Once upon a time

The bitter end. The remains of the stump.

There once was a tree in front of the farm house, the tree was 75 feet tall, more than 20 years before it fell down. The measurement was calculated by the angle of the sun versus the length of the shadow, Big Daddy says it was trig thing that he used. This was confirmed by the cousin who climbed as high as he could with a rope in hand.  BD says the circumference of the trunk was 9 feet. Actually there were 2 trees but the first one died by a lightening strike. The second had the same fate, lightening struck again. Anyhoo there was a huge stump left and my MIL always talked about getting rid of it but she never did anything about it.

Then one day this summer there was a terrible storm and lightening struck again, this time at the old farmhouse barns.

The barns were used for cows, originally a dairy farm and then pigs were added. The barns were quite sturdy with the floors laid like bowling alleys-maple floors laid 2inches up for strenght. All of the beams were held together with wooden pegs. The foundation was boulders and the silo was probably limestone slabs.

The two big barns were ignited by the lightening and burned down. It is amazing nothing else burned. An ember from this fire flew to the stump in front of BD's  family home, 300 yards away approx. and burned out the old pine stump. The fire department said the smoke was so thick they could hardly check the property. Thank goodness MIL was at the lake and did not have to evacuate and witness this.

The original family home, above, and the small tutor's house next door were unscathed. There is a large structure behind the old house that was the wood shed, it is original wood and in my mind scary old and dry wood and it survived. Amazing. The family no longer owns the original house above, nor the tutor's house or the barns so I was kind of trespassing to get the pictures.

BD saved all the pictures he could from the video fiasco and I hope he enjoyed seeing the pics. None of the family members wanted to see the devastation so I went with my wacko BIL. My MIL suggested we take the shortcut thru the bush but I told her I was a pavement kind of gal. And of course I had open toe heels and on the way back I got sand in my shoes. WTF. That is me though, I also moved households in heels-I am not a hiking shoe kinda gal. Dress for looking good and then wade through the scrub. Punkin Head used to get mad at me for wearing "prancers" and then complaining my feet hurt on vacation.