Our neighborhood received the brunt of the storm, with downed trees blocking roads on nearly every block. WHAT a mess; we spent the day searching out petrol and groceries before watching a chainsawer spend eight hours massacre-ing 15 of our trees. Meanwhile, most people were just thankful that no one anywhere seemed to have been hurt. As we celebrate close calls and a plethora of firewood literally fallen from the sky, here are some pics of our/ our neighborhood's new challenges:
Here is one of three sections of roof we are now searching for.
Anyone seen the top of our chimney?
Despite anti-burning laws in the city, from the looks of our (not even close to finished) twelve foot high pile, my guess is the neighborhood may be smokey for quite a while.
I found it surprising to find oodles of tall pine trees upon moving to Africa. The problem with them here is that their roots and the soil make for a deadly combination. These toppling giants are hazards found all throughout our neighborhoods.
We were unable to get out of our close (culd-a-sac) because of a downed tree. After learning that the neighbor whose tree it was could not pay for the removal, us (albeit trapped) neighbors all pitched together to get the bill taken care of.
Gotta find humor in the fact that the underground internet cable (above, yellow) just connected last week was pulled up by the only tree that fell on the close.
Making new roads to get to the petrol station...
Meet our (newly redone) power lines. (Surrounded by tall wobbly pines!)
Four days after this tree is still on the road… and my power lines.
(Above, right) here bamboo poles are used to get ropes high enough on our tree to pull it away from the power lines before the cutting starts.
(Above, right) Watching trees being taken down may be one of the saddest things I've ever seen. Sigh. We loved that tree... Fourteen more to go.