Storm No. 1
It was 6 August 1967. It was a hard summer for the forest and caused great damage. The storm came to be called the storm of the century. The gale toppled the wooden structures of the ski-jump tower that had been built in 1959 on the Türi Kõrgessaare ridge. The tower was destroyed and the hill was never rebuilt, bringing ski-jumping training in Türi to an end.
The storm tore large trees out by the roots, snapped them like splinters and made the forest floor impassable. It truly was a wild summer — hot, with mosquitoes and horseflies tormenting us.
My husband and I worked together on the logging plot assigned to us, processing the fallen trees. I had never seen such devastation. Sometimes we had to crawl on all fours because the trunks were so interwoven that it was like untangling a ball of yarn. We also had to be very careful, because a tree released from heavy tension could strike with great force.
Autumn came, followed by a cold winter. There was still work for us there. The lunch hours by the fire were pleasant. Tea brewed over the fire from wild raspberry stems warmed us, and 'bandit's roast' filled our stomachs. Then we could begin work again.
Later I continued working alone because my husband moved to another job and came only on his days off to help saw the trees into lengths and stack them.
I set fire to the huge root masses of fallen stumps. They gave light, and so I stayed in the forest until dark, trimming branches from the fallen trees.
I was alone, but I was not afraid — the forest was my friend.