Where we call Home: Tornado damage!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Tornado damage!

I had just taken pictures around the yard on the 25th of May, only 4 days before the tornados.
This big tree on the left was so beautiful.
In 1991 we had a horrible storm, "straight winds" which basically did as much or more damage to Kearney as this tornado did, This tree was considerably smaller, but it was uprooted and laid over. We took a chain & with the truck pulled it upright, and staked it. It recovered nicely and grew well over the years since, so it was quite dismaying to see that it was taken down by this storm. This time because of the hight and size of the tree it was impossible to save it, the roots were torn and damaged. I remember when my Grandpa planted these trees. There was one more in the front that we took out several years ago, as it was to close to the tree on the right and neither had enough space to grow nicely. Now all the trees in front of Moms house are gone.
We are just glad that it was over far enough to miss the house, as 5 feet closer and it would have landed on it.

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My grandpa originally owned an acre or maybe more of land on this corner of town. Over the years he sold off some of it, the first being two lots to the right of where you can see the houses on the cull-d-sac in the background. I remember it being an empty field south all the way to 11th street. Later he sold off 1 lot just south of this place (where you can see the white shed right behind the far tree) leaving a little less than an acre. When I was a girl, grandpa and grandma always had chickens. Occasionally other livestock would come and go! Including calves & goats.
My grandpa was a farmer at heart, and always had a garden. In the summer a meal might consist of onions, radishes, tomatoes, lettuce, corn on the cob, and whatever else he brought to the house that day for grandma to take care of. Peas, beans, squash, carrots... Meat was not a high priority. He loved fruits & vegetables, especially straight from the garden.
The land shown in the picture was often put into alfalfa or winter wheat. The garden was generally in the far back end of the picture, on to the west (right) of the photo. In top right corner, you can see the edge branches of the old mulberry tree, A favorite of ours. Great for climbing or sitting in the tree house that Grandpa made us with cookies, drink & a book!
The mulberry tree was destroyed some years back by "old age" and too many bad wind-storms. It held so many wonderful memories.
Just to the left of that, in the far back you can see the pear tree that still remains today.
The spot where Grandpa and Jeanne are digging is right where our house sits today. About 1/2 of this tilled up land is the neighbors to the east. Sometime later they planted pine trees from the street all the way back along the edge of their property bordering grandpas.
When I was a girl we could sit in the swing just east of the house and see all the way to the park. Today the pine trees are huge, giving a very effectual tall border-wall to the east side of our lot.

Garden Song

http://www.gardenofsong.com/gardensng.html

Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow.
All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row, Someone bless the seeds I sow.
Someone warm them from below, ’til the rain comes tumbling down.

Pulling weeds and pickin’ stones, man is made of dreams and bones,
Feel the need to grow my own. ’cause the time is close at hand
Grain for grain, sun and rain, find my way in nature’s chain,
To my body and my brain to the music from the land

Plant your rows straight and long, thicken them with pray’r and song
Mother Earth will make you strong if you give her love and care
Old crow watchin’ hungrily, from his perch in yonder tree
In my garden I’m as free as that feathered beak up there.

Where we call Home

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Tornado damage!

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Garden Song