We came home to this...

While we were away, our property was hit with a pretty big storm. It bordered on being labeled a tornado! The hydro was out for a significant amount of time and there was much action at our house on Sunday morning. This is due to the fact that we have pig barns down the road from us that use our water. When the hydro is out, his pigs don't get water. To fix this (and our own lack of hydro) we have a large generator that gets hooked up to the tractor. Since we were not home, the farmer and my parents were here trying to get the generator hooked up. They managed just fine and the pigs all survived. Despite all that, our property was quite a mess when we got back. There were seven huge limbs that came down in the bush and one whole tree was uprooted. The kids spent a lot of time picking up sticks and limbs just so we could cut the grass. Thankfully, there was no damage to the house or shop. Pictures don't do justice to the mess, but at least you can see how we (mostly Colin) have our work cut out for us!

One limb hung up on another - this will be a difficult cut for Colin.

One of the limbs cut and stacked.

Eden helping out :)

Colin pouring more oil in the chainsaw.

Another photo of the one tree that fell on the other.

The wrecked bird feeder and the wood pile that came from the limb that caused the damage. (My flower beds aren't looking so pretty now either :)

The other kind of work that I came home to was strawberries. Anna, Naomi and I had picked 18 quarts the week before we went away but they all went into the freezer. This week I picked 15 quarts with Silas, Bethany and Eden to make jam with. Picking strawberries is starting to get easier for me - my helpers are getting bigger and more efficient. Well, some are more efficient than others as you can tell from their faces :)

Culprit #1

Culprit #2

Searching for the perfect berry.

Silas with some of the berries we picked.