The storms keep coming, the sky keeps turning sickening shades of green…and I keep shooting pics.
Here’s the latest batch from July 26, 2011:
Is it a blizzard? No, just rain. As in 1.75 inches in 25-30 minutes.
Starting to clear up, right?
The sun is there...somewhere.
As my 4-year-old says (EJ), "These clouds creep me out!"
Tired of the storms...
Even when they bring beauty.
This storm passed by our farm on Sunday.
If you remember, we were hit by 125+ mph winds just a week before.
Thankfully, we sustained no damage this week...
although communities just to the north of us sustained tremendous amounts of damage.
My attempt at a full-rainbow picture. Mother Nature can be difficult, but there's beauty in it all.
My last few posts have been just about our yard and things that are damaged pretty close to the house. Let me give you a little tour of the rest of the farm…we were truly blessed with no injuries throughout the area that was hit by Sunday’s storm.
I found EJ's tractor...but it didn't make it.
These horse trailers were moved a few feet...and their jacks are buried.
At first I just thought this sheet metal was laying on the seeder.
...but it was impaled.
Our corn choppers can also slice sheet metal!
Cattle trailer injuries.
Something hit the trailer with force!
I found this rock that landed on a corn leaf. Strange!
Yes, that's a hay rack. And yes, that's a shelterbelt. Not sure how we'll get it out of there. It's impaled on a tree.
Our barn is missing three doors and a few windows.
The loading and working area is pretty well shot. Mark's been meaning to update for years...now he doesn't get a choice!
We were indeed blessed…indeed.
Well, we have a good start on clean-up from Sunday’s storm. But it’ll take awhile.
We spent most of yesterday cleaning up the major stuff…downed trees, clearing out George’s soaked room, picking up fence chunks, etc. Today we’ll start coming through the yard, piling up debris, deciding what’s salvageable and what’s beyond repair. Measuring windows, figuring out which doors will need to be replaced, making plans.
It’s actually a great way to take stock of what you need, what you don’t and where you want to go from here. It’s a tough way to do it, but it gets the job done in a hurry, that’s for sure!
Two of my nieces are here to help watch the boys at my Mom and Dad’s while I’m out here getting things settled down. The girls have been such a help! I would rather the boys not see things the way they are, and have things look a little cleaned up by the time they come out here. (Plus, it’s so much easier to do things without the “help” of a 2- and 4-year-old.) I have pictures to show them when they want to see what it looked like, but sometimes this is a little much for me, I can’t imagine involving them right now.
Thank you to everyone who has given us encouraging words, stopped and talked, helped out and pitched in. We live in a wonderful community, and with so many having so much destroyed, it’s just amazing to see it all come together.
Mark hooked up the generator first thing Monday morning.
The Dakota Valley Electric crew was AMAZING and worked hard and fast to restore our power. THANK YOU!!!
My Dad can't use a regular chainsaw, thanks to his pacemaker, but he did what he could with his electric chainsaw. It worked wonders!
The roots on the cottonwood were amazing. Not the easiest job to get out!
This was the pile from day one...let's see what today brings!
Today will be a pretty wordless post. I have updates from the fair, but it all seems a bit off for me. Our farm was hit by a tornado last night. (***I’m going to have to re-word as “possible” tornado. I guess they are assessing this today and believe they may have been “just” straight-line winds in excess of 100 mph. How about this…the weather blew stuff all over the yard and caused a bunch of damage. It doesn’t really matter what you want to call it.)
We were blessed that no one was injured. My husband rode the storm out in the shop. (Crazy man.) The boys and I were in town at my Mom and Dad’s, just finished up from the fair and were waiting for supper to finish on the grill when the sirens went off and we spent an hour in the basement.
I knew it was bad when Mark called and said, “Well, we have damage.” You see, he’s notorious for shrugging things off and downplaying what’s going on. For him to admit there were problems meant that things weren’t good. But material things can be replaced, and it makes you count your blessings even more.
I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to look like this.
This evergreen was right outside our door. So lucky the house didn't have more damage!
EJ was most upset about the swing set. He cried.
Mark's water truck met with a big-'ol cottonwood. Neither won.
These little building have all been spun off their foundations.
This bin should be sitting on the cement slab...the other bin is strewn across our corn field.
Some of EJ's tractors didn't fare well, either. Again, easily replaced.
This is the west end of the shop Mark was in when the storm hit. The whole side is caved in.
The garden looks pretty tough. All that hard work. George's food for winter. Oh well, easy to replace.
Wag'n Tales 