The Tree in the Closet

I'm always telling people that leaving your feeder out late in the fall will not keep the hummers hanging around. Mother Nature is a force greater than anything we can imagine, and she tells them when to head back south. I got an up-close lesson in the forces of Mother Nature last night.

We live in a quiet, small, mature subdivision - only about 60 houses and lots of wonderful old trees. About 1 a.m. two of those trees came crashing down on our house. Apparently two storm systems collided. In the aftermath, officials are saying it was a tornado. There are at least 8 huge old trees completely uprooted in our quiet little neighborhood. Unfortunately, ours was the only one with a house under it! My wife sleeps quite soundly and has always told me that she wouldn't know if a tree fell on the house through the night. By gosh she's right! I was awake and heard it, but had to wake her up to tell her about it.

The first picture is the back of the house. The second picture is the front of the house. The third picture is the inside of the closet, complete with The Tree in the Closet.

Now we are in the unenviable position of dealing with the insurance company and contractors. Luckily, the largest tree fell just right and sent a branch through the roof, through the attic, and through our closet and NOT through us sleeping in our bed.

The storm traveled through a small part of the Lake of the Ozarks. While ours was the only house in our subdivision to be under fallen trees, there were others in other neighborhoods. Related news stories: http://www.lakesunleader.com/articles/2008/06/05/news/02.txt and http://www.lakesunleader.com/articles/2008/06/05/news/03.txt

Hummingbird fact for today: The Hummingbird Clearwing moth is often mistaken for a hummingbird or baby hummingbird.