Jack ‘n Tracie

Edit added more pictures below.

More of our neighbor’s tree fell last night, this time hitting her roof and causing some damage. Jack and her boyfriend had to climb up on the icy roof to get the three huge limbs that fell off her roof. Not all of the pictures I took turned out very well.

We had more freezing rain last night and it was our turn to lose trees. Our beautiful tree in the backyard lost three limbs. One more is hanging over the backyard of the neighbor behind us. And another limb is resting on the roof of our covered porch. Cross your fingers they don’t break.

It’s still dark so my pictures didn’t turn out all that great but here’s a few:

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  New Pictures
  
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• The trees in the background have been snapping all morning and it sounds awful.
  

I’ll take more when there’s more light.

Here’s how thick the ice is now: We had the 6-8 inches of snow first.. then an inch and a half of ice on top of that. Up until this morning, you could stomp on the ice and break through to the snow. It was the only way you could walk.

Today the ice is so thick (2 inches or more in places) that you can no longer break through it to get to the snow underneath. So trying to walk is miserable… the ice isn’t flat since it’s covering the snow so it’s got all these little hills and bumps which make it even harder to walk since your feet just slide down the little hills. That’s why stomping through to walk was ok… now we can’t.

Jack and I just got back in from checking out our trees in front. The one in this picture taken the other day that Jack got off the ground by tapping the ice off is now back on the ground. We’re hoping since it’s resting on the ground it won’t break.

I talked him into staying home instead of going on the bus to work. It wasn’t hard though because while we were out front checking out our house and trees, it sounded like a war zone. Trees are snapping all over. They’ve been frozen for three days now and with the added freezing rain last night, they just don’t stand a chance. We also could hear power lines surging up the street. It’s an eerie sound. I have a feeling some are snapping… and where his bus stop would be there are tons of powerlines going up and down the street. So he’s gonna stay home and help me work my at home job to help make up the difference of what he’s not getting paid.

I’m not sure how those powerlines are connected to our power. Ours went out at some point last night while we were sleeping (all our computers were off and clocks were blinking… it could’ve just been a flicker for all I know) and that’s the other thing that convinced him to stay home. He doesn’t want us to be stuck here without him if the power goes out. I can take care of us if it did, but it’s definitely nicer to have him here.

P.S. No school again for the third day in a row for the kids. They have been out of school for almost three weeks now. They were out for Christmas break, went to school on Monday and have been home since. At least now they know why I won’t let them play outside.