Storms and Hail

I saw the clouds, but didn't do anything. It's been a rainy week and I assumed this would be a similar storm - nice rain, soak the garden and container gardens ... nothing to worry about. I WAS WRONG! It stormed with wind and hail. I was able to get the kids' herb gardens to a safer spot. Thank goodness, as Achievement Days, where they are supposed to be exhibited, is next week. Also managed to pull the large herb containers back closer to the house, but they still were really beaten by hail. Half of me was drenched, but it needed to be done.




View out our side garage door at the piles of hail (top and bottom photos). Most of the hail was the 1/2 inch size.





Above is the first Marian Herb container garden I planted. It looked so full yesterday morning. Wish I'd have snipped some of the parsley before it was beaten down. I didn't realize the pot in front still had a plug in the bottom! The water spilled over the brim ... I removed the plug and was happy to see that these plants looked pretty good, considering.

Thunderstorms aren't terrible. I do not dread them, but I don't like hail at all. It makes my stomach tense and knotted ... I do, and did, pray for the preservation of gardens, crops, and home. At least the weeds got knocked down, because we won't be able to mow anytime soon! The first storm was the worst (it brought the hail) and the wind blew from the West; about 20 minutes later another storm came blowing from the East. Not a good combination to have rain coming from different directions in such a short time period.



Above is a view is from our front door shortly after the first storm passed through. It was hard to believe how much water was draining into the slough in front of our house. The ground is obviously plenty wet.

I'm not even going to go look at my SFG today. I can be optimistic and believe a few plants have survived, but I know I'll have to replant (especially tomatoes, cukes, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage). Hopefully plants are still available at the greenhouse/nursery.

One of the kids left the garage door open, too. I found out when another child opened the garage-to-house door and the air pressure changed dramatically. That was NOT a nice surprise. We had a lot of boxes in the garage; they are now water logged and will need to be tossed. Just another mess I really didn't want to deal with today. The water (deep for a garage, in my opinion) was swirling around the drain as the garage door lowered. The boys will be cleaning up that mess shortly.

I have no idea, yet, how much rain fell. Hubby hasn't had time to set up his rain gauge ...