Storms, rain, blessings, problems, life goes on

8/26/11 Friday
Well, we got rain, and then some. The storm blew in hard with a first wave of sand followed by hard rain. Then a few moments later the second wave blew in. That one had wind much more intense than the winds that came with the first wave, which were pretty hard. I think these are called straight line winds. They ripped the latch off the front door so I had to struggle to hold it closed, putting all my weight into it and still barely able to keep it shut. We ended up wedging all kinds of things, like the dog crate, up against it.

When the storm blew through, only minutes later, I heard Cherie say “Bob, there’s something going on at the corner. Cars are stopping and all bunched together”. Going out to check on this I saw that ten or eleven power poles had snapped off like twigs. We now understood why the power had gone off. Actually it had gone off with the first wave so this was in addition too whatever caused the power to fail.

When it settled down enough to walk outside I took the camera to get some pictures of the damage. All our corn, the last batch that was doing so well, has been laid down by the wind. Oh well, such is life out here, always a fight with nature. But we got rain, a significant amount that will make a difference. How I long for the time we can have a catch basin built to catch these torrential occasions, but for now we are grateful for this rain that will wash the salt out of the soil, salt deposited by our well water.

With that comes work, lots of work. I’ll be able to disc up some soil now but weeds are going to sprout like never before. We were impressed at the response of the electric company. In minutes there were trucks all over the place, soon numbering ten or more, repairing the damage. I walked out and talked to some of the guys, asking if I could have the broken telephone poles. They were busy so I didn’t get a clear answer but there are some left out there this morning so I will fire up the tractor and drag them onto the farm.

It was a rough night. With out power there were no fans running, and with the rain lots of humidity, so it was sweltering to say the least. On top of that was the sounds of trucks and machinery working across the street repairing the power lines. They had the power on by two or so in the morning, an amazing feat. We were woken when fans and lights came on, and grateful.

That’s it for now. I’ll be busy, lots to do, more than usual.