I went to Mason City today, a 30 minute drive to the east and everywhere I looked I saw upturned trees and damage to buildings. Oh, the grain bins! I couldn’t take pictures because I was driving but it’s scary seeing it all and there’s so much more off the highway that I can’t see.
Seth, our tree guy (and getting Greta out of the tree after 3 nights) will come when he gets caught up. All our huge trees are along the wilderness trail and are out of our way for now. Seth is so good to come when we need him in a hurry that this time he can put us down the list a ways.
For those of you who sent orders recently I’ve been too busy to work on them. I’ll try to get them out tomorrow or Friday.
Reader photos
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And this is what I did this afternoon – filled jugs from my rain barrel.
This is what I use to water my plants thru the winter. Yes, those are plastic litter jugs – easy to fill and carry.
This came across from our weather station:
Hazel has been inside the base of a big tree out in the grove since 2 pm. I don’t want to know what else is in there but she is so filthy! I can’t put her in the tub until right before we go to bed because she’ll just run out there again. It’s always something with her.
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It’s pretty obvious that if I run in front of a car I will get tired, but if I run behind a car, I will get exhausted.
The straight line winds are nasty! About 25-30 years ago, my niece and her family lived near Marcus, SD. Kind of in the middle of next to nowhere. They weren’t home when the first one hit and took the roof off their trailer house. They got the roof fixed and about 3-4 weeks later another hit and there went the roof again. They were home that time and their 5 year old son slept thru it. He was tired. We didn’t have a name for the wind then.
A long time ago, more that 50 years ago, in Iowa a farmer north of Ames noticed after a nasty wind that the field of corn stalks were laid down in a pattern. The college people came to check it out. The cornstalks were in circles laying next to each other across the field. The experts said that the diameters of each circle and the distance between the circles told how fast the wind was moving.
In other words, you don’t mess with Mother Nature? And all those walnuts going to waste. Gramma had a hand sheller she used to take the husks off the walnuts. Then she cracked them and spent the winter picking the meat out of the shells. We had a lot of good walnuts for cooking and eating.
I really like the quilt the cats are holding down. Love scrappys.
Take care. Betty in Rapid City
Betty – today Im going to start picking up the walnuts but I’ll limit my time. I don’t really like them but the squirrels will eat good this winter.
Loved the pictures and the bathtub was VERY clever! We had a derecho in NE Indiana several summers ago and there was extensive damage to everything in its way. The FW International Airport had winds at 99 MPH which was unheard of. We were very lucky that we only lost a few tree limbs and electricity for about 18 hours. Many around us lost power for several days. Not fun at all. I’m glad you are OK and that the tree guy will get to you when he can. Take care.
I love all photos 1. through 14. I do not like the photo of the Derecho because of how destructive they are! I am so sorry you lost so many beautiful plants, trees, grasses, and flowers. Very sad. It is good you can get in and out and to be able to wait on your tree guy. It is finally cooler here. Whew! I gave some photos to send. Rest up and take care, Mary.
Wonderful quilts, gardens, and pets.
Mary, sorry you are having health troubles and you have yard clean-up on top of it. Will keep you in our prayers. Not being able to sleep can be so hard.
I’m just catching up on the blog and the damage is beyond belief. Mary, I’m so glad that you, Rick and all the animals are safe and sound. The buildings are still standing, and the tree man will come and help with the cleanup. What a scary night it must have been. I must admit the bathtub flower bed made me chuckle, and its a clever use of a cast iron tub. So many lovely quilts and gardens. My father passed away and we have been out of town for his funeral. He was 87 and lived a long happy life, there was much joy shared at his funeral. I’m glad to be back home and trying to get into a routine again.
Kim – I’m so sorry to hear you lost your dad. Yes, 87 is a good long life and it’s always a good thing when great memories are shared at a funeral. I hope mine is like that.
Thank you, it was a day of remembrance.
Hi Mary, good to hear your tree guy will put you on his list. What a huge amount of work he has ahead of him!! So sorry for all the damage everyone has. Derechos are frightening. This is all new to me.
#2 quilt looked just like a stained glass window. Beautiful enough to hang in church.
And I love the garden pictures. Such devotion. Reminds me of a saying I read years ago, “if you want to live off your garden you have to live in your garden” or something like that. Daily weeding and watering is essential. Thank you, readers, for sharing your little piece of paradise. Im afraid I’m an armchair gardener. My passion is reading about gardening. Ha
Hahaha! The claw foot tub with the exhausted gardener! That is clever and what a beautiful property! The goats, and the frog, adorable. Kitties and quilts are gorgeous. Love #8, are all of those plants in pots? The string of colored lights must be so pretty at night. Mary, I’m so sorry that you lost so many trees but grateful that none hit the house or other buildings. I’ve never heard of a Dorecho, either! We’ve had what they call micro bursts but they’re pretty small areas. Not like what you’ve experienced. I hope the weather calms down now – I’m ready for a long, slow and cooler fall! Jan in MA
#8. the first row in view are in pots and wooden planter boxes. they are my brightest colors, and yes, they are annuals. behind them, the yellows and pinks, are all perennials. behind them is the pond (frog haven) and more perennial beds. my son in law, jeremy, made my bottle tree! ..and the humming birds enjoy resting on the light strand during the day.
We’ve spent the last 4 days driving from FL to VT and I’m only just now reading all the email that came while I was either driving or sleeping. Your storm damage is terrible, but as you say, your house, barn, and animals all survived for which you are thankful. I was in Iowa about 5 years ago or so and saw the damage to fields from a Derecho that had occurred. It was like nothing I had ever seen before with the crops laying flat on the ground. I’m so glad your damage extended to just trees and plants. Cleaning it up will take some time and work for sure. I hope your helper is able to come soon.
Good morning Mary and a day to be thankful you have your walls still standing and pets all accounted for. It’s so devastating seeing trees come down but worse when they have covered roofs of homes or worse yet, taken a life coming down on a vehicle or home. One year we had straight line winds come through our town and it pulled a tree down in our village that came on top of a truck a firemen was driving to answer a call. He was killed and left a young family. His wife is in our towns church ecumenical council representing her church when we do combined services and she always speaks of faith getting her through that and how wind affects her still.
I’m sure Seth is very appreciative of your saying get to us when you can cause there are far more worse trees damage. You’ll have your trail back to ride through thank goodness and it will look so different but at least you have it.
Weather sure can uproot our lives with so much different events happening.
Take it one day at a time and hope you don’t overdo it.
Mary please don’t risk your health by the work you are doing. I think of all kinds of things to tell you not to do, but you already know. Just be careful.
Kathy – I have tried to imagine what my wilderness trail will look like – I can’t wait to ride it again and the dogs miss it terribly becuse every direction is blocked and they sit and wait by the golf cart to go for a ride.
Good day, Mary! I loved the quilt show and agree #8, the darling frog on the lily pad is adorable! I also enjoyed seeing my flower gardens on your website as well! I cleaned out my gardens last year as the salvia, Black-eyed Susan’s and the yarrow. Many people drove for many miles to get free flowers. I like having a few open spaces. The day Lillie’s this year have been so beautiful. I am waiting for flowers and color ahead from last years’ cosmos and marigolds, they are finally getting taller. I weeded my gardens and also weeded a flower garden for my neighbor as well. Her day Lillie’s are so colorful and I planted cosmos in her garden as well. They are taller in her garden. The tomatoes are slow to produce this year but are looking great! We had a derecho here once a few years ago, so much destruction. We had two beautiful Korean lilacs that had to be cut down because of the winds, they split. Not and bad and losing an home, outbuildings and a grove tho which happened a lot And I am not remembering what year the other derecho that went clear across Iowa was but we drove to Iowa to look at the damage in the fields of corn. We drove to Ames, I believe it was in 2019 or 2020. The sustained winds and the length of the storm in distance was unbelievable. There was one last week in north central Minnesota all the way across the state west to east, it’s the length which has to be over 250 miles, the strength and wind velocity that the weather people look at. and then it’s sad to see the cornfields with the corn lying down from the winds too. I have not heard if this happened again as I am sure the seed-corn developers changed traits after the first one in Iowa, it went across your entire state. Next week is my dear husband’s 60th class reunion, their theme from their 10- year reunion booklet, ‘What ever happened to the Class of ‘65’. Such a wonderful group of kind and caring people who are so genuine. I cannot say the same for my Class of ‘68 from THS. I heard that this is the last reunion for various reasons. I am going to repaint my fairy fountain’s calla lily to pink as I don’t care for the extreme color of red, the lily was gray originally! I am going to plant more cosmos seed in a couple of blank spaces and more a couple of sedum to a more sunny space as well. The shade from the maple tree has slowed their growth plus the competition from the tree roots does this too. Today is the last day of July, soon we will kiss summer good bye and there. Goes another year sliding into winter once again! Have a good day today, do you remember the child’s’ book, ‘It could Always be Worse’? Sometimes we have to repeat this over and over…
Cynthia your garden pictures caught my eye as they reminded me of my sweet grandmas gardens that I adored. You could walk through them on big flat rocks she’d get on rides to the lake and how I loved having them to admire plants in her gardens. Yours are beautiful and I know the work it must have taken to thin them out. You inspire me to thin mine out when weather is cooler. Thanks for sharing your gardens and the cute touches with your yard ornaments added.
Thank you, Kathy, I appreciate your comments and compliments as well! I did not do flower gardens except four o’clock and marigolds around the house and one little area for flowers when our kids were little..too busy with the children and farm activity, I started flower gardening when my youngest graduated from high school. Annuals add such a zing of color! Never enough time but so enjoyable. Each garden has stepping stones in a different direction to give them some personality!
I remember going to my husband’s class reunion. His was the class of ‘56. They were so friendly and kind. A group of them would get together for breakfast once a month. I was rather envious of them. This group was from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I thought my husband always appreciated their friendship.
Hallo Mary, I am glad your house and barn survived unscathed, and of course you and Rick and the rest of your gang! I can imagine that your tree guy will have more than enough work for quite some time, and has to rebuild for himself too, since his property was damaged? We don’t get Derecho’s very often in Europe (thankfully) but when we do they always cause a lot of damage. We do get very destructive wind shear downbursts from summer thunderstorms that just flatten everything in an particular area: there was one in the neighbouring province just last week and all the trees are just mowed down: completely flattened as is someone came through the forest with a giant lawnmower.
Good luck with the cleanup and wishing everyone affected all the best.
I was so sad to see all the damage on your farm. I had never heard of a Derecho before and hope it never happens again. We had a tsunami warning last night. I’m not close to the ocean but I’m not far from the bay. Thankfully no tsunami.
So glad your tree guy will be able to help with the clean up.
Love all the pictures today!
The weatherman out of Waco, Texas was predicting the possibility of Derecho for areas of the country. He explained what that was and it sounded horrible! I am so sorry the prediction was accurate. It must have been horrible!
Love all the quilts and all the gardens, but the bathtub is adorable, funny and clever. #10.
This is the first time I have heard of a Derecho. And, I wish it would be the last time.
So glad you got your tree guy to “come when he can” to help you.
Impossible to pick a favorite. The quilts are colorful and fun. And the gardens are amazing. Wish I had a green thumb. The frog looks like it’s posing for the camera.
Glad you will soon be getting help with the storm damage.
I heard on the radio tonight a disaster proclamation for O’Brien, Osceola where I am, Sioux, and your county Hancock.
We got off easy this storm. Last storm we lost a grain bin
Number 8 is absolutely beautiful!
1- im quite sure my cats too are the most appreciative of a good quilt. it looks like you sewed this one’s colors to compliment your beautiful felines!!! love them both (yeah, quilt and cats. not just cats. lol)