Gratitude and humility

After my last post, I was going to do a garden gush. The corn was getting tall, the tomatoes loaded down and beautiful and most of the rest of the garden doing well too. I was cutting the bottom land for mulch, everything was tied and tended. A spot had been cleared near the highway for the farm stand and we decided it's size.

Last Sunday, a 20 minute hail storm hit the big garden at Crooked Creek and we thought wiped out most of the garden for sure. In the last week, some of the plants are showing signs of recovery, but it sure didn't look hopeful when the damage was discovered. Here at the house it just rained like usual. We didn't know there was hail in the area. After our garden was hit we went to town and found out many were hit. People reported foot and half piles of hail off the roof line. Snow plows were used on one stretch. On the way out of town and back to the house we saw the worst. The damage we have sustained seemed slight and trivial. Acres and acres of corn shredded like wispy grass. Just as many soy fields destroyed beyond recognition. A neighbor told us further North, the corn stalks were stripped completely. It is a good time to reflect on humility.

New space and beauty tips

While I was visiting my family, Jeffrey finished up a room for us to move into. We've wanted to move upstairs right over the wood stove since we put it in. It'll be a warm and soothing - cat free, dog free and construction free space! Usually when we go into town for groceries, we'll stop at the resale shops or garage sales along the way. We picked up some pretty decent solid wood end tables for $5, the dresser for I think $20. Jeffrey found the window at a discount building supply place and did all the trim himself out of pine. The quilt was made from a lady a mile down the road that runs the diner and the little pine picture frame with handmade dried onion flowers is from my friend Mary Ann as a going away present. It matches the window frame perfectly. The painting to the left was a gift from my grandmother. It was in the scrap pile and I found it a few years ago when I lived there. She hated it and wouldn't let me take it like that. She lightened the sky and added some details. The sky was ominous dark and purple and I loved it, but she wouldn't let me have it without the yellow in the sky and lights in the windows. The yellow in that sky matches the paint that Jeffrey covered the room with and I really love it, insurance paid for that. We are really trying to fix up this place and hope to sell it to pay for part of the build of the new earth sheltered house. If we have to keep this one for a while though, we'll have some nice space to live in till we can sell it. If Jeffrey's mother moves up here with us there will be plenty of room.