Laundry, raking, hauling limbs, more laundry

It’s been a whirlwind weekend – the kind when you work so much you are grateful for Monday to come around again. We are fortunate to be safe after Thursday’s storms that brought hail, strong wind and lightning to our corner of the world. A tornado touched down in the nearby town of Glade Spring, Va. In Bristol, Tenn., our neighbors a little more than a block away saw 60-foot tall trees toppled like sticks, power outages and serious damage to their homes.

Our problems seemed minor in comparison – a yard full of limbs and leaves and a washing machine on its way out. I hit the ground running Saturday morning with a trip to the laundry. So I dragged four bags of dirty clothes to the Washteria in Bristol, Va., and set to work. If you live nearby and you need to go to a laundromat, go here. Even on a Saturday morning, I was in and out in a little more than an hour. Thank goodness for a huge number of washers and dryers – and a change machine that will take a $20 bill.

I hit the nearby Kroger and dragged home groceries, some hanging baskets and a carful of laundry. My husband and youngest son were hard at work in the yard clearing leaves, limbs and sticks that rained on our yard during Thursday’s storm. The cleanup took us more than two full days, but we are ready for pickup in the morning. The edge of our yard is lined with limbs and brush about 3 feet deep, and about six bags of leaves and twigs. (My husband has decided that being a lumberjack will not be his next career. He chopped all the large limbs with an axe, resulting in an enormous pile of potential firewood.)

I also replanted cucumbers, parsley, cilantro and zinnias to make up for the ones damaged by the hail. And by damaged I mean leaves striped away and beaten to death. I also tried two new slow cooker recipes this weekend. Posts to come soon. Gotta put more laundry in the new washing machine, which thankfully was delivered on Sunday.

(And did I mention we got a new dishwasher this weekend, too? Lowes was bringing the deals, folks!)

The tree photo with this post is from the campus of East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn. After all our tree damage, I wanted to share a beautiful tree photo from the region. Enjoy the last moments of the weekend, friends!