Huricane Ike, Day 2

We didn't get to eat until after 8:00 on Sunday. By then, our battery operated and crank radios were telling us that 800,000 people were without power in Cincinnati. We figured that schools would probably be closed because all the power was out; this includes traffic lights and even cell towers.

I dug out Sterno and a fondue pot and warmed up some leftovers being careful not to let too much cold air out of the fridge.

By 9, we had confirmation that there would be no school. The kids got to stay up late and enjoy dinner by candlelight.

The next morning, I boiled water and dripped it through grounds in our automatic drip coffee maker -- sort of a manual drip coffee maker. The coffee was good and we enjoyed a cup while surveying the damage and greeting all the gawking neighbors who wanted to see the back yard. They could see some of the damage from the street and just wanted to get an up-close look.

We then put the kids to work clearing walnuts. We paid them a dollar a crate to pick them up. The ground was littered with walnuts. They must have been about a dozen per square foot in places. Here Lastborn sits on his milk crate while picking up walnuts. He filled three crates while many of the kids filled upwards of 10.



We used the hold made by the pulled-up root ball to hold the walnuts. In this picture, they are at least 18 inches deep. It took the kids at least 3 hours to clear them.

While the kids picked walnuts, DH and many of the men from the neighborhood helped the neighbors with the tree over their driveway. That was a story in itself. These neighbors had been on vacation. They pulled into their driveway just before I had gotten home and as they pulled in, a large branch fell on their car. Luckily no one was injured, but the car was a rental. The husband, who is from S. America and very unfamiliar with Midwestern storms ran into the house leaving his wife to get the kids (2 yrs and 9 months) out of the car. He would not leave the house for the rest of the day. As they cleared the branch off the car (that was happening as I drove past the house Sunday) the rest of the tree came down across their drive.

This was the tree DH helped clear. They had to tie it to an SUV and drag it out of the way and then they used hand saws to cut it up enough to clear some of it. Later in the day someone with a chain saw cut the larger sections up.

After the kids finished with the walnuts, we walked around and surveyed the damage and took pictures. This is the double tulip poplar that fell into the neighbor's shed It came very close to damaging their house. Their entire back yard was full of this tree.

Here's Eddie making lemons out of lemonade. We have nicknamed this fallen tree, the temporary jungle gym in the back yard.

After the walnuts were cleared the kids got to play on the trees.

Here Mr. T from across the street plays on one of the smaller trees attached to the root ball of the first tree to come down. They were also climbing the roots. Children are so agile.

Among the trees nearby, the house on a corner across the street also lost an ornamental pear. Those did not fare well in the storm. We heard the chainsaws all day working on that one and when they finished, the guy who took care of it came by and offered to take care of ours. He worked on it until his saw ran out of gas. All the gas stations are closed, so he couldn't refill. Another man cam by with a chainsaw and a truck and offered to remove the fallen tree. His price was reasonable, so DH agreed and he worked on the tree.

At 2 our neighbor across the street came over with some fish stew. She had to use or lose the fish and this is what she could make over a camp stove. But it was too spicy for her kids. We had already eaten, so DH had some and we kept it hot and gave it to the tree guy. The tree guy will come back in a couple of days to take care of the other pear tree that was damaged.

We got to meet lots of people that day. Everyone was out checking out the damage or cleaning up. The kids were playing in a pack, mostly on the trees in our back yard. People were sharing food and grills to cook out. The kids were not wining about lack of TV. Altogether, it was fun. Nova was out of a lead the entire day eating fallen sticks. This was doggie heaven. I had been making a beef and barley soup with one of our beef bones when the power went out Sunday. All I had was a bone and broth. The meat was dinner Sunday and I saved the bone for Nova. She spent the day working on it.

By evening, we heard no school on Tuesday. The kids played until 9pm outside. We hung with the neighbors. Then we all crashed by 10 or 11 exhausted from our day of raking and cleaning up.