Thanks Danz! I'm here... or rather, I just got back! We went up to Colorado Springs and stayed with family so that my DH could run the Pikes Peak Ascent. Although, I'm not sure "run" would be the right word for the insane hiking ascent straight up the side of the mountain. (it takes a typical person to hike this trail in 8+ hrs) He did it in 4:07 hours to the summit- the race started in Manitou Springs in the town, so they had a couple miles of running before they hit the trail. Anyway, we drove up a few days early so that he could acclimate to the altitude and do some runs up on the mountains ahead of time. We spent some time sight seeing too, as we don't get up there too often. His aunt and uncle are about 10 minutes from Manitou Springs and live on the side of the mountain- so, we stayed with them.
We had a pretty bad storm come thru last Wed. It took down a shed (tore it apart!- the pieces are flung all over) on the back of our property and it tore apart our nice redwood playset. My mom sent me pictures of it while we were gone. The kids are upset their clubhouse and swings are gone.
It ripped apart some of our pergola and uprooted a pretty big White Pine tree in the front yard. It wasn't a tornado- my mom said it was just flat line winds. She was here when it hit "rescuing" my turkey and getting the horses in the barn and locked up. I already called our insurance, and it's covered, we just have to meet deductible. Anyway, my mom said that she had just parked in our drive way, when the playset/clubhouse came out of the ground and was lifted into the air- it hit her new car!
So she'll have to get her car fixed, too. I feel really bad since she came over to take care of my animals and then she gets hit by debris. My neighbors have been slowly bringing pieces of playset or shed back to our place from their properties while we've been gone. They have made a big pile in the front lawn. Sigh. So sad. One of them called me a couple days ago to tell me they were still working on clean up at our place.
On the UP side... the chicken coop made it! LOL!! But I am going to go buy hurricane clips to screw the roof on with! In fact, I'm going to go get more braces, etc to reinforce everything. This damage is highly unusual for us, but we do get those wind storms a lot and for some reason, we get a lot of small tornados, too- they usually land in the field behind us and dissipate before getting any bigger. We're sort of in a pocket where we see a lot of action- more so than anyone around us. Anyway, I guess I'll be cleaning up tomorrow (there is lumber and plywood that was flung up against the house) I can't believe no windows were broken.
