Storm Damage, and the Newest Wisconsin Residents

 An update:

We are of course working.  No time for either of us to do anything extracurricular.  But Bryan is getting a few things worked on, since he doesn't leave home until 10am each morning.  

I got a bunch of stuff unpacked.  Started on loading my bookcases in the living room.  Found one box of oil lamps and put them on the mantle.  Found my good storage shelf until.  It will go in the "green room".  

I did end up getting July 5th off, which gave me a four day weekend.  So I'm taking this time to catch up.  I'm hoping to come up with a better plan to keep on top of things, because work is literally kicking my butt!  I will try to work on my office stuff and blogs at night after supper from my couch.  Hoping that works out better.  

We are officially Wisconsin residents.  Well, only Bryan is, for real.  Last week, Bryan was able to get Wisconsin plates on all our vehicles.  He got his driver's license within a few weeks of us getting here.  I, however, do not have mine yet.  They would not accept the copy of the birth certificate that I have.  So I had to apply for a new one from New York State.  I paid $80 for it.  But it never arrived.  I am in the middle if trying to find out what happened to it.  Oh and by the way, I have to provide BOTH of my marriage certificates to the State of Wisconsin for my license, due to my name changes each time.  Because Larimer County in Colorado was AWESOME, I got those right away and only paid $5 for the two.   (I think making us provide marriage certificates is totally discriminatory against women, but that won't get me a license any quicker, I'm afraid.  Thanks, Department of Homeland Security, for making this pain in the butt even bigger.  You would think they could use my Colorado license, and just run the $10 background check from that, but NOOOO.  Can you tell, that I'm kind of angry about this?)

We ordered above ground planters.  They are rectangular, beige, corrugated metal.  We were going to use horse troughs like Gina has, but these are about the same price, and Bryan couldn't bring himself to drill holes in the bottom of perfectly good horse troughs.  The ones we got are open bottom, so all water and stuff just ends up as part of the yard.  With these, we hope to salvage this year's growing season and at least get some lettuce out of the deal.  

The pressure washer was purchased!  It's not a very big one, but it got the job done, and the deck is now cleaned off, and the mildew on the garage delt with.  

I found another practice coaching client.  I got her through the alumni Facebook page.  She's super nice, and I will get my certification work done with her.  We had our first session last week.  Yay!

More wildlife!  A lot of smaller turtles crossing the road.  They are all around 6"-8".  They run!  You have to dodge them carefully or you will hit one.  Much like squirrels, and they decide at the last minute to turn around.  Man I don't want to hit one of those.  Also saw more snapping turtles in the road.  Yikes.  I see "the turkey family" every day by the gravel pit.  It's mostly a mama and 4-6 babies, but they are often joined by a few aunts and uncles.  And maybe the dad.  Had a stork, right in downtown Woodruff traffic, standing at the side of the road, looking both ways.  He's pretty, very tall, and has a red triangle on his head.  He moves really slow.  Don't want to hit him either.  Still lots of geese and ducks.  And there's always a squirrel or two, and lots of bunny rabbits in the road.  Many mushed, I'm sorry to say, though I have not hit any. 

Kittie has a birdie friend!  We think it's a finch.  He comes and attaches himself right outside on the window screen, opposite to where the Kittie condo tree is, and pecks at the window.  Kittie watches him, and then leaps at the window.  And the finch takes off....only to come back a little later to peck at the window again.  They've had hours of fun.  I tried to take video, but it didn't turn out very good.  

We had to get a new Fire Stick for the TV.  The new one, when going into sleep mode, shows schools of fish videos in the ocean.  Kittie will sit and watch those fish, and will often leap up to catch one.  He's quite puzzled about why they are there, and will often look behind the TV to see where they went.    

Now for your storm damage report.  Tuesday June 25, we had a severe thunderstorm.  (the warnings I get on my phone here, are just a man yelling what the warning is.  So, middle of the night, some man is yelling that there's a severe thunderstorm warning.  Not sure which is more frightening, the Amber-Alert type buzzer or the shouting!)  Phillips didn't fare well.  Giant trees were uprooted everywhere, and the roof came off our favorite Hamburger Bar.  We were lucky at our place, and in Park Falls in general.  We just had one big busted tree branch and A LOT of standing water. Pictures show the extent.

This is the water standing to the south of our house, basically right on our south line. (That weird whitish patch in the foreground is actually the morning sunrise showing through the trees.  It looks like a patch of dry grass in this photo, but on my phone, you can see that it's just super lighted green grass.) 

This is the water directly across the street from our property line.  We also had a giant puddle at the entrance to the driveway.  

Here's the broken tree limb on the north side close to the garage.  You can't really tell from the pictures, but it's a huge one that's going to take some chainsaw work to get it down and cut up.  

The landscaping place where I work has been inundated with calls about downed trees and limbs, ravaged lake shores, and washouts.  So, it was pretty bad out toward Arbor Vitae too.  

The rain has not stopped here.  Woke up this morning to loud thunder.  It's supposed to rain all day.  My only good yard work window is Saturday the 6th in the morning.  Not the afternoon.  Rain comes again then.  

That's if for now. If you come to visit, bring your rain poncho, because it's not letting up anytime soon!  Thanks for reading, and please comment and share....it's how the blog gets recognized!  Thanks!