It took us all by surprise, the Ice Storm of December. It came in quietly and left us with mayhem. Three winters ago, we suffered a similar ice storm, which ironically, we had finally managed to get completely cleaned up this fall. If we thought that mess was bad, it was cake compared to this one. Our place looks a bit like a war zone, with trees all around us broken in every direction. The first to fall was the one above, which is the one that looks the worst. It was one of our best trees, and now it looks quite pitiful. There is, simply put, mass destruction everywhere we look. But we did luck out on a couple of things - one, no buildings or fences were ruined, and two, we were only without power for a couple of days. And best of all, the B's got out of school two days early for Christmas Vacation. Long story short? We just aren't made for snow and ice in this part of the world. 
After all the ice melted, still more trees and branches fell. And believe it or not, the mess actually looks much worse in person. The camera didn't capture all of the intricacies of the debris. Looking on the bright side, it could have been even worse, and we are all safe and sound and have power. And that is a blessing we are counting, big time!
