First Hurricane on the Farm

Hurricane Matthew was kind and skirted out to sea, leaving us with high winds and a dab of rain for us, but no serious damage. Saturday evening brought the heaviest rain and the beginning of flooding in our house lot.

With a forecast of 10-15" of rain, I was quite worried our house would be stranded like Noah's ark in a small pond by morning.

We moved our 3 vehicles by evening to get them out of the water. That was a pain! Adam had to walk back from Bayboro twice.

The wind howled loudly most of the night, and our electricity went out. I tossed and turned. Everyone I spoke to on Sunday said the same thing: "We have no electricity. I slept horribly last night."

Sunday morning, we walked the farm to assess damage. I'm happy to say we had only one branch fall on the barn roof. Otherwise, the yard and field were strewn with hundreds of small branches. Adam got one small hole in the barn roof that he'll repair.

The chicken yard was attacked by the pine tree overhead.

Before the storm hit I removed everything on the front porch -- 65 mph winds were expected and they did arrive! I noticed my rose bush had one last bud just opening. I cut it and brought it inside, a little touch of warm, bright summer as autumn's stormy season takes over.

Sunday morning dawned sunny and suddenly cool. What a relief!

We began gathering debris, two truck beds full.

Monday morning Adam began a fire to burn it all. The wind had died down.

Strong winds robbed most of the county of power, and work continues to restore it. Ours came on Sunday night, and I'm so thankful. The farm is fine. Our young pea plants and lettuces were battered by wind, but I hope they'll recover. But another crop was encouraged by that wind ... the pecans! Quite a few fell, and I began gathering them today. Pecan-gathering means that autumn is truly here!