Bluff Spring Journal
January-2009
1-9
Off to a great but fast start to 2009. It's been good having family back home for the holidays. Matt and his girlfriend Kimberly here from Florida and New Jersey. They're headed back on Sunday and it seems the time has passed too quickly. Maybe dad needs to go visit his son in Florida. I love having an excuse to go to Florida. The only problem is that I don't go. Can anyone recommend a head doctor? I'm afraid they'd need a big flashlight.
Sid went to the WOLF classrooms this week to help kids learn how to ask 'thick' questions. Those are the questions that get the really good answers. Sid generates a lot of questions. Mainly, why are his legs so short, where is his tail, why are his ears big and how did he get his name? By the end of the session the kids get to know the difference between thick and thin questions. And, they get to know a lot about a really neat dog.
Jan. 12
MSU classes start again tonight. I have a really great group of kids that get along well. I get to keep these students for 3 semesters straight so we get to be a pretty close family. Don't tell them but I've sort of missed them. Wouldn't want them to think I wasn't the tough old professor.
Jan. 27
Snow and ice getting pretty thick here. We hear that Arkansas is supposed to get it even worse and are worrying about our neighbors along the Buffalo River. No school here today so all the kiddos are rejoicing while I'm sure some of the parents are saying, "It's ok today but I sure hope they have school tomorrow!".
Jan. 28
Sorry parents. No school today either.
Jan. 29
Not today
Jan. 30
Well the kiddos went back to school today but we're headed to Arkansas to 'celebrate' my birthday which was on the 28th. I put celebrate in quotes because we have talked to the neighbors about the ice storm and they say that it looks like a war zone with about 12 trees down between the highway and the cabin. Plus they have not had power for 3 days and it looks like it will be a week on two before they do get power. We also talked with the pastor at First Baptist Church Jasper just to see if any of their folks needed anything. So far we're taking a propane heater, propane gas bottles, gas, hard hats, chain saw and kerosene. It should be an eventful day!
Late night update.
Our trip to Arkansas took us through Harrison which looked really bad with many trees down and power lines also taking some real hits with trees falling across the lines. The ice storm had taken it's toll and we were a little more concerned about Mt. Sherman. We continued on down through the hills and were encouraged a little when we got to Jasper. There was tree damage but it was far less than the scene we had experienced in Harrison.
We stopped in at the 1st Baptist Church and delivered the things people had requested. They were happy to have just the bare necessities delivered to them. They also had their power back on which was encouraging to us as to what we might find on the mountain. After leaving the church we turned onto 74 to make our way up the mountain and it didn't take long to realize the the 'micro' climate we had experienced on Mt. Sherman was again going to be taking charge of the weather. The ice on the trees began to appear and so did the familiar broken tree tops we had experienced for the past two years. Then came the big trees that were downed. Usually completely out of the ground with roots exposed. As we turned off the highway onto our county road we were greeted within 10 yards with a tree across the road. Just barely out of the highway with the vehicle we piled out, grabbed the chainsaw and limb lopper and went to work. After clearing the first tree it wasn't another 80 yards till we ran into the next tree. We cut enough of it that we could walk through the brush and went forward on foot to see what had happened to the cabin. With all the trees down across the road we were sure we would find one in the roof of the cabin. We counted 10 trees down across the road before reaching the cabin. But, from what we could see from the front there wasn't anything on the roof of the cabin. As we got closer we did notice that the deck rail was broken from a limb hit but no damage to the cabin. We couldn't believe that with all the trees around the cabin none of them had fallen into the cabin. It was even more apparent that we had a small miracle when we got up on the deck and noticed a huge tree that had just missed the cabin by about 10 feet. Truly remarkable. There were also several trees down on the downside the cabin. All in the familiar roots out of the ground scene. Still amazed we made our way back to the vehicle fired up the chain saw and began to make our way towards the cabin. It was not your usual tree cutting but a constant figuring out how the tree was going to move during and after each cut. Several limbs were under pressure from the way they had fallen to the ground and were supporting the main trunk of the tree. Some trees had split and were still connected to the tree. These had to be cut up as high as I could reach with the chainsaw. Not a totally safe way to cut lumber. After a couple of hours we were happy to see that our neighbors were coming down the road from the direction of the cabin, cutting their way towards us. Needless to say by 4 pm and with only an hour or so of daylight left we had experienced all the fun we could stand and decided to pack up and head home. With no power at the cabin it was going to be a dark and chilly night there. I've put up some pictures here so that you could see some of the devastation. Let me tell you that it looked much worse in person.