Windy day

Kris and I had planned on going to see some of our high school team members and friends' kids play in their Friday night basketball game.  (We'd been trying and trying to go see them, and we finally were able to schedule it!)

He didn't come home, so I decided the boys and I would leave without him.  We ran outside into the gale force winds to see the tree limb in our yard.

Kris called when we were about to see the game, and when I got home he filled me in on the events of his night.

First of all, the wind caused the plastic to blow off half of the corn silage pile!  Kris said that the plastic was moving him even as he was standing on it, trying to put tires on it.  Kris and the guys had to get the plastic and tires back on in the crazy wind.  It's difficult even when there's a breeze ... this wind made it almost impossible.  Russ, our friend and vet, even helped the entire time.  He didn't have to do that as a vet OR friend!  That was incredibly nice and helpful of him.

Then, one of the drive-through gates blew in as someone was closing the giant garage-like barn door. The door wouldn't work after that.

That meant Kris had to climb up the highest ladder we have to the top of the barn.  First, he chained the bottom of the ladder so that the cows wouldn't mess with it, bump it, and accidentally knock him off and fall to his death.

He said he climbed very carefully, and when he got to the top, he held onto the brace post while he tried to fix the garage door opener.  He thought, "If the ladder falls, and I'm still holding onto this ... how am I going to get down?"  I helpfully suggested that he would have eventually had to jump and broken both his legs and possibly pelvis. (Spoiler alert - he didn't fall.)

He spent a long time working on it, with nothing working and eventually fixed it by ... unplugging it and plugging it back in!  The solution of so many problems!

Today I read the news:

"Buildings were evacuated in downtown Chicago this afternoon as 69-mph wind gusts whipped glass out of under-construction skyscrapers, smashing them into nearby buildings and shattering them onto streets below."

and

"Heavy winds are beating up on the roads and powerlines throughout the area. Multiple reports are coming in about heavy winds causing trees and powerlines to crash into the roads.  Consumer's Energy says thousands of people have lost power tonight -- the largest outage being in the Holt area.
According to the outage map, power won't be completely restored for at least another 48 hours, which includes the more than 1400 people who were in the dark this evening in Holt."

Today was also windy, but nothing like it was yesterday.  As a result, we managed to do all our plans.

Luckily, the basketball season isn't over - maybe the weather will cooperate with our next game!

Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter @carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.