today. As we stood talking car kept passing through the detour behind me and stopping to see if he would let them through. NOPE, thus started my next 3 hours of entertainment watching people come to our driveway and try to turn around when he refused to open the road. 😉😉

I even stood up to watch this truck pulling a trailer that hauls debris as he pulled up to our garage door, then backed the trailer into our neighbor's driveway to turn around. The odd thing is, I saw no other neighbors watching all this entertainment.

I said to Bob, this is not the truck that tried to take the tree but it has the same equipment. I can't wait to see this.

these people had good sense, they parked the trailer straddling the white line middle of the road and left enough space for the scooper to drive back and forwards. the first people had it parked behind the scooper, and they were letting traffic pour through. a simple sign and a little sense and that guy could work that thing like it was nothing at all. 

the first thing he did was Bonk My Stump on its flat top and the 3rd bonk, it split into 4 perfect quarter and he lifted them in and Boom they the stump was in the trailer first.

they did a spectacular job, but at the end the red scooper raked everything not in the trailer out in the middle of the street and drove off down the road to the other trailer, I watched to see if they would leave it and soon a bigger DEERE than the one before, came chugging down and it has a blade like a snow plow and pushes all the stuff in the street back onto the grass.

this is the mess they left, as you can ee the street is now empty and they are gone. I took this the next moring when walking Beau. Why would they do that? because they are not from here and will never get return business. Don't worry, our county has  a driver of a truck that has a CLAW big enough to pick up fridges and sofas and he can pick this up with one sweep. he is the best of all. Of course who knows when he will get to us, because the people that are contracting are doing this on every street
I do say thank you for coming to help us and cleaning up NATURES chaos for us.

October 28th After Hurricane Milton Tree story1

 

Oct 28th, while in the bathroom, I heard a beweep beweep and a loud noise, came racing down the hall and peering out the window, I spied with my nosy nose and big eyes, the Scooper Thingy come to take the tree from the back yard away, it had been there for about a week. Racing to find the cell phone, take photos out the window, they were to small, I raced to the iPad and stood it in the window and took about 40 photos. ha ha might be more. All the racing around made me MISS the big log they dropped on the siding to the truck, but I did see the aftermath and the idiots that were trying to take the tree.

I laughed so hard, and spewing what was going on to the Man On The Couch who was trying to watch a football game, blow by blow. They were trying to put the side back on and I said to The Man, I am going out there and tell them how to do it.

 

They finaly got the side back on and decided they could not take the big tree with that scoop, so moved to the small pile next to it.

I settle back with the iPad and enjoyed the next half hour of total idiot in the orange thing trying to scoop debris into that truck

while school buses, power trucks and All the Traffic passed by, the Traffic Was Angry because it was causing a mess. I was happy- happy because I could sit in my chair and watch the chaos out my window on the world. 

They chugged that scooper thingy down to the other three piles of logs in our yard and made a terrible mess. Suddenly I heard Beeping, and loud revving motors and low an behold I spied A Bigger Better Stronger BOBCAT!  this one was a DEERE or so it said on the side.

I entertained myself, and aggravated Bob, at the same time, and had a blast watching. When they left the stump and 3500-hundred-dollar pine tree remained, and they left logs in the street and piles of debris all over the yard. to be continued 

today is Thankful Thursday at Brians Home and we are thankful for all the workers and thankful I had o much fun watching these machines and thankful most of the mess is gone

What's Left of our Backyard

the path to the gate into the front yard used to

Look like this, slate pathway with mowed weeds, grass and a lot of pine needles and we are

left with this. (we hope the neighbor will soon put back his privacy fence which is on the ground

we have a six foot chain link fence, that was there when we bought the house.

Due to 5 children living in that house, about 15 years ago, we ask if we could put privacy fence there and they agreed. They moved and the new owner fenced the rest of the yard and it has been a blessing.

The privacy fence has fallen down in 2  prior storms and he put it right back up.

His fence is leaning on the chain fence and we can't straighten it until he puts his back up. It is his fence, he replaced it after Irma tore down the whole fence.

The storm left 2 portions of the back side fence like this

except it was not all the way down like this until the tree people threw the pipe and 4x4 wood that used to hold a swing on top of it.

For now, I have barricaded this by dragging the metal swing, a trash can, and you can't see it but i built a fence of old boards to block access to keep this beloved dog from going through the hole.

 I am done working in the yard.

My husband is refusing adamantly to let me hire a repair person so this may stay like

this until we die.

Beau is sad over his shady yard becoming a one shade part yard. from noon until sundown, there is brilliant and still hot Florida sun, and the entire kitchen, doors and windows must be kept closed because of the heat it brings. our day are still upper 80's until sundown at 7:30

I am sad I can no longer see out the windows and enjoy the sun through the blinds shining in my kitchen. Soon December will bring cool air and I can open the blinds and enjoy the heat the sun brings.

and now we wait for rain... we are back to no rain at all and we have black beach sand. This is the 3rd fence that was crushed by the tree, its on the opposite side in the only shade we have.

Bob propped it up with a limb and a pole

Mama leaned her tools against the house and said I am DONE!

Pioneer Woman, I am, I am

 

MY CHEMO SHOT IS APPROVED AND WILL BE 1 PM ON NOVEMBER 13TH. 

DOING A HAPPY DANCE

WAITIN TO HEAR ABOUT BOB

Since Helene side swiped us, and Milton hit us directly as a cat 3 hurricane, I have found I am a descendant of a Pioneer Woman. At 80 years of age, I have found, I can use a pitchfork like a ranch hand, and that on day 4 of doing it, the pain went away, and I have used the pitchfork every day since then. These photos are of the mess left by removing the pine tree, and we have 600sq ft of this mess. It is a danger to my husband, and he cannot walk on it, due to health issues

I have worked on it since the day they left. I am raking the broken slate the Bobcat shattered, the rocks it tumbled over and broke into pieces and the roots of all our trees that came up and are lethal to trip over, or jam in foot or leg. I have leveled about 200 sq feet, working 2 hours a day and 1 time 3 hours. Now I plan to do one hour a day. I have to buy a new rake, got a new hoe but Walmart had no tools at all. Hoping Home Depot will have a heavy duty rake.

1st I rake with pitchfork to bring up what is hidden,

snip with snipper the roots that appear

use pitchfork to throw broken slate into the giant holes around large rocks

and use rake to level.  I need a heavy-duty rake.

I am now a Pioneer Woman to the Bone.

I hate it! I am so thankful I did not live back then.

Bob does the heavy lifting, he is very strong, but only for long enough to stagger with moving one thing at a time. He can pick up a couch but can't walk with it. Knees were replaced but they never got strong enough for him to walk very far.

 I direct him where it goes, because he can't remember the plan we made.

I do not know how the pioneers made it through the day, doing the same thing I am doing now.

The entire 100 feet of our front yard curb is piled high with all the things we cleared ourselves

This is the tree compacted into a delightful smelling of pine sap, on the easement curb of the neighbors yard. Every street is lined with the same thing, it is rare to find a house with no debris 

we have this blown down fence to deal with and finding help is not good at this time.

I have to go out every time Beau goes out because there are 3 holes he can get out of.

we also have 2 sections of chain link bent in half, but he will not climb that, even though it is 

4 feet tall.

I know this is a long post and its ok to just look and leave. I am overwhelmed and just wanted to dump the pictures and story and get on with LIFE.

Bobcat

When the BOBCAT moved into our yard, the yard was beautiful, I fell in love with it and  told the tree boss I wanted one.

I had so much fun watching it, not even thinking it would leave yards destroyed

They took out the stump that we used for our flowers and plants. dragged the ancient  TWO tractors that Bob has been going to repair since 2015 into the front yard, leaving huge gouges. When they put them back, they were not where they promised, back where they were and Bob had to struggle to move them. 

the tree is at the curb, the stump is at the curb, and we are left in the biggest mess ever since we moved in 35 years ago. Tomorrow, I will show you how and what I am doing to the back yard

your last view of our Tree

Goodbye sweet stump, holder of our potted plants, which by the way were destroyed by the bobcat even though I removed them. The3 palms survived because they were on opposite side of the stump

and on the other hand....

OUR  BIOSPY RESULTS ARE HERE

Bob's biopsy came back, as his 5th Melanoma since 2017, this is the 2nd one in 6 months and she said it traveled from the one removed in January. She said this one is .7 and the others were skin only and less than .1. After .8 they will have to check lymph nodes.

My biopsy came back as Keratoacanthoma, better known as Volcano Cancer. This is the link to my post 6 months ago when I had Keratoacanthoma removed and now it is on the left leg, same spot as this one was on the right leg.  She is trying to get the chemo shot approved. Pray the insurance will approve it as the surgery will be hard to do on the shinbone, there is no meat there to cut. 

I am so blessed it came on the leg. to see the horrors of where it can come, is well, a horror. Nose, eyelids, lips OY VEY! click HERE.

Goodbye Loblolly Pine

 

From this to that

everything in the above photo is GONE leaving us with what you see below.

the sun that goes down directly to the west is now on our house and yard and yesterday it was 90 degrees on the corner of the house due to losing that tree. the temp was 86

From above to below and This 3000 lb Bobcat was fun to watch but it destroyed the entire side of the yard. the only good news I have is we were only without power for 3 hours. Story later.

we have nothing but black/dirt turning to sand to blow in the pool.

my heart is broken

The top of the tree night blooming cactus and the 15 feet tall orange hibiscus, see the reflection in the pool below and the pink hibiscus 6 feet tall. you might see them above is you click on photo

ALL vegetation is  Gone, so is a lot of money. I have a few more pictures to share of the bobcat