August goes out in a storm

While we were spending a beautiful Thursday evening enjoying the sunset on Great Sand Bay, a huge Summer storm was moving through the Lansing area.  With wind gusts near 85 MPH and tornados passing through the area just South of us, I had no idea what I was coming home to at the end of my vacation.

I held my breath as I turned on to my street, and breathed a sigh of relief when I found there was no tree on my roof and that my house was undamaged. 

While there were a few branches down, the worst was from the Maple tree in my side yard which is in the public right of way, and therefore cleanup was the responsibility of the city.

While that branch knocked some of the rails off my split rail fence, nothing was damaged beyond repair.  I got very lucky!

The worst part about the storm is that I returned home to a house with no power.  While most of the houses in my neighborhood had had power restored I was one of 16 houses still without power.  

With no idea of when power would return, I emptied most of the contents my freezer in my basement and immediately drove to Nicol's house to load her chest freezer with meat, fruits, and veggies.  I was glad that I was able to salvage much of what I had.  And then I returned home to my house with no power.

We went the entire day Monday without power.  In order to be able to work, I spent a large part of my day sitting at a local Panera to use their power and wifi.

After work, I took the girls out for some fun.  We visited Pet Supplies Plus in Okemos, took a walk nearby, and then drove to East Lansing so the girls could enjoy the dog park.   

Tuesday morning I awoke to no power still, but I was hopeful it would return by the end of the day.  I worked using my phone as a hot spot throughout the day and was thrilled when my power returned around 4pm.

We were expecting rain that evening, so I spent the night cleaning out the freezer and refrigerator.  I was excited to find a composting service locally and I was able to pick up a couple of buckets to fill with everything I removed from the fridge and freezer.   By the end of the night, I had dropped off the buckets and came home with an empty bucket ready to be filled.  It was a very productive night.

Wednesday was a beautiful day and with the power back on, I was able to have a productive day of work.  

Wednesday night I had a great time at the shelter walking Winnebago, a 94 pound Mastiff.  He was such a sweet boy!

With my fridge empty, I was excited to make a trip to the Farmer's Market on Thursday.   I was able to pick up some great produce, some duck eggs, and a beautiful loaf of bread.  And of course we had to stop for a couple of chocolate chip cookies too.  Mina was pretty happy to visit the market too

After our visit to the Farmer's Market, we headed out to our favorite farm to pick up some blueberries, peaches, and corn on the cob.

On the way home I stopped by a park near the farm to take the girls for a walk, and to my surprise, we found an awesome new dog park there, so we went inside.   We ended up spending nearly 90 minutes at the dog park while Mina played with all of the other crazy young hunting dogs there, including a beautiful 9 month old Viszla.  

We also took a mile walk along the trails at the park before heading back to the car to make the drive home.  What a fun night.the girls had had.

Friday i was a pretty quiet and productive day at work.   Mina had her first annual vet check up and loved seeing all of her friends at Patterson Veterinary Hospital.  

It had been a long and exhausting week, and I was thankful for the long Labor Day weekend ahead of us to rest and recover.  August flew by, but as we move into September, we are still making the most of the Summer that remains and look forward to sharing the fun with you. 

A quick update on my little Fiona.  She had her first visit to a Great Lake with a short lake get away at Lake Huron.  I think she's going to love Lake adventures with Grandma when she gets a little older.

She is also learning some new words.  She is like a sponge soaking up knowledge.   It is so fun to watch.