Flying Coop and Storm Destruction

We had a 30 minute storm that has really affected the farm Monday afternoon.  (Silver Creek property, not where CSA pickup their boxes or where our freezers are. We had no damage at the Bluebird Drive property.) We had 50-60 mph sideways winds, hail, and a torrential downpour.  The fast moving storm made a sudden 180 degree twist of direction while over the farm (and us.) We all took cover in the tractor shed and hoped that the tall tulip tree didn’t come down on us. In the meantime, 3 giant walnuts at the top of the farm were ripped up.   

Here’s the damage report: Our 5 ton chicken coop wagon was picked up and pushed 100 feet away down into a creek drainage. Almost all of the animals on the farm were okay- all except for 15 hens that died.  Our eggplant and pepper hoophouse was folded in half, and our 4 tomato hoophouses had their 100 feet x 30 feet of plastic ripped off.  One of our piglet huts that weighs about 1000 pounds was picked up and flipped upside down. The piglets were not in the house at the time. The one acre of fall vegetables is shredded up.  A majority of the plants should survive, but it is too soon to see if their ability to thrive and produce much food is ruined. 

We’ve never experienced a storm like this, but we are very lucky that we have escaped without any physical harm to ourselves and without and long lasting damage to our farm.  We just been picking up the pieces today and putting them back together.  

This is all of us feeling a little lucky that we aren't out in the storm! The storm was wild to watch! Clockwise from top left: Hannah, William, Keegan, and Melissa. 

Yes Hannah and Keegan are sitting on kids go carts!

It took  2 tractors, 1 skid steer, and 1 dump truck to pull it out without flipping.

We have 6 hoophouses....1 is badly damaged, but we can salvage parts.

William is in stock still...

Shredded fall crops

Yes those are little bits of shredded kale on the ground