We had a storm in Omaha last night. A pretty big one. At least you’d think so by looking at our backyard.
Let’s rewind a bit.
We went to bed last night without a care in the world and no clue a storm was coming (at least I didn’t know). I woke up at 4:30 to winds pounding the house and rain pelting down on the windows. Shortly after I awoke, Isabella did too. She started crying and was scared. I got her and we looked out the front windows. The trees were taking a beating. I seriously thought I was going to see one snap in half before my eyes.
I put her back to bed but she didn’t want to be alone so I let her come in and sleep with us.
I use the term “sleep” very loosely.
She and CJ slept (because he moved to the guest room). I however dozed in and out. It’s hard to get good sleep with a 2 year old nearly on top of you who won’t allow any covers.
We all eventually got up at 7:15 and this is what we found.
A backyard ravaged.
It appears that the our backyard took the brunt of the storm for the neighborhood because looking around it appeared that no one else had any damage. Even our front yard looked totally fine.
You wouldn’t even know it rained in the front had the driveway not been wet.
But I guess because we’re on a corner and at the bottom of a hill, our backyard becomes a wind tunnel during storms.
Here’s what we found upon closer look at the back.
All of Isabella’s outdoor toys were knocked over and thrown.
Her big playhouse, which had been anchored in to the ground, was blown apart and wrapped around the trees in the birch grove.
(That big brown patch is where the house had been rooted.)
Isabella’s swimming pool was tossed to the back corner of the yard, along with some chairs and her sand table.
The patio chairs were whipped around and my pot that I made on an outing with co-workers was broken.
There was also another plant casualty as the one basket on my shepherd’s hook was carried across the patio…
…and my grandma’s birdbath was knocked over (but thank goodness not broken).
All in all, it was quite a mess.
However, I feel very lucky that it wasn’t worse. We could have had roof damage, windows broken, siding ripped off, or any number of other casualties to the house. The fact that it was limited to “stuff” in the backyard was a blessing – and all of it was repairable except the broken pot and a few ground lights.
So, once the rain cleared and the sun came out, we headed outside to clean up!
I was a bit worried about how Isabella would react to her playhouse being thrown asunder, but she handled it very well.
Here she’s inspecting things and trying to figure it all out.
She actually ended up liking it broken and started crying when CJ pulled it out of the trees.
He had to fully pull it apart so that the various pieces could dry out (they were all water logged).
Isabella helped with the clean up too.
She lifted her Cozy Coupe upright.
And pulled the sand table out of the birch grove.
She also made sure to go around and close the shutters on the windows of her playhouse, you know, to keep any more rain out.
I can’t say that Samson helped all that much.
He was more interested in sunning himself.
I was able to save the Begonias and Bat-faced Cupea that I had planted in my white strawberry pot (the one that was broken). I replanted them all in a hanging basket and hung them up in the newly open crook.
We pretty much have everything cleaned up now. We (ok CJ) still has to put Isabella’s playhouse back together but that shouldn’t take too long. Otherwise things are as good as new.
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