The wind came sweeping down the plain

By: Stephanie on 5:49 PM

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The ceaseless wind is an unalterable part of life in Oklahoma. It's taken me a long time to adapt. A few years ago, I realized I'd finally adjusted to living with it: I was outside and the weather was pleasant enough, but something felt wrong. Off. Different. It took me a few minutes of quietly standing in one place before I noticed the wind wasn't blowing. Its absence was unsettling.

Yesterday morning, as I was watching the dogs romp in the yard, I texted Johnny about the fence on the north side of our yard: "I noticed one of the crepe myrtles pushing on that fence, which does not look like it can stand that for long." The house's previous owners were really into planting trees and shrubs as close to the fence lines as possible; last summer, our neighbor paid another neighbor to come trim the crepe myrtles pushing on his side of the fence. (That's another story; I fear the poor crepe myrtles will never recover.)

Yesterday evening, I caught sight of the north fence lying in the grass. Uh oh. I hoped (without much optimism) that it was only a small section of fence that had fallen. To my dismay, nearly the entire length of the fence had been blown over by yesterday's awful wind.

The fallen fence.

About 72 feet of fence is down. The dogs are unhappy about the loss of turnout time, and Buttons is extremely displeased at having to walk (and go to the bathroom) on a leash. The indignity.

The helpful woman from our homeowner's insurance agency explained that our plan has a deductible of $5,000 for damages incurring from wind; the pleasant man from the fencing company I called gave me a quote of $1,440 to repair it.

Johnny is enthusiastic about fixing it ourselves; I am wary. I've fixed and built fences before and know it's a time consuming and backbreaking process. But I figure if we fix it ourselves, we can at least salvage it for cross-country jumps.

Stephanie jumping Spike over a coop.