I'm not one given to rants or feeling sorry for myself but I need to vent.
This has been one long, crappy day with a long, crappy night ahead of me. We were hit with a hail storm this morning and when I say hit, I mean hit.
It was around 10:00 we were all outside discussing who was going to take the van in to the repair shop in town for a new muffler. There was a big, black cloud over head so my husband didn't figure he would go to the field so he was going to take it in. He was just about to the van when we heard a huge whap, something had hit the machine shed. I didn't see it but Tim saw a chunk of hail hit the ground next to him, he took off running for the van hollering to get the kids in the house, the "chunk" was about the size of a softball. I had seen the youngest two go in the house moments before so I found Bobbie and got in the house just as it let loose. As I'm taking off my shoes and coat I ask where Brock was, I about died when my youngest pointed out the back door and said he went to get his bike. In a moment I was back out the door, the hail was bouncing off of everything, with more than a little luck Brock came trucking around the corner, eyes wide as dinner plates. So in he came, no worse for wear other than he told Bobbie that it sure stung when you got hit.
After it was all said and done (lasted about 15 minutes) I put my boots on and went checking on things. I was never so happy to see a broken wire, apparently the mares crowded into the fence by the trees and broke a wire and crawled in and were relatively protected. All but one anyway. My heart sank as I walked across too them and one mare was calling for her filly. I could see her bay filly standing in the middle of the pasture by herself. I thought, she's standing that's a good sign. When I got up to her I was feeling less and less encouraged. The poor baby looked like she had been beaten with a bat. Her head was misshapen, she had a tooth knocked out, you couldn't touch her with a splayed hand without running into a lump left from the hail. She walked on her own to the barn, she couldn't track in a straight line but was walking. I called the vet, they patched me through as he was headed out on a call. Luckily everything he wanted me to give I had and he told me he would be out later. I've never had such a hard time hitting a vein, her poor neck was so swollen. When he got here he gave her a few more meds and said she was a poor candidate to move. If in the morning she has stabilized she'll make the trek to the vets, chances are not real good that she'll live through the night.
Week old photo.
After I initally got her to the barn and started on meds I started making the trip around the rest of the yard checking on things. The hail killed two chickens and we had to kill a duck as it broke it's wing and beak. The rooster had bloody comb and a swollen eye that he should be thankful for, we found phesants that had their heads split in two from the hail. (He is a Turken, he's not suppose to have any feathers on his neck)I'm sure the hail killed lots of wildlife.
It took out the windsheild on the grain truck, tractor and the farm car.
I put hail in the dents on the trunk for more of a visual. This was at least an hour after it was over.
We have a new house and it beat up the roof and twisted the antana and shattered the sun tunnel but even though our neighbors did we, thankfully, didn't loose any windows in the house.
It punched holes through our well house as well as our machine shed. Took out all the windows on the North side of the barn.
This is the steel roof off the machine shed.
These are not missing shingles they are holes.
Again these were taken long after the storm was over just to give you some size perspective.
(Bottom of a pop can)
It all but destroyed some fields while others are barly touched. Of course we didn't get our hail insurace this year, meant too but kept putting it off till we had to do something else in town. I don't expect sympathy for our own stupidity but it still stings.
Our sprayer tank, fertilizer tank and water tank have holes big as a fist punched through them.
The poor neighbors had more property damage, they live less than a mile away, it ripped the gutters off the house, shattered windows and punched holes through their deck. The trees around here have been shredded.
It's a B & B day, Bawl or Booze. It was such a destructive storm that did so many dollars worth of damage, then when I go to the barn I feel so guilty for feeling bad about the "stuff" that I feel crappier. I made myself go do some "normal" things, I caught a yearling and snapped some photos, but feeling better lasted about as long as it took till I went to check on the filly.
The filly is still alive but everytime I go to check on her it takes me a moment to flick on the light.
I'm not begging for sympathy here, so many people have it worse than me. The neighbors are all in the same boat and it doesn't do any good to sit and mope but I just needed to complain/whine/cry a bit. Tomorrow starts another round of crap as I'm sure we have a bunch of babies that just aren't going to be feeling very good plus there is a lot to clean up. Sooner or later things will start looking up but right now everything sure looks crappy.
Sorry for taking up your time with my rant and if you have any spare good thought send them my way for the filly.
This has been one long, crappy day with a long, crappy night ahead of me. We were hit with a hail storm this morning and when I say hit, I mean hit.
It was around 10:00 we were all outside discussing who was going to take the van in to the repair shop in town for a new muffler. There was a big, black cloud over head so my husband didn't figure he would go to the field so he was going to take it in. He was just about to the van when we heard a huge whap, something had hit the machine shed. I didn't see it but Tim saw a chunk of hail hit the ground next to him, he took off running for the van hollering to get the kids in the house, the "chunk" was about the size of a softball. I had seen the youngest two go in the house moments before so I found Bobbie and got in the house just as it let loose. As I'm taking off my shoes and coat I ask where Brock was, I about died when my youngest pointed out the back door and said he went to get his bike. In a moment I was back out the door, the hail was bouncing off of everything, with more than a little luck Brock came trucking around the corner, eyes wide as dinner plates. So in he came, no worse for wear other than he told Bobbie that it sure stung when you got hit.
After it was all said and done (lasted about 15 minutes) I put my boots on and went checking on things. I was never so happy to see a broken wire, apparently the mares crowded into the fence by the trees and broke a wire and crawled in and were relatively protected. All but one anyway. My heart sank as I walked across too them and one mare was calling for her filly. I could see her bay filly standing in the middle of the pasture by herself. I thought, she's standing that's a good sign. When I got up to her I was feeling less and less encouraged. The poor baby looked like she had been beaten with a bat. Her head was misshapen, she had a tooth knocked out, you couldn't touch her with a splayed hand without running into a lump left from the hail. She walked on her own to the barn, she couldn't track in a straight line but was walking. I called the vet, they patched me through as he was headed out on a call. Luckily everything he wanted me to give I had and he told me he would be out later. I've never had such a hard time hitting a vein, her poor neck was so swollen. When he got here he gave her a few more meds and said she was a poor candidate to move. If in the morning she has stabilized she'll make the trek to the vets, chances are not real good that she'll live through the night.
Week old photo.
After I initally got her to the barn and started on meds I started making the trip around the rest of the yard checking on things. The hail killed two chickens and we had to kill a duck as it broke it's wing and beak. The rooster had bloody comb and a swollen eye that he should be thankful for, we found phesants that had their heads split in two from the hail. (He is a Turken, he's not suppose to have any feathers on his neck)I'm sure the hail killed lots of wildlife.
It took out the windsheild on the grain truck, tractor and the farm car.
I put hail in the dents on the trunk for more of a visual. This was at least an hour after it was over.
We have a new house and it beat up the roof and twisted the antana and shattered the sun tunnel but even though our neighbors did we, thankfully, didn't loose any windows in the house.
It punched holes through our well house as well as our machine shed. Took out all the windows on the North side of the barn.
This is the steel roof off the machine shed.
These are not missing shingles they are holes.
Again these were taken long after the storm was over just to give you some size perspective.
(Bottom of a pop can)
It all but destroyed some fields while others are barly touched. Of course we didn't get our hail insurace this year, meant too but kept putting it off till we had to do something else in town. I don't expect sympathy for our own stupidity but it still stings.
Our sprayer tank, fertilizer tank and water tank have holes big as a fist punched through them.
The poor neighbors had more property damage, they live less than a mile away, it ripped the gutters off the house, shattered windows and punched holes through their deck. The trees around here have been shredded.
It's a B & B day, Bawl or Booze. It was such a destructive storm that did so many dollars worth of damage, then when I go to the barn I feel so guilty for feeling bad about the "stuff" that I feel crappier. I made myself go do some "normal" things, I caught a yearling and snapped some photos, but feeling better lasted about as long as it took till I went to check on the filly.
The filly is still alive but everytime I go to check on her it takes me a moment to flick on the light.
I'm not begging for sympathy here, so many people have it worse than me. The neighbors are all in the same boat and it doesn't do any good to sit and mope but I just needed to complain/whine/cry a bit. Tomorrow starts another round of crap as I'm sure we have a bunch of babies that just aren't going to be feeling very good plus there is a lot to clean up. Sooner or later things will start looking up but right now everything sure looks crappy.
Sorry for taking up your time with my rant and if you have any spare good thought send them my way for the filly.
