The good, the bad, and the ugly!
The good: We had some trees that needed to come down. Not an emergency, but something that has been put on the back burner. The guy that I found was reasonable, and smart. He looked around as we walked the property and talked about all of the trees. We ended up getting 8 trees taken down. We should be good for a while!
The bad: Not long back from vacation and Christmas approaching, we are very busy. So on December 14, the wind was wild, but we were in the safety of our home with a nice fire going. I already know that there will be many branches down for me to pick up. I was not ready for what happened the next morning when Margo said “You better come look at this”. I hate it when she says that, as it usually spells disaster.
The ugly: So I go look out the window and see this giant Cypress tree laying on my gazebo. The gazebo was not even one year old. We used it for one season. I had certainly hoped to get at least a few years out of it! And the table and chairs under it were probably 2 years old and still in excellent shape. I was hoping to get many more years from that set. What I have is 3 chairs that survived somehow. The fence was 14 years old and the manufacturer stopped making it. Lucky for me I have a couple of pieces left over that I can use to repair it.
So I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I am lucky that there was not more damage and that no one was hurt. This will make me think about a better plan for the outdoor seating. I am going to get the same gazebo and put a wicker conversation set under it. I will then put a larger table on the deck. It will be easier to get the food to, and it will fit the whole family. So some good will come out of this disaster!
