Day 32, Oooklahoma where the winds come sweeping down the plains.

The first day of my vacation and I actually slept in until 8:30am.   I was really excited about sleeping in until
 I realized it was actully only 6:30am west coast time and I had stayed up later than normal, so I really hadn’t slept in at all.

Approaching  Storm

Today I was supposed to meet up with Ann and help her evaluate where she could put chickens on their farm. She had an old barn that was no longer being used that we both thought would be perfect.  In the barn there were a number of pens and runs, where her husband Nick used to raise bird dogs. With a little work it would be ideal for chickens. The pens had raccoon wire fencing all the way around them and even over the top. There are also a number of old dog houses with removable tops and side doors that can easily be converted to a chicken coop or two. All we really need to do is clean them up, elevate them a bit, and build a few nesting boxes.  The barn has power and water and the pen areas are heavily shaded by trees.  With just a little work the area would be great.

New potting shed with new window boxes

Ann and I spent the day trying to find a good feed store for chicken products. You would think in Oklahoma a top notch feed store would be easy to find. We went to several and one told us about a huge farmers event every weekend where you can buy anything you could possible need pertaining to farming and yes chickens. We decided that we would have to check it out this weekend.

So as the hot humid evening hours rolled in, so did a massive storm front. Ann’s husband Nick and I were out working on the Ann’s potting shed, hanging window boxes, when the News Channel helicopter flew over filming the quickly approaching storm. The humidity was getting noticeable higher as the storm apporached and we decided that we needed to finish up and go inside quickly. Nick thought he should close the windows to the shed and I closed and bolted the large double doors on the front.

Tree sbapes and blows over into the pool crushing
 the pool fence.

The storm approached like a rapid moving wall of wind and water, hitting with straight line winds of over 70 mile per hour. We stood inside the house watching as the outside landscaping took a beating. Patio furniture blew over, potted plants and leaves where whirrling about.  The rain was coming down in sheets and hail pelets started hit. 

Nick and Ann's house is currenrtly in the process of getting a new roof (the roofers were taking shelter in the carport) from the last hail storm that pulverized thier roof earlier in the summer. 

The trees were taking a beating and finally two of them snapped, one going into the pool, crushing the child safety fence and the other landing on top of the hammock.

Just as fast as the storm blew in it passed and we soon went out to survey the damage.

Extremely heavy play sructure blown over.

The two trees we badly damaged basically having been snapped in two and part of the pool fence was crushed. Around the house an extremely heavy duty commercial grade play structure blew over. With all of us pushing we were able to right it and survey the damage, which wasn’t too bad. Over at the potting shed the large heavy double doors that I had secured shut with the deadbolt and padlock were barely hanging on, having literally been ripped from the building, door jam and all. It was like a large suction had tried to pull the entire wall away from the structure, pealing the siding, wall studs and hinges apart. Both doors were still bolted together and the rest of the structure was undamaged. 
Tomorrow, I think with a hammer and a few nails I will be able to put the wall and doors back together.

After the Storm

It was an exciting evening with the storm causing damage throughout the greater Oklahoma City area and beyond.  Power polls snapped, leaving many areas without power, roofs were ripped off buildings, a mobile home was was overturned and trees were snapped everywhere.  It was just another example of how when they do something in Oklahoma, they do it big.

Following the storm the temperature became much cooler and the humidity level dropped dramatically.  The sky took on a soft glow and the sunset was pretty spectacular. 

The forecast for the rest of the week is for much nicer weather.