I am sure, by now, everyone knows that a hurricane blew up the east coast. I do not take hurricanes lightly, but I do not panic either. I have witnessed 2 hurricanes in Florida, and living at the beach area in NJ, I know they can be ugly. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew (a catagory 5 when it made landfall in Homestead, FL) took residents by surprise. Andrew had weakened a lot, coming past the Bahamas, but as people went to sleep, overnight, it became a monster! It flattened Homestead, FL. A few of my Mom's friends lived there and they never returned to the town they had once lived. Bad memories. In S. Florida, they say "Before Andrew and After Andrew". That is how devestating it was to S. FL. My point is? Take hurricane warnings seriously. Currently many of our NJ residents are still dealing with flooding. Prayers to those that are dealing with the flooding from Hurricane Irene.
In the afternoon, on Saturday, I needed to get to the horse farm to help with cleaning stalls,etc. I carefully took 195 to 547, to avoid roads with the least amount of trees. It was 3:30pm and I turned out Indy & Fancy in the first big field that had no trees. "Stretch out your legs, you two!" Within 20 minutes as I was watching them graze, we heard a loud, & long CRACK! They spooked, & ran a bit, and about 500 feet away (a safe distance away), a huge branch from a huge tree by our woods, had broken off. 10 minutes later another huge tree. The winds had shifted now since Irene was in Long Island. I kept them in the "no trees around" field until the winds died down. My point? Trees can still come down when the hurricane has passsed. Due to weak roots or a change in wind direction.
Yesterday, Ival & I took the horses out to see what damage, if any, the Howell trails had. As we went through, I didn't want to jinx myself by saying, "They look good!". In short, one birch tree that the horses could easily walk over it, and one large branch that blocked a trail to the ditch we all hate anyway, so the trails faired well. We were quite surprised. There was a lot of water but no where that we had to turn around. Clover and Indy went through the water with no problems. I was quite proud of Indy. He actually led the way through the water!! Awesome! Of course he wanted to drink at every water crossings, but that was ok with me! Indy & Clover make a great team. They take turns leading on their own.......like they are saying to each other, "Okay you go first." So our trails are open with no damage.....yeah!
Stay safe everyone, during any future storms we may have........
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