Saturday night we went to a friends for dinner but then had difficulty getting home. More trees down in the highway. Thus a roadblock - highway closed. We ended up driving as close as we could toward home, about a 1 1/2 mile, then hubby walked the rest of the way. My plan was to stay with the car until the highway was opened, which the police said would be about another hour. Just one more storm related difficulty. But the info turned out to be wrong. Hubby found out that the highway was projected to be closed for 5 hours more, so he came back for me. We parked our car in the field of a local farm that I know, left a note on the windshield, then hiked on home.
We didn't find out until late Sunday, but there were dozens upon dozens of trees down blocking the roads in Ka'u. Adjacent landowners and local volunteers chopped away most of the trees and branches, while an overwhelmed state, county, and electric company road crews worked away at the task. If it wasn't for the fact that people in the community came out and worked two days tree clearing, using their own tools and gas, our roads would still be blocked. I guess it's that country people tend to take care of things for themselves rather than waiting for some government department to do it for them. People here have been helping one another clear driveways, remove trees off of houses, drag trees out of roads, repair fences.
Well, Sunday was back to getting the basics done, with the help of two more people. David showed up with his chainsaw. Matt showed up with his muscle and strong back.
Downed trees seemingly everywhere. Over 20 big ones on our place with numerous smaller ones tangled up in the mess. It's gonna take weeks before its all cleaned up. What was a bit disheartening was that more trees had toppled overnight, adding to the workload.
(These trees luckily missed the catchment tank but destroyed the Costco tent.)
The end of the rabbit hutches is a total loss. 3 hutches. No way could it be salvaged. So new hutches will have to be built. For now some does that are compatible will have to double up. But luckily all the rabbits were uninjured and the three that got loose were easily captured.
The front of the chicken pen was a loss and will need rebuilding. Sadly we discovered that one hen who preferred to roost atop the pen door was killed. But everyone else is fine. Once we started removing the trees crushing their pen, the girls quickly discovered their freedom. So they are all having a marvelous time.
Most of the slash (leaves, twigs, cut up light branches) is being dumped into my biotrash pits. Hubby has often frowned upon these pits, wanting to just see them filled in with dirt and be done with it. But now they are coming in extremely handy. We have pick-up truckload after truckload of debris. Three of my largest pits are now in the process of being filled, plus one smaller one. Once filled and settled, they will be converted to banana patches. This storm trashed most of my bananas, so I'd like to start new patches.
The four of us worked steadily until 3:30 pm today, until the point that it was no longer safe to have a running chainsaw in one's hands. Tomorrow is another day. Hubby is going to be incredibly happy to return to his desk job tomorrow. He's not the farm boy type.
So here's some more photos.....
(Garden fence crushed. Took out the sink and work area. Smashed one lunch table.)
(End of this work day.)
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