Was that an earthquake?

The rains are back.

After a dry January, the rains started about 2 weeks ago. We got about 10 inches over Valentine's Day weekend, and it's been raining on and off ever since. The ground is like chocolate pudding, and everything is green and alive.

When we started getting ready for bed Sunday evening, our driveway looked more or less like this:

As we were winding down for the night, we heard a low rumble and the front of the house started shaking.

“Earthquake!” I thought as I scrambled for the nearest doorway.

“That tree's down!” reported the children from the sliding glass door.

It didn't look like a big tree when it was in the ground, maybe 70 feet tall and between 2 and 3 feet thick at the base. Some of the douglas firs across the street are 8 feet thick and substantially taller, and, of course, the redwoods get bigger than that.

Spread out across the driveway, however, it was big enough:

It took out two fences (but not the posts) and a couple of retaining walls, but managed to avoid doing any serious damage. Once Garry had cleared away a few of the branches, we were even able to get our cars out.

Sombrito thought the newly upturned soil smelled very interesting.

And Malcolm ventured off for a walk in the woods.

Bricks from the walk were sprayed all around, and one of the boards from the retaining wall was flung 15 feet from its original location.

Tree cutters stopped by to offer their services, and the neighbors came over to survey the damage and lend a hand.

We have a start on next winter's fuel supply anyway.