Surviving the Storm!

Yesterday,  around noon,  the power went out.   We thought it was because they are working on power lines near Riverside, Iowa...but we were soon informed that was not the reason for the outage.   Around 12:30, the sky got very very dark!  I thought it was my imagination..because you could clearly see the sun on the neighbors garage.   But alas!  A storm was brewin'.

So, naturally I grabbed my cup of coffee and headed outside...  to watch the incoming doom!  I was just in time with the camera to capture sever of the neighbors trees coming down.    Shortly after that,  one of our own trees lost a huge branch..  captured on film!   I should probably join those National Geographic Storm Chasers!  ( Not really...  that sounds like a really bad job.)

The storm only lasted about 20 minutes tops!   Very little rain... which is what I was hoping for.  Just a bunch of wind damage to the trees of Wellman.  Some were actually pretty big!    After it was over, I inspected Don's house ( the neighbor with the huge limb on his roof)   looks like he will need to get that patched up. 

I was impressed how quickly the Kalona Tree Removal service snapped into action.  Turns out, they were working in Iowa City but the wind was too strong for the job, so they came back to our area... just in time for clean up!   The entire town was out picking up sticks, branches, leaves, and removing the trees that fell over.   Not having a chainsaw,  I was unable to help.  ( Unlike that time in Spring Lake. )





I look at the giant Choke Cherry Log that is currently in our front yard and I think,"  There was a time when I would have wanted that entire thing for wood working!"   But I have no carving tools anymore, and no saws or routers to do even the most basic projects.  Now,  I would only think of using those logs for growing Mushrooms!

Speaking of Wild Harvesting!   With the Power out and nothing to do,  Cheryl suggested we head out for those wild plums we found the other day.   There were a few on the tree still,  even after that huge wind.   We did have to climb over several fallen trees though to get there.  What a joy!
Many of the Plums that had fallen to the ground had been already eaten by some animal.   Probably a raccoon,  given that the pits and rind were still on the fruit, but the insides had been "mushed" out.   Very clever animal.

 Cheryl mostly wanted to harvest them for their wild yeast for some fermentation projects she has planned.   I'm eager to see if they will produce a tasty beer for the future!  I have my hops located, and if I can get the yeast, all I will need is some grain and sugar... and a whole lot of You Tube videos.

The storm and high winds returned while we were out on the trail.  We cut the ride short and headed home.   They restored power around 8 pm...  in the mean time, I made BLT's outside over an Open fire in our small "Hibatchi" grill.   It worked surprisingly well, but I would not look forward to cooking like that again.. in the dark!  ( It is very difficult to see how the bacon is cooking in the dark.)

Much of the town is still without internet access.  Ours is wireless from out hotspot  and even that is spotty at the moment.  At least I was able to post some pics on  Facebook before my battery died on my computer.  Even now I'm typing this post on notepad and will have to transfer it to the blog later.  WIsh me luck!