I don’t know where the phrase “big blow” came from…maybe other people don’t call it that at all, but that’s what my grandparents call it, so that’s what we call it.  In Idaho (and probably other places too) big blows happen in the summertime…almost every day when it’s super hot.  In the late afternoon, the sky darkens just a little and the wind blows really reeeeeeally reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally hard.  It usually doesn’t last long, but the wind is strong enough to send you running inside.

We had one of those yesterday.  I didn’t think much of it until this morning when I went to the Brave River Ranch to check on the chickens and water the flowers and garden (since Melody and her family are out of town).

As I drove in, the first thing I saw was this tree – you can see it straight down the lane when you’re coming up the long driveway…it had fallen down.  Do you see the awesomeness though??  It fell down, but it didn’t hit Marq’s enormous lawn mower OR what you can’t see in the picture, which is our sweet Brave Girl Bus that was parked right next to it.  The sweet little thing fell over peacefully out of the way.  What a miracle!  It could have done a LOT of damage.

Next I went to check on the chickens.  They were happy to see me, since they’d eaten every last bit of their food.  It seemed like business as usual in the chicken coop.

Next to the chicken coop is the Army tent…the beautiful place we use during Brave Girl Camp.  It’s in the middle of the forest….between all the trees.  It’s all covered in pretty lights and it’s so magical that even the birds seem to sing for it.

Well during yesterday’s big blow, a tree fell down on top of that sweet tent.

 

So we spent some time today cleaning her up and getting the limbs off her.  We were worried that there would be another blow today that would hurt her more, but there wasn’t.

Are you ready for the miracle though??  First of all it should have been worse.  ONE tree fell on the tent…lots of others fell, but only one tree hit it.  The BIGGER miracle is that out of ALL those pretty lights that were hanging EXACTLY where the tree fell…Only TWO of them broke!!  Some of the lights were UNDER the tree and didn’t break.  WHAT A MIRACLE!!!

We’re not sure how our little (read: enormous) tent will fare, but she’s a Brave Girl, so it will all work out perfectly.  We are happy and thankful that only a small amount of damage was done.

Also – as we were cleaning up, I caught a glimpse of this sweet message in the forest:

I am sure that one of you needs to hear this right now, so I thought I’d send you the reminder:

You truly are deeply, DEEPLY loved.

xoxo