Monday, July 21, 2008

Working between the rain drops...

Back from the weekend. It almost feels like a vacation to come back to work! Saturday we planned to take down 2-4 trees of the 7 trees that were killed off in the Ice Storm of 2005. The excessive heat caused pop up storms so we didn't get as much done as we planned. Here's a video that was on You Tube of the Ice Storm if anyone wants to check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC59LwSs2zw

BUT it's kind of misleading at the end when it says 'finally help arrived' from out of town. We had help from all over starting on day 2. There wasn't a whole lot anyone could do until the freezing rain stopped. We live out in the country so we had a lot of damage and small trees down. The ones left standing and dead are the 7 we need to take down now. We had no power for 5 1/2 days. The first 3 days we couldn't even get out. All roads had trees/wires down across them. Lost all our freezer meat and most things in frig. I was on my way home on day 6 and saw lights at neighboring farms and when I got to my driveway and saw we had power I just started crying. My hubby thought I was nuts but I was just so happy to have it over with. I was tired of cooking on the camping stove and eating by Coleman Lanterns and constantly feeding the fire to keep the house warm. I was just soooo done!!! lol
Any-who, back to the weekend...Saturday, Hubby cut 2 of the trees down while I was cleaning house. Then we were going to load both in truck and stack in woodshed but Mother Nature was playing with us. Rain moved in and drenched everything. We didn't get anything more done outside that day! I was kind of glad because the rain just made the humidity worse.
Sunday we began picking up the mess. We had decided overnight that we would be better off putting wood in big barn (we have 2 barns, chicken coup and the wood shed) since the cats and kittens had taken over the woodshed. Once we had the burnable sizes in truck, Hubby drove it over to the barn and began to make a space for it while I raked the little stuff up for the burn pile. God, it was hot. After only 15 minutes outside I went in to get a bandanna. My eyes were burning so bad from the sweat running down into them! I was drenched in no time. Any wind we had just felt like you were standing in front of a dryer vent! I got the last of the brush onto the fire as the rain started again. Of course by then I had more laundry to do because we kept taking showers. In the end we only got the 2 trees down and cleaned up so, yippee, still more to do later. I'm thinking early winter sounds good for the job but Hubby goes hunting then....
It's been so hot that the Momma cats have moved the kittens down to the wooded area near the creek. It's close to our small barn so they have shelter available. I try to keep the water bowl full of fresh water even though I know they can get drinks out of the creek but have you thought about how healthy the creek water is now days? Eeeewwww!! God alone knows what is put into it upstream! I tell the cats that but do they listen? :P

This Day In History:

July 21, 365

Tsunami hits Alexandria, Egypt

On this day in the year 365, a powerful earthquake off the coast of Greece causes a tsunami that devastates the city of Alexandria, Egypt. Although there were no measuring tools at the time, scientists now estimate that the quake was actually two tremors in succession, the largest of which is thought to have had a magnitude of 8.0.

The quake was centered near the plate boundary called the Hellenic Arc and quickly sent a wall of water across the Mediterranean Sea toward the Egyptian coast. Ships in the harbor at Alexandria were overturned as the water near the coast receded suddenly. Reports indicate that many people rushed out to loot the hapless ships. The tsunami wave then rushed in and carried the ships over the sea walls, landing many on top of buildings. In Alexandria, approximately 5,000 people lost their lives and 50,000 homes were destroyed.


July 21, 1925

Monkey Trial ends

In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" ends with John Thomas Scopes being convicted of teaching evolution in violation of Tennessee law. Scopes was ordered to pay a fine of $100, the minimum the law allowed.

In March 1925, the Tennessee legislature had passed the anti-evolution law, making it a misdemeanor punishable by fine to "teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." With local businessman George Rappalyea, Scopes had conspired to get charged with this violation, and after his arrest the pair enlisted the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to organize a defense. Hearing of this coordinated attack on Christian fundamentalism, William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate and a fundamentalist hero, volunteered to assist the prosecution. Soon after, the great attorney Clarence Darrow agreed to join the ACLU in the defense, and the stage was set for one of the most famous trials in U.S. history.


July 21, 1944

Hitler to Germany: "I'm still alive."

On this day in 1944, Adolf Hitler takes to the airwaves to announce that the attempt on his life has failed and that "accounts will be settled."

Hitler had survived the bomb blast that was meant to take his life. He had suffered punctured eardrums, some burns and minor wounds, but nothing that would keep him from regaining control of the government and finding the rebels. In fact, the coup d'etat that was to accompany the assassination of Hitler was put down in a mere 11 1/2 hours. In Berlin, Army Major Otto Remer, believed to be apolitical by the conspirators and willing to carry out any orders given him, was told that the Fuhrer was dead and that he, Remer, was to arrest Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda. But Goebbels had other news for Remer-Hitler was alive. And he proved it, by getting the leader on the phone (the rebels had forgotten to cut the phone lines). Hitler then gave Remer direct orders to put down any army rebellion and to follow only his orders or those of Goebbels or Himmler. Remer let Goebbels go. The SS then snapped into action, arriving in Berlin, now in chaos, just in time to convince many high German officers to remain loyal to Hitler.

Arrests, torture sessions, executions, and suicides followed. Count Claus von Stauffenberg, the man who actually planted the explosive in the room with Hitler and who had insisted to his co-conspirators that "the explosion was as if a 15-millimeter shell had hit. No one in that room can still be alive." But it was Stauffenberg who would not be alive for much longer; he was shot dead the very day of the attempt by a pro-Hitler officer. The plot was completely undone.

Now Hitler had to restore calm and confidence to the German civilian population. At 1 a.m., July 21, Hitler's voice broke through the radio airwaves: "I am unhurt and well.... A very small clique of ambitious, irresponsible...and stupid officers had concocted a plot to eliminate me.... It is a gang of criminal elements which will be destroyed without mercy. I therefore give orders now that no military authority...is to obey orders from this crew of usurpers.... This time we shall settle account with them in the manner to which we National Socialists are accustomed."

Take care....Until next post....


No comments: