■l2-Uncastar Farming, Saturday, My 26,1986
On being ..
a farm wife
Joyce Bnpp '
-And other
hazards
“Well, I could do with about
another half-inch of rain yet,’’
observed the farmer.
No one voiced a comment. But,
silently, we knew that we all
agreed.
Sitting here on the back porcb,
munching supper sandwiches, we
watched as the rain slowed,
thunder and lightning still jarring
the thick, gray overcast. Not a leaf
stirred. Grateful, we were, for a
gentle, late afternoon storm ad
ding a bit to the blessed moisture
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that had finally dampened our
blooming, sparse, six-inch high
alfalfa, and gray, curled, stunted
corn, tasseling with no signs of
ears.
Already, for many local fields, it
was too late. For hay and
soybeans, well, maybe relentless
pleas to the Heavens for moisture
were finally coming to fruition.
I glanced to the north, from
whence this and most of our noisy
storms originated, and, as the
novelists say, “gasped audibly.”
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“Oh my gosh.”
Slate-gray, dark, onimous clouds
had piled up over the hill, and were
galloping across the sky, straight
toward the farm. The only thing
missing was the funnelcloud I fully
expected to drop down in the next
seconds. Memories of the
devastation leveled by last year’s
tornadoes in Pennsylvania in
tensified the sick feeling that hit
my stomach.
With the speed and seeming
impact of a freight train, wind and
rain crashed over the farm.
I heard the first limb plummet
through the trees as we raced up
the stairs to yank down open
windows.
“Limb on the greenhouse!”
shouted the youngest.
“Wire on the ground!" came
next.
The farmer took a look around
the house comer, through the wind
and rain, both blowing horizon
tally, as our giant maple trees
writhed and wrestled against the
fury.
“That’s the main feeder line to
the house.” Sure enough, the fat
gray cable sagged against the wet
ground, yanked from the securing
brackets by the falling limb. At
least it had not broken, only fallen,
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and the lights still shone.
Following at me heels as I paced
from window to door to window
was the youngest, offering
scientific explanation about how
low pressure systems and high
pressure systems override each
other and a hole opens up in the
clouds and that’s how tornadoes
are formed in storms like...
And another wave of freight
train wind tossed branches and
pummeled the windows with
water.
“To the basement!” I yelled.
Surely the roof would go next.
From the basement I could see
where the thick limb lay, curled
around the edge of the greenhouse.
And missed the glass structure by
a mere quarter-inch or so.
Riding this out on the porch was
the farmer, who has a fascination
for summer storms. No basement
for him - he was going to watch
every drop he’d waited for so long.
One muddy-footed, thunder
terrified dog was cowering on the
living room carpet. And a strange
outside cat had sneaked inside
hunting a dry spot.
“Geez!” exclaimed the kid
coming back inside after checking
the outside. “I just saw a cat blow
past.”
A cat? Blow past? Aw, c’mon.
Gradually, the storm did sub
side. Electrical lines sagged - but
held. Several large limbs and
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dozens of smaller bits of tree
residue created a mess - but no
worse damage.
And the farmer had gotten hia
half-inch - and more - of rain.
With gratitude for the added
moisture that had fallen - and
hopes that friends who needed it
even more desperately had also
gotten rain - I jogged from the
house, around the fallen limb to
head toward the barn and help
start the evening milking.
My feet went out from under me
on the turn and I landed with a
solid thud in the mud, jarring
primarily my ego and only a few
hundred muscles. Cackling
laughter erupted from inside the
basement.
What else would you expect from
a kid who entertains his mother
during the summer’s worst storm
with tales of how tornadoes are
formed and sees cats fly by on the
wind?
But, ummm, if a strange cat
turns up at your place, looking a bit
windblown... I have an idea where
it came from.
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