Friday, August 10, 2012

HAIL

Today was an easy day to decide what to post about. I had plenty of options, how big was the overdue harvest, how to harvest garlic (and the results of our late year attempt), or even, what is the status of the strawberry project or the coriander drying.

Something happened yesterday that Pooka and I decided was a bit more interesting/immediate. You see last night we had a thunderstorm. A nice, loud and very wet storm, that had included HAIL. Yes, Hail, in August. I was a bit shocked myself, so I took a picture of it after it had ended. 

Do you see what I see? 
Now while that picture does not show very well the fact that the deck was COVERED in hail, or the pots were holding nice little ice balls to melt into them (more free water). This picture was taken about 5 minutes after the hail stopped when I could even open the door in the rain for a quick picture.

After the storm passed, I went outside to survey the damage before Pooka could. I was worried she would get upset if it was in too bad a shape. This is the first sign of damage I saw. Doesn't look to bad right?
Not too bad. 
Bigger, but not too bad
 Then I looked at the broccoli. It had a bit bigger hole that I noticed right away.











Holes....

 Once I looked at the largest part of the cucumber plants, I saw the real damage. Leaves were shredded or cut in half. The vines had fallen from their spots, but I knew I could fix that the next day. The damage wasn't too horrid, but it gave me a chance to talk to Pooka about what hail is, and why it can be so damaging.

Swiss cheese leaf
It tore it in twain....












Floppy limb


 The tomatoes initially looked much worse from inside. They had blown over a bit, and upon further inspection, there are some bent or broken limbs, and alot of cherry tomatoes on the ground (anyone up for hunt the green tomato), but other then that, they seemed to hold up okay.

A casuality of the hail. 




As far as property damage, we got by without any real damage. Pooka lost one butterfly (Daddy isn't sure he can fix it) and one Dragonfly lost it's wing which was then broken in half. The house and the car had no real damage, but yeah, here is a quick reminder of how Mother Nature can turn on you.




Although, on a positive note: I will always remember listening to Brother and Pooka talk out the back window to Thor and tell him to calm down and that throwing tantrums and ice isn't going to solve anything.


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