RIDICULOUSLY OPTIMISTIC!

Ridiculously Optimistic. That's what my daughter posted on Facebook from Orlando after she heard from us. 

   "Just heard from Marcy Grant  and they are running off generator power but are ridiculously optimistic and in good spirits." 

   I love this. I can't say that I've remained this way the entire past year; some days it's very overwhelming, even now, but when we walked out of the house that day alive and well, we knew that nothing else mattered. We knew it would take a lifetime to clean up and rebuild, but, having been given that opportunity, we were THANKFUL and... optimistic!

  These are a few of the images that we captured that day of our farm:

 Uh oh. This is our beeyard. Not so happy bees right now, but we'll have to deal with this later.

this is the back of our original house

This is the front.

Our greenhouse didn't fare too well either - the wind knocked it a foot off the foundation (in addition to losing most of the glass panels)







Our animals, for the most part, are ok. We lost several chickens under the collapsed coop, two turkey hens - they are somewhat delicate birds, and two young goats. I wish I had thought to bring them inside but it didn't occur to me until the storm was raging.

Almost all of our fences are down, so securing the animals will be a priority, but for now they are all very happy eating all the green leaves that have carpeted the ground!

We ventured out on Thursday to go check on a friend's farm. They had left to stay with parents during the hurricane and were unable to return safely. This is what the roads looked like the next day:

Power and phone lines are down everywhere!
Unbelievable to see phone poles snapped in two like twigs - almost every  one was down!!!

Traffic had to be rerouted into yards to avoid the trees, poles and lines!

Already neighbors are out with chainsaws clearing the roads. I was humbled to see these men leave their own home devastation and families to go out and help others by making the roadways safe and passable.

Back home
Time to get to work. We need to start with the basics - food and water.
Thanking God for this...

 

Our water well was spared - It may be months before grid power is restored. 

to be continued...