Hurricane Noel

There is so much going on in our lives right now. I feel like we have been racing the calender to get a bunch of things done before the winter winds and snow came and stopped us in our tracks at least as far as outdoor stuff was concerned. I worked feverishly on my horse fence and then my sawdust bin and finally the windbreak/shelter and was so pleased when those things were done. And then along came Hurricane Noel. The fence was fine, the bin is still full of sawdust, but my shelter is no more! There must have been a few good gusts that just came along and picked it right up, pulled the posts clean out of the ground and deposited it a few feet away and upside down.

The morning after the wind, I walked over to the window and opened up the curtains, and as my gaze rested upon the shelter, at first it just didn't register. It was a moment or two before I realized that it looked so odd because it was upside down, and another moment before I totally comprehended what had happened. All my work and effort to get it done, gone in a moment. As I stood there, with the sound of the tv on beside me, I could here the weather channel on and of course, they were talking about the hurricanes after-effects and they were talking about 500,000 people in Mexico not having homes anymore, and suddenly, my shelter seemed inconsequential by comparison. I was standing inside my house with my hot coffee cup in hand and in so many places people were wading through flood waters or standing in front of a pile of rubble that used to be their little house. We are so blessed and it would be a sad commentary on me, I think, if I were to waste energy whining about this event.

Well, today, we went out with the tractor, and made an effort to flip it back over. Unfortunately, what the wind could do in a moment, we were not able to undo. We did manage to get the first move without to much damage to the structure, but the second move was not so good largely because the one end is relatively unsupported as it is a two sided windbreak. At this point, we have decided to begin dismantling it systematically and then rebuild it in a new, less windy location. Don has promised to help me put it back up so it will go a lot faster this time, and especially as I have already done it once and everything is cut already. So there you go, another Nova Scotia experience. And life goes on, and there is still a smile on our faces, and one more thing for us to remember in years to come.