Oooooh, I’m sore this afternoon.  Let me explain.

This morning, Pat and I spent the morning cleaning up the debris from a Saturday evening windstorm.  At 530 last Saturday, I watched out the kitchen window to see a big chunk of the crabapple tree fall to the ground.  Then, about 60 acres of corn ‘shucks’ blew across the road into our yard, piling up in the new landscaping and in the lawn.  The wind was estimated at near 70 mph!   So, today Pat and I spent the morning cleaning the debris away.  There were two trees that needed chainsaw work to cut up the big limbs, and then all those corn shucks had to be raked up and carried off with the backhoe.  We cut up the big tree limbs, too, into backhoe bucket-sized chunks so that those could be hauled away.  Most of the ‘brush pile’ burned well this afternoon.  The hardest job for me was the raking, even more hurtful to my arthritic left shoulder than the chainsaw work.  Philip and John were occupied most of the morning with delivering corn to market, but they joined us near the end.  John had to use a special chainsaw on a long pole to cut a big broken (‘way up high in the tree) pine limb that was not fully broken off.  I’m grateful for the guys’ help, and grateful that our farm is equipped with tools to do the work.  Right now, my back and legs are aching a bit from the bending and carrying, but I’m sure I’ll feel better tomorrow!  It sure looks better with the corn shucks removed, and the big, broken tree limbs carried away.

Pat reminded me that our little yard clean-up project that took 4 hours this morning was nothing compared to the wreckage suffered by our fellow Hoosiers at Henryville, New Pekin,  and Marysville.  We had a home to sleep in last night, many of those families lost their homes back in February’s tornado.   So, even though I’ve got sore muscles, this is another occasion to ‘count our blessings’.   Leave it to my dear wife to find the positive note!