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It wasn't because I don't love you. I do.
It wasn't because I had nothing to say. I do.
It wasn't because I had no current photos. I do.

It was a matter of "circumstances beyond my control." Due to "An Act of God," I was unable to post the past two days.
I present my evidence:

You are looking at the results of a lightening strike Thursday night.

We knew a storm was blowing in from the west, it was reported to be pretty strong. Ya , ya , ya, we've heard that before. Sometimes they are, more often not. This report was spot-on. And we were the SPOT.

I've been through a lot of thunder and lightening since moving to Wisconsin, it rarely bothers me now. I sometimes even sit by the window and watch it. Spectacular, for sure. This time, as the rumblies began, I was listening to TV while do some research on my laptop. After about 10 minutes, I could tell things were revving up out there, the wind was fierce, the rain drops were huge and really making a racket against the log walls. The sky was lit continuously. The thunder was no longing rumbling, it was cracking like a whip. I closed down the laptop, then thought, I should really unplug it. Which I did.

Within five seconds, a tremendously loud crack and massive power surge tripped the lights and all the GFI switches in the cabin. The TV sounded like it blew up. I could smell the strike, and knew it was close, maybe even the receiver on the roof. Which is metal.... As the lights flickered back on and off before settling for on, I grabbed a flashlight, called Carrie, wondered how I was going to keep the poults warm, hoped this was going to move on quickly as they usually do (although some of the "doozies" will last for hours - ya. Fun.). I really didn't want Carrie to drive over in the storm, but she could tell I was really rattled, and shortly showed up on my porch with Than. Brent was out of town...how is it, guys miss all the fun stuff?? We got a few things running, although the back porch power was gone so we had to run an extension cord to keep the turks warm. Thankfully, the little boys were home asleep, with Collin on watch, phone and flashlight in hand.

In about another 20 minutes, the storm was moving out over the lake, and we were done for the night. Carrie went home, I went to bed. It was a relief to just go to sleep and block it all out.

The next day, after running an errand to the farm, as I drove back in the driveway with the punks, we saw a chunk of limb on the ground. One of them commented that it looked like a limb got blown off during the storm. As I glanced over, I did a double-take, put on the brakes and said, "Yeah, it got BLOWN OFF, all right!"

The tree has a vertical crack in it now, besides missing some "skin". The bark isn't a big deal, the tree will probably grow more over time. But we're a little concerned about the health of this tree now. It is a really old blue spruce.

And, it is close to the cabin. As you look at this photo, it's the big tree on the left. REALLY close.

The immediate area around Tisch Mills, a mile away, is considered a high strike area - we have the blackened lightening rod balls off the top of the old barn to prove the point.

This was our first storm of the season - which goes pretty much into the middle of July.

What's that old saying about lightening striking twice??