It has been awhile since I’ve written a blog. I had to backtrack to see when I posted and what I even wrote about. My last blog was the end of February, which now seems forever ago. Here we are, now mid May, with green trees, grass and flower beds filling in.
We finished off winter with a few indoor projects, survived mud season due to the new driveway we installed last year and successfully made it to another, long awaited, spring. With the warmer weather, and after being cooped up for nearly four months, I’m ready to spend my days outside. Yard clean up was done fairly early, unwinterizing the house was a welcoming chore, as well as reorganizing and swapping out seasonal items. I even took a chance and planted my garden seeds, as we had abnormally high temperatures last week and just had a full moon. I figured that by the time they sprout, the tiny fragile plants, should be okay.
With the month of May, comes the return of our Friday night fires, with the peepers in the background, along with the Whip-poorwill, who we hope stays at a fair distance and all the other wild critters who avoid the windy cold Arctic air, on The Hill, during the winter months. Our outhouses have been put to rest, with peat moss and lyme, for the next six months and the porta potty has arrived for the summer.
This May, my husband, Jesse, had a milestone birthday. I wanted to celebrate him, he, by all means, deserves it. Seeing as our house is very small, I knew it would have to be held outside. I checked the forecast in the Almanac a month prior, then the extended. Two weeks out it said 70’s and possible shower in the morning. Doable. The week of, the forecast, for the day of the party, changed to mid 90’s and sunny. Hmmm. Still doable, just hoping for a breeze as we are in the beginning of “blackfly” season. I have noticed the hotter the air temp, the less breeze we have, even up on The Hill where it seems to never stop,
After running around all morning Friday, we planned on having our Friday night fire and setting up the large 10×20 canopy, that has housed numerous gatherings, since my father purchased it over 24 years ago. I was familiar with which poles went where and the quickest easiest setup, you just needed extra hands to lift the large canvas topped canopy, to add in the remaining legs. We had it put together and up in no time.
Saturday morning, Jesse and I are both up before the sun. Nothing out of the ordinary. He went his way, to do his running, and I stayed home to finish up last minute things before people started showing up at 2pm. The beginning of the morning started off clear blue skies and calm. As the morning progressed, a breeze had picked up. As I’m cooking food I look out the front window and the tent is tipping more so in one direction. I turn off the stove, run out, and fix the guidewires to the canopy, and double check that the feet of the tent themselves are all staked down. They are. All good. Back inside I go. A little while later, I look out the window again and the wind had completely shifted from the opposite direction. Again. Stove off, out the door, change the guidewires. I did this, at least, two to three more times as I was prepping food.
A little after noon, Jesse returned home, as I was wrapping up my to-do list and finishing odds and ends. We set up the tables under the canopy and got the rest of the outside done. I grabbed the toys from the shed for the grandkids, set up their little play tent and we were done. I decided that since we had about an hour before anyone was due to show up, I’d utilize the time to take a breather and meditate. When I went back outside, I noticed that the breeze had subsided. It was now HOT. 93 degrees hot and NO breeze. Oh well, it’s better than rain and we had the canopy for shade.
Just as expected, people started arriving at 2. There was roughly nine of us standing around and inside the canopy, chatting, when out of the corner of my eye I caught the the foot of the canopy……NEXT to my head, going STRAIGHT up! I reached up to grab it but missed, even though at that moment it was all in slow motion. My brain was trying to process what was happening. There was NO breeeze, NO wind, NO gust. Nothing. Within seconds the canopy does two…not one…but two 360s, 20 feet in the air, before it slams into the side of the house and turns into a wild bundle of poles and canvas. Even after being decimated, the canopy continued to thrash around, hitting Jesse twice in the head, before it finally hit the ground. Everything happened so quickly, apparently my mother who was sitting, grabbed a leg as it started to move and got yanked out of her chair. Items that got sucked up into the air, continued to swirl about, with no intentions of coming down. I ran to grab a heavy duty trash barrel before it hit a car and in front of me was a mini tornado of gravel from our driveway, just dancing away. That moment and whatever the hell it was, was the craziest thing I have yet to see up here on The Hill. I thought for sure I was going to be sick. How the windows to the house didn’t get smashed, when the canopy slammed against the house repeatedly? How nothing inside, with ALL of the windows open, didn’t move? I don’t know. Unexplainable. It’s The Kingsbury Triangle.
We were fortunate to get the mess cleaned up before more people arrived. I was just very thankful it happened when it did, and not when all 75 people were here or when all the food was put out. No one got hurt. For that I’m grateful. Needless to say, it took awhile for me to settle my brain after that.
The remainder of the party when well. Our family and friends, some people we hadn’t seen in 20 years, came to celebrate with us. As the afternoon went on, I was keeping an eye on the sky. Dark clouds started rolling over the hill, but the majority of the storms split and went west and east of us. Then there were times it would be sprinkling and not a cloud overhead. It was a crazy day for weather. Eventually our luck ran out, and the sky opened up and Mother Nature roared and gave us a light show, one that lasted the entire night. Those who didn’t leave and tried to stay dry on the porch, gave up and joined the party. I was already soaked. We continued to sit around the fire, in the rain, with lightening striking all around and thunder bouncing off the hills. If you can’t beat it, join it.
Someone had mentioned to me that I should write this birthday party down, not knowing that I write. I can guarantee, I will never forget that moment. Ever.
More memories made in Kingsbury.
Off-Grid Soul 