Still set up in the front yard and with the holiday break over, I had returned to working in the tent. A thunderstorm rolled through early in the afternoon. Suddenly a bolt of lightning blinded me as a thunderclap boomed simultaneously. It was so violent, I actually screamed. That had to have hit close.
Once the cell passed, I cautiously walked the yard looking for any signs of a strike. A live oak tree in the back yard on the opposite side of the house/driveway from me appeared to have fresh scars. I also discovered my internet router was fried.
Sure enough, at 6am the next morning, creaking, groaning and splintering sounds filled the air, followed by a loud crash. A large limb gave way on the tree and crashed to the ground.
I called a tree service and they determined the tree had been killed by the strike and couldn’t be saved (live oaks are protected), so I hired them to remove it (oh, and while you’re at it, please trim the overgrown mangroves at the river’s edge!).
One bonus to having that tree removed is it opened up access between the carport and house to the back yard (aka “the river lot”). Eventually we moved back there. I just had one more puzzle to figure out – how to dump tanks from far away.
