Yesterday, while we were still in the midst of a rainstorm, the Calvary arrived at my door. My barn roof was in danger of completely collapsing due to several rainstorms after the ice storm. I had been praying several days prior,  asking God what I could do. With limited funds, and most of Michael’s friends now long past. I couldn’t fathom how I was going to be able to save my roof where so many of my outdoor feral cats take refuge.

I had gone into town earlier on Thursday curious as to how the article regarding the feeding of the workers who were working nonstop to try to return power to so many. To my embarrassment,  I didn’t realize, that the reporter who had asked me so many questions intended on writing an article about me. The photo we definitely will not discuss. But it was mortifying to see. Now I know why she asked me so many questions. I just thought at the time, she was waiting for more workers to show up so she could talk to them.

I went to put the paper down, a section fell out containing ads to some of the local churches. I picked up my phone and I started calling looking for help. Literally hours later, I had in my yard gentleman who were covering my barn, cutting the limbs that had fallen off the trees into manageable sections and carding them away. They were talking to me about what else needed to be done. There were several churches involved. No one pressured me to become a member ( something that has happened in the past.) They were all just here to help.

A few days prior, I was outside removing storm damage. There was a lot of it. About an hour in, I went to lift a huge pile of pine boughs with my pitchfork. I dug deep into the pile, unbeknownst to me, underneath that pile was a huge limb that had fallen and been covered by pine needles. as I dug deep and lifted. I hit resistance. I also heard several pops, then a loud snap in my shoulder. Searing, hot pain ripped from my shoulder down to my elbow. I ended up in Urgent Care about an hour later.

The pain was pretty intense. After more than a few x-rays,  It was determined that nothing was fractured. Thank you Lord! But there is severe swelling and I have an extreme case of tendinitis as well as I have damaged my bursa. I was given medication to control the pain and reduce the inflammation and told to remain immobile for four days. I don’t quite understand how anyone who has animals can remain immobile for four days. But I’m doing my best. So all the men were here working I couldn’t even help them.

During the last storm, which was a pretty severe rainstorm. When I went back to the creek to see how overflowing it was, I noticed to my surprise,  a stump that is clearly over 200 years old, and was at least 10 feet from the embankment between two other trees, was now in the process of sliding down into my creek! I was stunned because it’s a huge stump, covered with Ivy, I thought it was buried deep enough in the ground to never be removed, except by mechanical means. The only thing that is keeping this stump from falling into the creek is the wire fence that stretches across the creek between myself and my neighbor. The wire is now twisted into a hammock type of pattern. The stump is resting precariously on top of this steel hammock! Should it fall into the creek it would create huge flooding potential.

Although it looks like a huge bush full of ivy, it is not so. I only wish it were. I asked one of the gentlemen if he would go down to the creek with me and take a look at it and give me some idea of what I could do about it before it does end up in the creek. Turns out his son is a teacher at the local high school and he teaches forestry. He has a program in his classes when it comes to finals. He challenges his students to locate people who are having issues with trees, or the land or plants whatever they can find. He then challenges them to create a team of other students form plan snd  contact the homeowner. Then they go out to the location, take a look at what needs to be done. They take photos before and after. Work on it together until it is solved put together a report and present it to the class. That is their final. The homeowner signs off on the work. That form is also presented to the teacher after the report is done orally. His son will present my problem to his kids on Monday and then they will be in touch. II feel incredibly blessed to have this opportunity. There is no way currently that I could afford someone to come in and haul this huge stump off my property. in my case, it’s not simply a matter of removing the stump from the creek. It’s also a challenge to cut down all the blackberries that cover the path over the culvert that leads to the other side of the creek. They will then have to cut more blackberries because they have to see what’s going on if the roots are still in the ground because Ivy is covering everything. It will be interesting to watch this take place.

Now  this morning, I am facing another challenge. Due to the high winds and heavy rain that we’ve had overnight, my main cat enclosure roof is leaking heavily. I’ve had to turn off the electrical because some of the water is becoming very close to the wires  snd outlets.  This shuts off the cats, access to light, their heated water bowls, and their heated cat beds. I still had some dry straw leftover, so I just stuffed as much straw as I could into the cubicles and sleeping places so the kitties could stay warm. I will be unable to do anything as far as buying another tarp until my next check. The last tarp that covered the barn and the cat enclosure (because they are attached) measured 40′ x 24′. The tarp was several hundred dollars. So the Kitty is tapped.

Because of my current injury, I can’t even go out and measure the cat enclosure. I put up plastic tubs underneath the major drips, and just hope that the roof doesn’t succumb to the next storm, which is supposed to be pretty substantial arriving within the next few days. What’s that saying? “When it rains it pours!” Boy ain’t that the truth.

We are still currently missing five outdoor kitties, everybody else is fine and accounted for. The inside kitties are a little bit squirrelly having to deal with all of this noise of the storms. The racing up and down the halls and the stairs, havie increased in the last few days to almost a frantic pace. I know they are unsettled.They don’t seem to have much of an appetite either right now.