Blown Away!

This morning a big old storm rolled in from the West and rain poured down for two hours. There was a lot of lighting and thunder but nothing out of the usual. Then at around 11a.m. the wind started to pick up from the East and it became very gusty. Two calf hutches blew over and we all raced outside to save the poor baby calves from the wind. 

 

After we had fixed the calf situation everyone was watching the out-of-doors from inside very closely. We noticed that the barn was swaying back and forth, which was definitely not normal. I found the camera only to discover that the batteries needed to be charged. I was becoming very disappointed that there were no other batteries in the house that worked when Channing brilliantly remembered our electric tooth brushes!

 ...so really Chan is the man that saved the day!

I readied my old but trusty Canon S2000 and rushed out into the driving wind and rain. Originally I was just going to snap a few shots of the barn because the shingles were being blow off the roof and I thought it looked kind of cool....

The Barn... a few minutes before it blew over.

The wind was terrible so I went behind a vehicle and took the video of the barn being blown over. Here is a shortened, edited clip:

 

 

Thank goodness all the little heifers were safe and sound!

 

...the lean-to was definitely leaning.

 

Sizing up the situation.

Channing thought he might be able to "rest" against the wind.

Check out this big old pine tree bending in the wind like an asparagus!

The roof on the ground.

My brother Isaac and I are going to turn the old window into a picture frame.

...after all the excitement more dark clouds rolled in!!! There were to opposite air masses coming together and it almost looked like tornado weather for a while. Thank goodness it quickly passed.

We decided that it isn't every day that you have a barn blow down, and it's even less common to catch it on video. So.... we decide this whole calamity was news worthy and called our local TV station tip-line. 

 

Mr. Duane Wolter, a photographer with WEAU News, was here shortly after we called the station. He took a few video clips and interviewed my dad.You can watch the official report online: Caught on tape: Winds take down family's 108 year old barn.

Here is a little conglomeration of the news reports:

Sorry the video quality is so terrible. I think my camera is probably worse off for having been exposed to all that wind and rain.

From the inside, out.

An old screen door inside the wreck.

Channing, Janelle and Patrick sitting inside.

What a crazy day!!! Needless to say we will have a lot of cleaning up to do! ...and I promise I will be posting more pictures sometime soon.