Another Dark and Stormy night...

Wow, for those of you in the southern Ohio region, was that a storm or what!?!

We awoke around 4 AM to intense lightening and thunder.  Winds were scary as I watched our ailanthus trees sway and creak and bend.  These are not strong trees.  We have 2 that are close to the house, but we agree that if the trees fell on the house, the house would win.  The trees are that weak.  

In the morning, we found one tree down, and a big branch.  Of course, they are both ailanthus.  The tree fell on a wire that goes from our neighbors house to ours.  The wire isn't completely down, just pulled a bit by the higher limbs of the tree.  The electricity is sporatic, in that some outlets work and others don't.  The answering machine is going haywire too.  I called the electrical company about the tree, so hopefully when they get that wire back up things will return to normal. Maybe there were some power surges last night that we weren't aware of.  Who knows.

The good thing is that the garden made it through it.  I was concerned about the high winds.  But I went out there this morning and it looked happy to receive the rain.  

On a totally different subject, here are some photos of the hiking trip we took with Kara, Ethan, and their friends in Idaho last weekend.  We went to Washington state, in a wildlife preserve.  Most of the hike was along a raging creek, although some people diverted and went up the hills to hike along the ridge.  I didn't go because all I had were chaco sandals on, but Kent did go so there are some pics from that.

Here is Rob and Mark.  Mark went to Hocking with Kara, so it was great to talk Athens, Ohio with him.

Dave, Kara, Ethan and Jason.  Here we are still in the valley.  But eventually most of the gang went up those hills in the background.

Mark, hiking on the ridgetop.

Kent and Ethan at the top of the mountain.