Damage, Round One

Notice the pine tree.  I'm not sure what happened there, but it looks like something took a bite out of the side.

A couple of the posts for the grape vines have fallen over.

The corkscrew willow in the front yard has been dying/falling over for a couple of years now, so it was decided to cut it down to prevent it from falling on any houses/cars.

Snapped branches on pine trees in the field.

Strawberry bed is missing a side.

Screen door at grandma's house.

The rest of the screen door- looks like it was more glass than screen...

Porch support.  

Oops, one more piece of door.

Siding on a shed.

The new backyard, minus some trees/bushes.  Maybe grass will grow back there again?

Firewood!

Good thing we didn't have a dog living in here anymore.

Fruit tree in the garden.  I think this was a peach.  Not too sad, because it would have had to come out anyway, it's where our house will be.

Broken fence, where the tree broke off and crushed it.  The clean up crew had the fallen part chopped up and hauled away amazingly fast this morning.

New, flat roof, on the chicken coop.  Hopefully it will work until spring.  We can now call it the chicken cube.

Siding damage from the coop roof hitting the shed.

We'll need to get a new boat cover.  The boat looks okay, maybe a little scratched up.  We haven't looked under the cover to be sure.

There's the roof!  It put some nice gouges in the back corner of our camper too.

Siding damage, so that's where the wasps were coming from.

Up high there's siding damage where the cable wire was pulled out of the wall.  The cable is now laying on the ground.  

Wind speeds reached 102 mph.  That's class 2 hurricane.  School was cancelled Thursday and Friday.  Church was cancelled today to allow everyone to go around and clean up the debris before the next round starts tonight.  It's not supposed to be as bad, but who knows.  I moved the cans into the garage, and picked up as much as I could so there are fewer things to blow over to the neighbor's house (or beyond).  We still need to put the small sailboat somewhere safe so it doesn't blow away again (last time I grabbed it before it went too far- that was fun), some big pieces of plastic, and maybe do something with the wood from the former chicken coop roof and the dog run.  Probably ought to clean up as much as we can with the door next door too.  The boys are hoping school is cancelled tomorrow, we'll see.

It's been a really great feeling to see all the neighbors out working together to get things cleaned up.  They're piling stuff up at a church building down the street, and from there it's being hauled to the dump.  I'm not sure how the dump is going to keep it there, but at least it would have to blow a long way before it hit anything from that point.  Kyle brought home a load of pine for our wood pile when he came home for breakfast/lunch.  I'm not sure when they'll be done.

The majority of trucks going by are full of pine branches.  It's surreal.

UPDATE: Round 2 of the wind storm petered out, so YEA.  No more damage.

Miscellaneous Happiness

Today I was sitting wondering why I am generally pretty happy when there are so many things to be overwhelmed and frustrated about.  Here are some of the things I thought of...

My kids are outside riding bikes in the driveway, and laughing.
My peas are planted (the garden bed was frozen a few inches down, but there was enough defrosted to put peas in).
Progress with the city to get permission to apply for a building permit is moving along at a decent speed.
The chicks are entering their awkward teenage weeks.
The chicks are playing angry birds with each other.  Running, flapping their wings and bowling into everyone else.
The chicks are establishing a pecking order.  Some are getting aggressive, guess which ones will go in the canning kettle first...  (Should it bother the feminist in me that chicks adhere to traditional gender roles so much?)
I'm married to someone I really love, and I would rather spend time with him than anyone else.
I've been getting regular exercise and have some big races this year!
The Girl Scout cookies arrived today.

Updates...

Updates to our house.  We're finally getting things put on the walls, and it's feeling more and more like home.  

Updates to my Mr's already busy schedule.  My Mr. is running for the House of Representatives.  I'm so proud of him.  Anyone interested in volunteering in the campaign should email him (his contact info should be on his site- follow the link).  As a quick primer in all things political (just kidding) we watched Mr. Smith Goes to Washington a couple of nights ago.  Look out Utah State Legislature!  

Updates on the new chickens:Clock-wise from the top: Mario, Fred, Little Jerry and Mr. Gordon. (and yes, they are all hens (as far as we know)).  The bigger they get, the more I think about having to put the old chickens in the freezer.  It's not the freezer part that has me worried.  It's the what happens before they can go in the freezer.  I'm letting my Mr. take care of that part, because while I think I can handle eating them, I know I would have a hard time killing something that we named.  (and sorry to anyone we have named chickens after- killing them isn't some sort of statement about our relationship)

Updates on C.

We bought 12 of these totes to store eggs in for our city youth council's easter egg hunt. We figured we had close to 7000 eggs this year, and probably got 5-6000 back at the end. Our goal is 10,000 eggs next year.

Hey, what a fun box to be in!

I'm not so sure about the whole being-buried-in-eggs-thing... If he turns out to be deathly afraid of the easter bunny and refuses to participate in easter egg hunts, we'll know where it came from.

Well, mom and dad are smiling, maybe it's not so bad... (he was really happy when we pulled him out though)

Map to NSL Easter Egg Hunt

Here's a map of where Hatch Park is, if you're interested in bringing your children to the NSL Easter Egg Dash


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North Salt Lake Easter Egg Hunt

The North Salt Lake Youth City Council is holding this year's Easter Egg Dash, this saturday (the 22nd) at 10am at Hatch Park.

The Dash is open to all children ages 2-12.

Bring a basket and don't be late. Once the signal goes off, it's only a matter of seconds until the fields are picked clean.

The Least of These

My heart aches for people who, for whatever reason, are without a warm place to sleep, a place to feel safe this winter. Sometimes it feels overwhelming that there are so many people who are in need of help. I can't fix much of anything for these people.

The North Salt Lake City Youth Council is holding a drive to benefit the Road Home. They are collecting blankets (any size), bath towels, gloves, hats, and other items.

Fleece blankets are on sale 3 for $9.99 at Albertsons, and I understand that Family Dollar has similarly priced blankets.

Donations can be left at the NSL City building (20 South HWY89, North Salt Lake), or can be dropped off to me (email me at alliegator321atgmaildotcom).

It may not be much, but maybe a warm blanket will bring some comfort to those who have so little.

Curbside Recycling in North Salt Lake

Awhile back there was a message from the NSL Mayor about garbage cans being like recycling cans because the garbage in Davis County (except for Bountiful I believe) goes to the burn plant, which sells energy to Hill Airforce Base. I'm glad that the burn plant is able to harness the energy from the garbage. I'm also glad that disposable diapers are not putting fecal material (that's poop) into landfills where it can leach into our water supply untreated.

I think calling garbage cans recycling bins is stretching things a bit though.

There must have been others who agreed with me, because on the NSL Website there is currently a poll asking residents if they are in favor of a 3.35/month utility bill increase for a city wide curbside recycling program. Even more interesting, is that of the the 73 votes (as of 10am this morning) 64 of them were in favor. $3.35 a month would save my family some money, since we signed up with with a private curbside recycling company at a price of $10/month.

I would like to know more about the city program. Who would operate it? Where would the recycled materials go?

Free Movie in the Park

The North Salt Lake Youth City Council is sponsoring a free movie night at Hatch Park in North Salt Lake.

Hook

SATURDAY June 16th

Movie starts at dusk

Bring your friends and family (and a blanket to sit on)

The youth council will be selling concessions, so come enjoy the movie, and support the great youth of North Salt Lake!

Letter from Moms for Clean Air

Hello Mamas-
after talking to dr. brian moench (founder of utah
physicians for a health enviroment), i have a better
sense of why wed's evening meeting in bountiful is
important for us, moms. in essence, the intermountain
power agency (IPA) is trying to finance its third
coal-fired power plant in delta by selling energy to
small out-of-state municipalities, such as wasco
county in oregon.

the reason why we need to show up at this meeting is
that this plant will be built in OUR state, WE will
suffer all of the toxic pollution consequences and
receive NONE of the energy generated, meanwhile,
orgeon gets cheap power at the expense of OUR
children's health. clearly, this is a moral and
ethical issue and as moms, we must stand up for our
children's right to breathe clean air.

the utah physicians for a healthy enviroment will be
speaking out against this proposed long-term contract
between wasco county, oregon and the intermountain
power agency at 7pm, may 9th at the west bountiful
city building (550 north 800 west): directions from
slc are as follows:

directions: going north on I-15, take the 400 north exit and go west over the highway. take
a right at the first stop sign. the city building is on your right
just after the school.

we hope to see you there -- and please spread the
word, especially to friends, familyand collegues in
the delta and bountiful area.

with warm wishes,

cherise udell
founder, utah moms for clean air
utahmomsforcleanair.org

Free Easter Egg Hunt!

The North Salt Lake Youth City Council is holding their annual
Easter Egg Dash
on Saturday, April 7th
10 am at Hatch Park in North Salt Lake (corner of Main and Center)
Free for children ages 2-12
Come with easter baskets ready!

Don't be late, because it only takes a few minutes for the kids to pick the fields clean. It's like the Swarm. I hope to see everyone there! The NSL Youth Council has put a lot of time into getting ready for the event. We have around 4000 easter eggs filled with candy and prizes.