As you may have heard, Iowa was hit by a derecho in early August.
You didn't hear? Oh, what a surprise (she said sarcastically). The town where I live lost 60% of its trees in 45 minutes -- snapped, pulled out of the ground, or toppled.
It's a long, horrible story about recovery. There is still storm debris everywhere -- massive piles of trees and brush lining streets and sitting in yards.
We came through it but we took a HUGE hit. We had 2 trees on the house, 4 trees down in the driveway -- 50 trees total. Yes, you read that right. 50. We have what's known as a woodland acreage, and we lost at least half of our trees.
This means re-landscaping everything. And I'm not sure I have another landscaping of that scale in me. I've done major landscape projects at 4 houses, including this one, which we finished right before the storm hit.
So we've tidied up the landscape and put the house on the market. We bought a new place somewhat south of here with a much small footprint and yard. We'll move in December and hopefully have this place sold by then.
I also turned in my notice at my job. As you know, I 'retired' in 2018 from my high-tech job and took a job as Master Gardener Coordinator in my county. I decided it's time to turn the reins over to someone else, so my last day is Dec 31.
This means I've been crazy busy between finding a new house, getting this house ready for sale, having house showings (because no Open Houses because of Covid), and working on wrapping up my work. But I've also been busy on the publishing front. A new book will be out next year (Beached, the Little Mermaid tale) and I'm working on Heir, which will be the Rapunzel book.
Wish me luck in the next few months -- it's going to get hectic!
