Wind storm

We had a doozy of a storm 2 nights ago.  It's been very dry here and we were hoping for rain but we probably didn't get more than 20 drops, just wind - and what a wind it was.  A friend and I were standing out in the goat's pen saying how nice the breeze felt.  It wasn't 2 minutes later we had to race into the barn because that nice wind turned into a howling craziness carrying branches and lots of dirt.  Our turkeys were holding on to the swinging gates for dear life.  I think all of them got knocked off and we carried them to safety, which they weren't so sure they were more comfortable with (silly turkeys).  It was scary listening to cracking as trees were falling here and there.  James convinced us to come to the house so we stood on the front porch watching the lights of cars as they waited for the firemen to cut up the trees (our trees) that were blocking their way.  I worried about my animals in the field because I couldn't see them.  Every now and then the lightning would flash and I tried unsuccessfully to catch a glimpse of them.

We had folks camping in our field that night and all their canopies got blown away.  They were sitting in their van so we called them up to the house.  These were the counselors for a Quaker bike camp.  Luckily the campers hadn't arrived yet.  I have no idea what we'd do with 20 kids in our house for the night.  The 5 counselors slept here.

Daylight brought quite a scene.  We had at least 10 to 12 trees or very large branches down and small branches everywhere, along with buckets and things blown here and there.  Two crabapple trees blocked our driveway.

You get the picture.  Lots of wood to cut up and a few fence repairs need to be done.  Our garage roof had some damage but it was fixed in a jiffy by two neighbors who showed up to help.  They also spent 5 hours cutting up trees with James.  They had to quit when the temperature reached 100. 

James was disappointed to see his corn looking like this.  It was doing so well.

We're lucky though.  Most of our neighbors don't have power and have been told it could be a week before they get it back.  

Sadly, we lost 7 rabbits.  We found them dead in their cages the next morning.  I don't know if it was stress or heart attacks or what. 

The campers arrived in the afternoon and so did more tents to replace the ones that were destroyed.  Even though it was 100 degrees James stood in front of the wood-fired oven cooking pizzas for their dinner, which I think they appreciated. 

It's going to be a hot week for the cyclists.  I expect they'll spend the next few days in the river before they head out on their journey.  I hope we're done with big storms.