The Calm After the Storm

In an earlier post Adam talked about planting the crop and how it is always a gamble once it is in the ground. A farmer does not have any control over the weather and that is one of the risks you take in this business. He compared planting season to Goin' Gamblin' and we have certainly done that this summer. We have experienced severe weather in May, flooding in June, and oppressive heat in July. Mother Nature just continues to punch us in the stomach and her last blow in the early morning hours on August 20th, hit us pretty hard.

A furious storm blew through NE Kansas, bringing with it high winds and hail. Our buildings and home survived with minimal damage, but our yard and corn crop looked like a war zone. I had tears in my eyes as I drove home on our dirt road. There were limbs blocking the road, and one neighbor had an entire tree on top of their house. I got closer to our driveway and saw the corn, some spots were leveled by the wind and the beautiful green leaves the plants had the day before were now stripped from the stalk. My heart just sank.

I called Adam to see how he was doing after seeing all of this, and he answered the phone like nothing had happened at all. He had a happy tone in his voice and asked me how I was doing. I said, "What is the matter with you? Have you not seen the damage from last night's storm?" He replied, "Yes, but there is nothing I can do about it, we're going to be fine."

This response is another reason I love my husband so much. He always sees the positive in things and doesn't fret over things he can't change. Yes, it sucks our corn, and trees were damaged, but we were okay and our house was okay. It could have been a lot worse, and we are grateful we still have a crop to harvest, because other farmers in the area were not as lucky. Ten miles to the north of us the hail was so destructive all that was left of the crops was a six inch stalk sticking out of the ground.

Needless to say Adam and I are thrilled to death about the fact harvest is finally here. We have reached the endpoint in the growing season and can (hopefully, fingers and toes crossed) breath a sigh of relief as the crop from each field is trucked to town and put into the safe haven of a storage facility.

The weather this summer has taken farmers and ranchers on a tumultuous ride this year. We can only hope next summer will be less eventful and Mother Nature will be more cooperative!

The backside of the tree that was brought down

by the wind.

In this picture you can see the brown mark

in the grass. This is where the silage wagon was

sitting before the storm. The wind moved it a good

eight feet, and it is a heavy wagon!

A large branch from one of our trees completely destroyed

the young maple tree we planted.

A large tree branch ripped from the trunk of the tree.

Many shingles from the roof ended up in the yard.

Wind and hail damaged corn.

Close up of the damage.

One of our large trees was completely knocked out.

After all of the storms this summer we are grateful to experience the calm after the storm. The weather has been absolutely amazing this fall and has allowed farmers to get in the field to harvest the crop.

Hallelujah!! The combine is in field!

What a wonderful site!

The grain cart hauling corn to the semi trailer.

Surveying the Damage

Yesterday was predicted to be the day the world would end. This major event was supposed to take place at 6pm central time. At 5:58pm this is what the sky looked like where my brother was in southern Jefferson County. So, for a brief few minutes it did run through his mind that the end of the world was actually taking place. Thank goodness it did not turn out to be the end of the world, but rather a very active weather day in the eastern part of Kansas.

Adam and I were glued to the TV watching the weathermen display the maps of the storms. The most active cell was south of us in the middle of Jefferson County. Reports of softball-sized hail, straight-line winds, funnel clouds and tornado touch downs were all topics of discussion as the night went on. The radar screen was lit up like a Christmas tree with all of the red, yellow, and green displayed across the viewing area. The screen showed more than one hook echo, which is usually the tell-tale sign a tornado is in the area. Several members of my family were in the direct path of this storm. The night was spent worrying about their safety and how this weather would affect my family's crops.

My brother, sister, and cousins were able to take pictures of the ominous looking clouds and the forming funnel clouds near the Topeka and Perry Lake areas. Thankfully everyone is safe and made it through this bout of severe weather unscathed.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Reading, KS and Joplin, MO. Reading was hit by a tornado last night and their town suffered severe damage. Twenty homes were destroyed, several were damaged and one fatality has been reported. Joplin was hit by a tornado this afternoon and the damage is extensive. Please keep the people of Reading and Joplin in your prayers as they recover, and start the clean up and rebuilding processes.

Below are the storm pictures taken by my brother, sister, and cousins.

Ominous clouds at Grantville.

Photo of a funnel cloud at Perry Lake.

Clouds in the Topeka area.

Funnel clouds in Topeka.

Funnel cloud in Topeka.

The severe weather hit our house later in the evening. The rain started to come down in buckets, then the straight-line winds hit, then we were pounded with hail two different times for about 10 minutes each. We went to bed after the threat of severe weather had passed, we woke up this morning and surveyed the damage.

Adam went out to look at the corn and I checked out the buildings. Adam came back inside with a somber expression on his face. He said the corn did not look good. I went out to look at the field with him and he was right. The corn was tattered, and was far from the the healthy vibrant plant it had been the a day before. Seeing this sight made both of us sick to our stomachs. It will take about a week to know whether or not the corn will be able to bounce back from the hail damage.

The rain gauge in our yard showed 3.5." We received this amount in about an hour, which washed out many ditches, and caused terraces to break over.

3.5" in an hour is not good for a young corn plant.

The battered corn plants.

The field of corn south of our house. It breaks my heart

look at it.

Standing water in the field south of our house.

The pictures below show the impact of high winds and hail to our buildings. We had a section of roof torn off our hay barn. Other barns had damage to the roofs as well.

Wind damage to the side of a barn.

Roof damage to another barn.

This door to the hay loft was blown open from

the wind. We don't really know how we are going to

get it closed.

More roof damage to another barn.

The roof that was ripped of our hay barn.

Our crop has a long way to go until harvest. This hard hit of severe weather has not given it the best start. We can only hope that yesterday's storm will be the worst of the severe weather for us and that the corn will come back from being hit with hail. We will keep you updated on its progress and whether or not Adam will have to replant this field.