Hail

We have had a pretty hot summer, really hot and humid. It was so hot that I wouldn't let the girls outside for a couple of days and the only reason I eventually let them out is because they were driving my crazy. Kona didn't even want to go out for a day or so and he loves being outside. Some nights we get a sprinkle of rain  and everything smells good again instead of how I imagine the old west smelled.

On July 27 the day started out warm and windy. We played outside in the morning, did some weeding, then the clouds rolled in. They came in fast and they were nasty looking. I didn't get any pictures of them, I was trying to decide if we should go to the pool or not. I brought the dog inside, put B's bike away and picked up the toys and then the wind really picked up. The leaves were flying off the trees and bushes, closed umbrellas were flying and the hail started coming down. Hard fast marble sized hail started clobbering the landscape. We have security shutters and I slammed them closed as fast as I could, while the babes screamed, the puppy looked for a place to hide and B tried to open them again so she could watch. It was kind of scary but only lasted about 10 minutes or so. When we took a peek outside everything was destroyed. I found a leaf that had been pounded into a fence post by a hail stone.

This rose stick, once had rosebuds.

This was Swiss chard.

I think this was spinach?

I have potatoes in the back that pretty much look the same and so did all the other small gardens in town. I left to to go the city the next day and the sight was heart breaking. All the fields that were yellow the morning before were green, some the were green were mushy green or puddles, it was awful.

When one lives in the city they don't usually think about what happen in the country when there is something like a hail storm. In the city there are ruined gardens, dented cars and maybe a broken window. In the country a farmer has thousands and thousands of dollars taken from them in minutes, and all they can do is watch. It really, really sucks to watch it happen to people you care about.