Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Eye of the storm

It's been a busy spring around here. I actually love the fact that I no longer "have" to go to the shows. Both boys are finished and nothing in the wings ready to go. Performance is on hold until I can get a few pieces of equipment repaired. Moose is about ready to head into the obedience ring, Eddie needs to finish his RN, Clairee needs to work a little more on her broad jump(ie, a repair / make piece of equipment) and Lace is on the verge of getting her CD. So no pressure to go therefore, stay home and work.

We have fencing! Pictures tomorrow, but the gate is up, the fence is up, well all but one small part. Few things to work out on the pasture gates so a certain dog doesn't squeeze through. Garden is tilled-much larger then last year. Planting on Thursday-I can't wait to get all those seeds in the ground. Need to order more mulch, limestone to set and time to puppy proof the outside so we don't have escapees like last time.

Yesterday we finally got the trailer hitch fixed. After a quick trip up to Central City for the Fireman's Breakfast-ummm, off to Hazelton we went. Over Sunday afternoon and night, North Eastern and North Central Iowa has hit by a Supercell thunderstorm. Humidity was unreal at home so we were keeping our ear to the weather radio for the latest developments. Unfortunately our good friends up in the Amish community in Hazelton took a direct hit along with the small town of Parkersburg(most of the 1200 residents no longer have homes), New Hartford, Dunkerton, FairBanks, and Aurora. Currently rated as an EF3 tornado, it ran along and between Cty 57 and Hwy 20, starting at Parkersburg. The devastation is enormous and the scars will be there for years to come.

We packed up Phoenix(Meredith's pony) along with tools and first aid supplies, planning for the worst. Since there are no phones up in the rural community, we had no idea what we would encounter. Luckily Neil's place was untouched but after dropping Phoenix off, left in the charge of his four small kids, we headed down the road to find Neil. On the 'Fairbanks' side of the road(another post for that one) we came upon 50-75 Amish scampering all over a farm. Fixing fence, putting new plywood on the roof of the house, getting ready for shingles and in general picking up the pieces. The farm house had lost it's roof, damage to the barn, sheds and most of the property. I darn well betcha, that by the time the sun went down on Monday, it was back in order though. David's got a good story about finding Neil - ask him about the Where's Neil game sometime. But upon finding Neil, we all hopped in the truck and we got a first hand tour of the destruction that was left by the tornado. Photos should be posted tomorrow. Oh my.

Farms are leveled, trailers wrapped around the telephone poles, that is where there were poles left. The debris was unreal and the path was so easy to follow. Scary, grounding, unreal the wrath of God upon us. It is truly amazing what God will do.

Our hopes and prayers are with those who are rebuilding and searching. Scars will be hard to hide but I know that those communities will come back stronger then ever. More on this when I get the pictures back....

later gators...
C

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