If a tree falls in the forest....

So Sunday night it was REALLY windy. Like crazy windy. Insane. And instead of blowing towards the front of the house, which is the normal direction, it was blowing through the woods and against the back of the house. Alann and I went to bed kind of late and were just starting to fall asleep when suddenly there was this crescendo of noise. I can't even describe the exact noise. It just was building. I was actually starting to wonder if that was what a tornado sounded like, and if we were under a warning I didn't know about. Then there was a crunch/crack/thump. And then, silence. It was kind of weird. Alann said "I think a tree fell." I said "On the house?" And thus began an investigation. We couldn't see anything from our bedroom windows, so we went downstairs. As soon as we opened the sliding door to the back porch, a HUGE gust of wind came in at us. It almost knocked me backwards. We went out on the porch and sure enough, a tree had hit the back of the house. We didn't see any immediate damage, so we went to bed. Upon later inspection, I saw that the entire root ball had disintegrated  There is a huge hole where the bottom of the tree used to be. I thought the trunk had cracked. Nope.

Here's the amazing thing. As the noise was building, I said a prayer, as I usually do during storms, that we and our house would be safe during the storm. The tree that fell hit the back of the house right underneath our bedroom window. The second floor is smaller than the first, so there is an overhang underneath our window. You can see the smashed rain gutter from our bedroom. If the tree had been any taller, it would have come through our window. The tree was also pretty rotten on top. The various branches broke away as it hit the house, so instead of smashing through the house, it just ripped siding off. I have never had a prayer answered so swiftly and immediately and clearly. There was so much potential for this to be bad. But we were protected and kept safe. And I am grateful. I don't want to ever forget the immense gratitude that I felt and expressed as soon as we discovered how close the tree came. Not only the gratitude that I felt, but the confirming spirit that this had indeed been an answer to that prayer. I tend to think sometimes that "my prayers are never answered". You always hear those stories about how Johnny lost his ring and said a prayer and found it right away. That's never happened to me before. Now it has. And it's awesome. And thank goodness for home owner's insurance!

It's hard to capture the entire thing in one picture. It goes all the way to the house, other than where Alann has already cut it away to fix the dog fence.