On Christmas Day my tree crew finally was ready to start the work on my property. I felt bad that they had to be there on Christmas but they assured me they preferred it that way as the goal was to have all storm damage cleaned up by New Years so that all the out of state teams could go home to their families by then. Quite a large number of teams, like mine, had been called upon to assist the normal Oklahoma crews get the work done faster. While I contacted England Tree Service, it was Champions Tree out of Houston who ended up doing my work.

The work they did at my house was impressive. Both of my 75 foot Mulberry trees were split down the middle (and I'll have to remove the rest of them soon too). And I had quite a large number of smaller trees needing work. As the City was to be hauling off tree debris in the upcoming weeks, all my broken limbs and trunks were piled upon my curb.

I've taken a few pictures to give you an idea of what it all looks like. Though sadly, it's not as impressive on film as it was standing next to it. The pile goes about 12 feet back from the curb, about 7 feet tall in places, and spans the entire length of my yard.  Full size photos can be found in the gallery called Aftermath in my Photos area.

calandria.onesite.com

 

Like quite a few people across Oklahoma tonight, my home is currently without power. If I'm lucky it sounds like I might have power again in 5 to 10 days. I do hope it won't be as bad as the people who were without power for weeks last year due to storms. I am lucky in that I have family here in town who still have power and don't mind a few house guests.

The purpose of my post here today is to share pictures of the damage to my home and property. My yard literally looks like a tornado came through. My husband and I had chosen the house and lot we did because of all the trees. Right now I'd say 90% of the trees are damaged, and with just this one storm at least 5 are probably permanently damaged. And lets not forget those sitting on my roof. So far the roof seems to be holding steady, but if you'd been in the house and heard the thunderous crash as the second Mulberry split and landed on the roof, you'd be wary too.

Enough ramblings, enjoy the pictures.

 

calandria.onesite.com

 

 

I've been looking through photographs tonight and stumbled upon quite a few I hadn't looked at in a while, and quite a few more I thought I might like to share here. So many great moments captured, and so many more lost while I was too lazy to go get my camera fixed! I really need to make an effort to do that one of these days...

In the mean time, please enjoy some newly added pictures of my pups, and a new gallery of photos of some of my art. Granted at the time I was lazy and didn't take them out of their frames, so the light is weird and one of my favorites appears blurry. I promise they're much clearer in person. Maybe when that camera finally gets fixed I'll get some better copies of them.

 

calandria.onesite.com

 

A new week and a new day driving to work at 3:30 in the morning.  As usual I had a hard time getting to sleep early enough to actually feel awake when I needed to get up today.  But... I've decided there is a silver lining to my early morning... all the radio stations were actually playing music!  Imagine that, music on the radio!!  Made the drive nice and relaxing, and I got to play it all very loud to help me wake up further.  :)

This article appeared recently in the New York Times and discusses Oklahoma City's Vietnamese cuisine.  I've eaten at two of the locations mentioned in the article when I used to live near this part of town.  Have to say it's definitely worth trying if you like going outside our normal offerings.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/travel/04frugalweb-1.html