It was a cool, calm day on Sunday, March 10th and the framers came out to set the walls. It was fun to see standing walls as we were driving up the road, and we’re still pretty shocked that this will be our home in just a few short months.
On Monday, more interior walls were up with temporary braces causing us to weave in and out of a maze of lumber, but it didn’t stop us from touring the layout … pointing out each window, closet and room size. Suzann came in that day after her visit in Oklahoma so Don and Marilyn brought her out to see the house before we all went to their house for supper. We gave her the tour, then Randy had to check the gas line to make sure it would hold air … and it did! The framers put up two walls of green board before they left for the day … by the middle of the week we would realize that was a mistake.
Tuesday, was a much needed rainy day in the panhandle. Most of the area received over an inch which is something we haven’t seen in awhile. I love the smell and look of a fresh wash after a rain. Randy and I made a day trip to Hillsboro so we missed the rain at home, but it rained on us coming and going, and we drove in a lot of soupy fog. While we were gone, the trusses were delivered and the tank that was dug to make a dirt pad for the house caught some water. That was a good sight to see when we finally made it out to the new house on Wednesday afternoon. The other sight we saw was not as good.
Actually, the winds were out of the west/southwest, and some old-timers in the panhandle say they don’t ever remember a wind that bad! The record wind here is 84 mph, but I didn’t catch what year that was. The weather forecasters predicted high winds … 30 mph with gusts from 60-75 mph, but some of those gusts must have been straight-line winds because there was a lot of damage across the panhandle and we were very lucky. We drove around town to see the damage and a lot of trees, signs and fences were blown down. Many houses had shingles missing and parts of some roofs and porches were blown off. Suzann, Don and Marilyn went to Amarillo that day and actually saw a semi-trailer truck blown over near the grain elevators on the loop. On the news they said three more went over after that one. It was a pretty crazy day and many people were unnerved over the unrelenting, howling wind … the next day was much more peaceful.
The windy bad wolf huffed and puffed and blew the house down … well, just the east wall and it made the west garage wall lean some. The green board attached to the frame just two days before acted like a sail for the walls without the trusses on top to hold the frame down. The framers were able to make the repairs the following Monday and it didn’t put us too far off of schedule. We didn’t even file an insurance claim so good news … and just an interesting side note to our story.
There was a book written in 1925 by Dorothy Scarborough called The Wind and it was about a woman left alone on a farm in west Texas and how the wind drove her crazy day by day. It’s a haunting tale about how harsh the weather and terrain can be during a drought. I love the rain. It’s healing.
beehavin' on the prairie 