A few weeks back we got a big wind storm and got some damage during the night.
That night Arie, our Kangal Dog, was barking around midnight and didn't let up. So I got dressed and went around checking on the animals and to see if there were any predators lurking about.
On my way back from making my rounds I saw that the wind had rolled over our trampoline and it was almost on top of the green house were we keep our poultry. Plus one of our unused chicken tractors had rolled over as well as you can see in the picture up against the fence.
One of the pipes popped a hole in the plastic which was disappointing since we just put on brand new plastic just a couple years ago.
Friends of ours Paul and Charisse had given us the trampoline years ago. We've put it up every summer so that what ever kids might come over can have fun playing on it and never up till now has it ever budged in the wind. It rolled over a couple times, it was a really strong wind.
I figured that must have been what Arie was barking at since it must have made quite a noise as it tumbled. So I went back into the house figuring I'd just leave it alone and deal with it in the day light and after the wind died down.
As I was heading back to bed a big wind sent a shudder through the whole house. Kelli was upstairs in bed and she felt it too. So I woke up the rest of the family and had everyone come down stairs since it felt like the whole roof might possibly come off. We all crashed in the living room for a couple ours until the wind seemed to let up.
Come day light I couldn't believe my eyes. Our big green house took the brunt of the wind. It ripped the plastic right off of it.
When I went up to get a closer look my mouth dropped open. The wind had gotten under the plastic and lifted the east end of it strait up and set it down around to the north side. And it had gone way up in the air and ripped some branches in a near by tree before coming down. The end it's self had little damage.
I had the ends staked down to the ground and it pulled those stakes right out. In this picture you can see one of the stakes. They were only down a couple feet but even so everyone was amazed how it lifted right up like that. I would guess that the end weighs several hundred pounds.
Pretty much the only damage to the plastic is that it was torn part way off on each end.
Way are thankful and humbled that the Lord has given us some good friends. After learning of our misfortune many friends offered to help us put it back together. Some drove almost 4 hours to get here for a work day.
In the below pictures you can see some of them resetting the end.
We shortened the green house by 3 feet to account for the torn plastic. That way we will have a foot and a half over hang with which to re-attach the plastic.
We aren't doing the CSA this year so we hadn't yet planted our tomatoes and other crops in the green house, which we were glad for, since if we had they surely would have been flattened by the wind that night.
We thank the Lord and all our friends for helping us put it back together. What a blessing!
For us this was a VERY SMALL sample of what so many around the country have recently gone through with so much tornado damage. This was nothing compared to that. But, it makes us realize that we cannot put faith in anything, in any material thing on this earth since every single thing can and will be shaken. Nothing here lasts forever. In vain we put our trust in our things, our homes, our very lives. In an instant it can all be gone. So if we are wise we will put our faith in the things that can't be shaken, to put our faith in the eternal. Our hope is in the Lord, the IMMOVABLE rock!
