Early Morning Excitement

Oh, the joys of country living on a mountain! We've had freezing rain and rain that is freezing to the grass and trees since yesterday. Shortly after I got up this morning, the power went out for a second, came on, went out again, then came back on. Then there was quite a bit of light up by the road. Well, it's trash day for the neighbors and I assumed it was the truck headlights shining through the icy trees, but it was a snapped power line! Lots of smoke, sparks and what looked like flames. A quick call to 911 reassured me that fire trucks were on the way, but I was concerned that the fire could possibly spread onto our trees and down towards the kennel. But, our fire volunteers and Novec crews not only know what they are doing but are speedy! Within an hour, the show was over and the road was clear. I've not gone up to see the resulting damage as tree limbs are falling left and right. We had two very powerful wind storms last week which I'm sure stressed the trees and the thick coating of ice is causing what I call "a woodstove windfall"! Sadie and Jewel had a limb down in their outside run, the big play yard has a woodstove worthy limb in it and our big oak tree in the front lost a huge limb that will provide us with about two days worth of wood just as I started this entry. Hopefully, the worst will be over (or down) by the time I need to leave for work this afternoon. Right now, it sounds like guns periodically going off in the woods!