Wind Storm & Earth Quake

Starting about 36 hours ago we had winds pick up for the first time since we have been here. I did not think it got Windy here after going all summer and only 2 thunder storms and not seeing much wind over about 20 mph in gust. The only other wind I experienced was on the river during tidal changes. I was taught another lesson about our environment over the last day and a half.
I had gotten lax about setting stuff around, and the left over metal roofing was just piled on some logs in the back yard. I had put more metal roofing sheets on top of the wood pile and over the fuel barrels for rain and sun protection. Today I will picking up all of that roofing and re stacking it in an orderly fashion and anchoring quite well under something. I think the farthest I will have to walk to get it is about 60 feet. The loose insulation under the cabin is a different story. I still had not finished removing all of the bad insulation under the cabin but, I had pulled all of the chicken wire loose that was holding it. Well, I have foil pieces and insulation balls blown all over, Maybe over 100 yards out into the woods. I will pick up what I can see and get to. I have a feeling I will be finding it for a year or two. Oops!
The Blue Tarp workshop affectionately know as the Tarsp is no more. The wind took care of it also. It knocked over my drill press and a multitude of other items on its way to tearing the tarsp down.


I spent the better part of yesterday cleaning up, after the wind slowed a little bit and trees quit breaking, and doing prep work to put up my new temporary building that I purchased a while back. I guess God is telling me it is time to get that put up before winter hits or something like that.
The winds had been a constant 15 to twenty mph with frequent gust of 35 to 50 mph. Some of the gust maintained for 45 seconds to a minute. The hard sustained gust are what did all the damage.
The winds finally calmed down after midnight last night. Then we were SHOOK awake at 4:06am with a 5.4 magnitude Earthquake. The epicenter was less than 20 miles from us. It shook for a good 30 plus seconds from mild shake to pretty good bouncing then back to mild. I would compare this one to being on a railroad bridge when a heavy freight train crosses over it. You could feel it coming, it roared by then it passed with kind of a rhythmic shake. There is no damage and nothing even off the shelves but I don't think it would take very much more for things to move around a bit. It was enough of a shake to make my thoughts race for a few seconds.
Just now, as I type this I had another new experience. The sun just started blinding me from the side, throught the kitchen window. I said something to Myra about the sun coming up in a new area. She laughed and mentioned the lack of leaves on the trees. LOL, The trees were stripped during the wind storm! The sun is now coming through the forest, don't I feel (a little less intelligent).
It is a beatiful morning outside, about 32 degrees (when I got up) and crystal clear blue skys. Thankfully there was now dew last night because I was unable to get things covered with tarps last evening. The wind had picked back up to dangerous levels and there was no way I was going to try to handle tarps in that breeze. Myra may have had to come throw me a float ring in the river or help me out of a tree or something like that. Dorathy in the wizard of oz type of stuff.
Today will be spent putting up the temporary building and cleaning up the yard and surrounding area. I have got to get over to the boat soon and finish the winterization of it and God keeps changing my plan, go figure.
Myra got most items moved into the new porch and got it organized yesterday. It is starting to look like a different place around here. We don't have totes for walls any more and we can walk around a little. It seams as if we are tracking in far less dirt already and the dust is beginning to settle. It won't be long until we can actually clean the place and maybe keep it a little more so that way. It has been a dusty mess all summer, and it was so cramped it was almost impossible to clean.
Time to go get my work started for the day,
Thanks for taking your time to read this, it is truely a pleasure to be able to share our experience!
Roger
Did we share this sucker or was it all Jeffs'?