Sunset

Sunset, August 19, Prairie Acres, eastern Iowa.

Summer Storm

Summer around here means heat, humidity and frequent storms. 

This front rolled by this morning.

See that tiny barn on the left? 

Those are our closest neighbors, just under half a mile to our west.

If there wasn't the threat of tornadoes or damaging winds like this storm just over two weeks ago, I might find these storms more enjoyable.

(There's crazy amounts of damage from that storm--seriously, go check it out!)

Pretty dark, eh?

This is the view northwest and the corner of our property.

That's a lilac bush to the left (that didn't bloom this year!!!) and hybrid willows along the property line in the back. The tree? I think it's a black locust.

Here's the view to the west. Love that old shade tree!

Our garden is that weedy mess in the foreground and more willows along the gray horizon.

This is westish, south some. Technical! 

What? You noticed the grid on all the pictures? Oh dear. 

Ok, fine, I'll admit, I took these pictures through the windows. 

WHAT?!

I have three kids, man! And a storm was coming! We were not all going outside!

Sheesh.

Oh, look, north again! There's the barn that looks cool and serves no other purpose.

That white pole is the clothesline that I never use. 

I'd like to.

Again with the 3 kids excuse.

You try carrying a heavy basket of wet laundry and a 2-month-old!

But we're talking about the scary gray clouds! Yes, aren't they?!

Nice layering of grays! Can't you just hear the thunder?

To see another storm post from last summer, go here. I may have gotten outside for those pictures. Go me! (I only had 2 kids then...)

Oh, wait, I just read through that post and it says my husband took the pictures. 

Sigh. Yeah, they don't let me out much. 

El Derecho

Eastern Iowa was rudely awakened by a storm about 5 AM this morning. I'm sure we were not the only family huddled in the basement praying for safety! I've never heard such strong winds. I was certain the roof was going to blow off at any time!

It didn't. 

About an hour later we ventured back upstairs. We had a few large tree limbs down and our old pair tree broke at the base. The power had gone off at the beginning of the storm, so we had no internet or radios to check on the damage outside of our property. At about 9 AM we headed to town for breakfast and to fulfill our curiosity.

The town nearest us and a little south is fine. Cedar Rapids, 40 miles west, is fine too. But the damage in Vinton, 20 miles northeast of us, and Garrison, about 10 miles northeast, is quite extensive. 

Downed trees and power lines block most of the roads in Vinton.

High winds damaged roofs like this one.

This stop sign broke in two.

Falling trees took down power lines.

Experts say the wind was between 110 to 130 miles per hour!

Emergency crews are hard at work.

It's sad--and sobering--to see such damage!

This tree at the public library that we frequent lost nearly all of its limbs!

Several structures downtown Vinton sustained damage to their roofs.

This is an apartment building. There are no reports of injuries!

This is my mom's favorite coffee shop.

As if it wasn't sobering enough to witness the damage to the town of Vinton, we were astonished by what we saw as we headed west of town back to our house. (We had come into Vinton from Cedar Rapids to the east.)

Look carefully:

Those are telephone poles, bent at a 90-degree angle!

The strongest winds must have gone through at the top of the hill. And these are the big industrial-size poles! Yes, I just made that up. My point is, they're huge!

The debris in the trees is the siding off of someone's machine shed. Many many machine sheds, barns, corn cribs and grain bins are flattened, have roofs missing, or are completely destroyed.

This is a corn field. The stalks are about 4 feet tall, but now entire fields are laying flat on the ground.

This _was_ a typical ranch-style house. The roof is missing, as is the back wall. Debris is strewn across the field.

Garrison seems to have suffered the same fate as Vinton.

The volunteer fire department lost its roof. The people by that doorway--you might have to squint--are filming a segment for the evening news on the local TV station. Their website, kcrg.com, has more pictures of the damage done by the storm.

The fire station is where we go to vote. This barn was across the parking lot. I love barns and this was one of my favorites.

Somebody's grain bin ended up in a nearby field. Please excuse the hazy picture--we were driving and had the windows up. It was a hot day! 

Hmm, that might be the roof of the grain bin we just saw...

Can you believe this pile of rubble was a house? Actually, a corn crib converted into a house. We spoke with the owner's brother for a minute and learned that the family evacuated shortly before the storm hit. I'm so thankful they did! They probably didn't have a basement.

A friend who lives nearby called this evening. They know personally the family who lived here. Apparently they were able to locate all of their photo albums! Isn't that a small silver lining? We're about 5 miles from this house, by the way.

Another neighbor just called to say the power is still out at their place (about half a mile away) and at the next neighbor's as well. I'm so thankful that we returned home this afternoon with restored power! I feel extremely blessed to still have a home--and it's undamaged! 

Our 4-year-old has had many many questions today. I'm sure the questions will continue, as well as the destructive play! Tonight it was his blocks--he and his 2-year-old brother were building houses and trees and knocking them down. Ok, so that's not too far out of the ordinary, but this time it was the wind doing the damage. 

Please keep the residents of Benton, Tama and Marshall counties in your prayers. The prayers going up from our house today have been grateful ones! We have much to be thankful for.

PS: 'El Derecho' is Spanish for a straight-line windstorm. 

Storms & Crafts & Walkers, Oh My!

We had to hide in the basement during two different storms today. 

Great picture of the garden, by the way! Those black parts dipping down are when the storms get scary!

I hate that! I'm learning to like a good thunderstorm, but when these HUGE BLACK fronts roll in and you can hear the thunder when they're still miles away and you're out in the cornfields by yourself (our house, not me personally) and can see these things coming for hours... 

Looking west from our house. This storm was coming FAST! (Hello, neighbors!)

Well, it gets intimidating. We don't have a TV (hooked up) and I find anything online to be out-of-date by the time it gets there. Same with the weather radio. It alerts us in the middle of the night for random things a few counties away and doesn't alert us to scary-looking storms until they're on top of us. And when it does, it's like, "Ooooh, scary thunderstorm with high winds and rain. Chance that it might be severe. Go inside and shiver in your basement until it passes." Well, thanks. I can see that much!! 

The view north. Again, great shot of the garden. Where were these pictures for my post earlier this week? I might have to edit it to add them.

My husband took the pictures as he was home for the second storm. They don't bother me nearly as much when he's here! After we came out of hiding and finished supper, we headed outside to see what everything looked like. There was some flooding of one of the roads (dirt) and the fields to the east of us! This is how much rain came down in less than 45 minutes! 

Flooding in the drainage ditch. The water was flowing over the road!

Pretty crazy, huh? Can I move, please?

Anyway, I finally took the time this week to do a craft with my 3-year-old that he got from his Grandma for his birthday a few weeks ago. 

My little artist. 

It's a birdhouse kit! J got to paint everything by himself! 

Isn't he a cutie?!!

Then we let everything dry.

The next day we put it together.

Everything is better when you use tools!

All done!

He's smiling for the camera, can't you tell?

Little brother approves!

I'm feeling so left out!!!

Meanwhile, I made a card for my Grandpa. I know there are people out there that really make cards, but what I really wanted was a simple card with a little homemade touch. So I found an old blank card (I think it's a leftover Christmas card from eons ago that my Mom gave me. Thanks Mom! No, I'm not a hoarder!!!) and gathered my dollar store supplies.

Textured tissue paper in fun colors, fabric-looking ABC stickers and a blank old card.

I cut a piece of textured tissue paper to size and glued it to the front of the card, then put on the letters to spell "Grandpa". I thought the glue would disappear when it dried. It didn't. I'm glad I put it on in a somewhat logical pattern, cuz I can pretend it was intentional! Polka dots!

Easy card with accidental intentional polka dots!

You want to know a secret? I don't have the before pictures handy to prove it, but that card is on my kitchen counter. Which is covered in contact paper! *gasp* I totally wasn't planning to go into it in this post, but our house was built in the 60s and had only 1 owner before us, yet you could not imagine the layers of filth we cleaned to make it livable. The counters were pink with sparkles and the sparkles had worn off in spots and other spots were gray... Yeah. This is my just-get-me-thru-till-we-can-fix-it-right solution. And I love it!

Alrighty then, back to the topic at hand... Baby J is ALMOST walking! In fact, he took two steps a couple days ago and FOUR today, all by himself. Without holding on, of course--if he holds on he could (and does) walk around all day! 

Doesn't he look so proud?!

So there you have it. I'm watching the lightning outside, hoping another storm system is NOT on the way. Have a great weekend!


~Ellie