Where I've Been the Last Two Days

Well, it hasn't been anywhere exciting. I haven't even been gone. But I felt kinda bad, because I redirected everyone over here, then kind of left you all hanging.

We got a "helluva" storm on Monday. And it knocked out our internet. I thought I was going to die without my connection to the outside world. Okay, not really, but it did force me to find something worthwhile to do with my time.

Monday at lunchtime, this was the view to the northwest. The colors are pretty true to how they really looked. The weather radio had been going off all morning - there was a storm headed our way that had produced softball sized hail in Manhattan. Granted, Manhattan's a good hour and a half away, but this storm was still packing a pretty serious punch. We battened down the hatches, and hunkered down inside to wait for it to blow through. And by hunkering, I mean we were hanging out the sliding glass door taking pictures the whole time. Which - I must admit - is unusual for me, as I tend to get freaked out with any storms involving wind. Maybe it was since it was during the day, and Paul was home, and I could actually see what was going on outside, rather than hovering in front of the television in the middle of the night, trusting the weatherman to tell me what's going on outside......

When the storm hit, the whole house creaked and popped. The trees started whipping around. At one point, it was raining so hard you couldn't even see the pear tree out by the garden, which is less than 50 yards from the house. The official report was 80 mph winds, 2 inches of rain in 1/2 hour, and golf ball sized hail. Yep, we saw all of it. Paul thinks it actually rained more than that, since "you can't measure the rain very accurately when it's coming in sideways." And we couldn't measure it at all, because apparently golf-ball sized hail and glass rain guages don't go well together.

I'm not sure exactly how long the entire storm lasted, but it didn't seem long at all. The only time Paul freaked out is when a bolt of lighting struck what felt (and sounded) like it was right on top of us. But when I saw this sight, I almost cried:

Between the fence and the tree is my garden. Under all that water. When the rain had mostly stopped, we stepped outside to survey the damage......

Water, water - everywhere.

We lost a few limbs - nothing big. We lost an old shed out behind the shop. Which was probably a blessing, as Paul has wanted to tear it town or burn it ever since we moved in. (Secretly, I think he just wanted to exert some manliness on it, but that's just my opinion.)

The big damage was to my garden. I thought I lost all of it. But today, after two days of sunshine, it looks like some of the plants may be rallying. I'll give it another week or two. Then who knows - if it's all gone we might till the whole thing up and plant it all to sweet corn. (If it ever dries out.) The peas are completely done for. This shows the sum total of our pea harvest. And none of them edible, as they all have holes in them from the hail.

Then last night, another round of storms brewed up. Even though it thundered and lightninged something fierce, we didn't get any rain here at home. But where Paul works, they got rain. And hail. And his truck got damaged. Not really bad, but still - it's there. And apparently tomorrow night we're supposed to get even another round of severe weather - even worse than earlier this week. I guess that's what Kansas is all about.

There's no place like home!