Yes, I can still hear my mom say “Be careful what you wish for…” and this weekend our trip to Luling to check on the new home progress definitely brought this saying to mind.
As we drove down Crockett Lane towards our home we could see a big truck in the middle of our driveway – Yippee – Insulation was being installed – on the 4th of July no less….. Impressive!
As we turned into the driveway we realized there was a good-sized tree down. Immediate thought – “Dang, they hit our tree!” because it was a good-sized truck. Corey hopped out of our van to see what was up and realized a storm had taken the tree down, the insulation crew was just moving what they could out of way to pull their truck down to our home to begin their install.
Wish # 1 – we will take rain anytime we can get it (Yes – be careful what you wish for!)
Wish # 2 – a clean work site at our new home (Yes – once again – be careful what you wish for!)
Here are the photos that will explain why we should “Be Careful What We Wish For!)
This is after Corey had pushed it out of the driveway with the tractor – it doesn’t look like much but it took a couple of hours, a Stihl chainsaw and a tractor to properly take care of this guy. I would say the largest trunk area we worked with was at least 20″ across
When we were building the barn, one of the trucks delivering the materials had damaged this tree – I kind of had a feeling it wouldn’t make it through the build, but I really thought it would be a delivery truck that did it in, not a storm.
In my previous post this was all smooth and pretty!
It was quite a storm they say….
Looks like we will be adding rain gutters quite quickly once we move in – we had thought we could get by with limited rain gutters – probably not
This drain is the “drain to daylight” for the laundry room – we will be adding some additional piping to route possible water away from the house
Building a temporary drainage path
This tree is closer to Crockett lane – there are several like this across our 6+ acres
This one is up the hill at our neighbors build site – when their driveway was put in it probably compromised the tree and it just couldn’t hold. As Lilly says “nature widened her driveway!”
Lilly’s culvert! Corey had created some berms for our culvert and we are happy to report they are diverting the water as planned.
Caption This!
This is Lilly and Davids site – I texted this photo to her and her reply “Can’t image the mess inside the porta loo, I’ll no be looking!”
And this at another neighbors – he was out-of-town for the storm – but he was loading up the pups to go get some gas for his chain saw so he could some clean up
A close up of the neighbors tree – unfortunately over the years of droughts and floods our poor oaks in this area are not the healthiest.
While it is important to have wishes and dreams – we must caution ourselves to “Be careful what we wish for!”
My wish for you is your Health and A Loving Family with Special Friends that we also consider Family!
Dee
Wow. That was quite a storm. At least now you know what work needs to be done to help with the drainage before you landscape. Jeanne
Yes Jeanne that is the good thing! We really weren’t surprised because we knew were going to have to do something – this actually made it easier to see where the flow was coming from. We are also going to have to work on a retaining wall ASAP when we relocate for the back hill that had to be cut into for the build site. I am looking forward to designed and building a terraced retaining wall and know that I will enjoy the terraced gardens for years to come (as will the deer and other wildlife!)