Saturday, April 11, 2009

Hail Damage and where is my ZOLOFT!!

Last night my wife and I went to the center of our home and sat tight in a closet with the dog. We could hear the Tornado Siren and oddly enough it felt I was back in Iraq listening to an early warning system letting us know that rockets have been deployed and are headed to our location. It was kind of scary sitting in the dark closet seeing the flashes of lightening edge its way under the door. My pit bull Cheeba was shaking in terror because unlike us she could sense something bigger and meaner than me heading toward our way. Flashes of light and instant cracks of thunder were all around us and it sounded as if a train was coming through our neighborhood. Yeah my wife and I had one of those "Well baby-this may be the end-but there is no place that I rather be-than right here with you-moments." And seriously it was. At that moment it went from bad to worst and we could hear millions of stones hitting the back deck and house. I told her that hail is not a good sign because that pretty much means that a tornado is right in the area. So all we could do was sit back and breath, "WoooSaaaaH..." Eventually the storm passed and I went to the back porch and saw a lot of hail. I never paid any attention to the garden at that point. It was only until later on this morning when my pet sitter came and I was showing her how to take care of the garden and chickens that I realized the devastation that took place. I'm pretty much speechlesss, Just yesterday our garden looked beautiful and bountiful and today it looked liked the Yeti was playing double dutch.

In my perfect world I would love to just write about all the success, but this ain't my world and it ain't perfect. So in order to paint a more normal picture I will post both successes and failures. I do understand that there are people who are out there who want to start, but do not have any idea about what to do and how to overcome difficulty. Hopefully from my posts and from the posts of fellow bloggers' we can all network together and provide timely information to curtail disaster as much as possible. The question I have is if what happened last night was preventable? The answer is no. We can't control the weather especially when nature throws everything at you. But what we can do is attempt to add a little cushion for when disaster strikes so we can soften the blow. We have a saying in my line unit. "It's not a matter of *IF* you get hit, It's a Matter of *WHEN* you get Hit. So prepare for the worst and Hope for the best.

6 comments:

Melissa ~ Mom to 6 said...

From my experience with the hail storm last year, the strong plants survived and even thrived depsite being torn to shreds. You'll be amazed at how quickly they bounce back. And, yeah, you can't control the weather! I'm glad you made it thru the storm okay and with each other. The night of our wedding, a Tornado ripped thru our town. It was scary. I'd heard that a little rain on your wedding is good luck so a tornado must be incredibly good luck, huh?! 16 years and counting - so I'm guessing yes!

ATW said...

Melissa- thanks for the encouragement. I guess like with any traumatic situation it always looks worse than what it appears to be. It just looks soo bad. This weekend my wife and I are headed to the shore so we will have some to get away and regroup and start back next week.

Kenneth Moore said...

Oh man, that is horrible... It's one thing to have the plants die because you're a bad gardener, but when you are a good one and then nature just decides to ruin your day?

But looking at your pictures, for a some of the plants, I agree with Melissa. Near the peppers (peppers, right?), there are leaves on the ground everywhere, but the plants are still standing--same with the cabbage and a lot of the other plants. Their leaves may be torn, but a lot of their stems are still alright, and leaves regrow. The setback is horrible... But I have faith that you'll salvage a lot of your beds.

ATW said...

Kenneth- I've got my fingers crossed with Jim Bean in the other hand. Either way the outcome will be good;)

Robin said...

I too am betting that your plants will be okay. Where I grew up we had some killer hail storms and all would look pummelled but within a week they had broken out with new leaves. Unless the stalks are actually broken, you're probably fine. I have to say I'm very glad not to live someplace with tornados though!

ATW said...

Robin-thanks for the encouragement. I took an inventory of all the plants yesterday and they all have a pretty good stalk base, So I think they will be fine. Its a good thing Im leaving for a few days so that when I get back I can hopefully see some recovery.