It has been a busy quarter since I last wrote about our acreage at the end of March. There have been a few damaging windstorms, leaving multiple branches on the ground, along with a few entire trees. The tornado warning went off in our nearby little town during one storm, and as I walked out of the garage to head for the house I looked to the west and all I could see was a churning wall of blackness about to hit us. I instinctively stepped backwards into the garage when it hit. Soil from the fields, rocks from our lane and road and branches from our trees all crashed into our buildings at once. After the first wave I made it to the house where Shelly and I (and the dog) rushed to the basement. After around twenty minutes we emerged to a mess, inside and out. A layer of soil covered everything in our dinning room, having blown in through the western facing windows left open. Some neighbors lost trees as well, and a local barn to our east was flattened.

The crops are, of course, all planted now and the annual wall of green corn is growing up around the place. Our garden is looking good, but not producing anything yet. We planted the first layer of a windbreak to our west, consisting of pine trees and lilacs. To the east of the house we planted some apple trees, and a few other trees for shade.

We discovered toads hopping around by mid-May, and now have the usual assortment of dragonflies, lighting bugs, butterflies, moths and biting flies, all here by early June. Birds on the acreage have included robins, bluejays, woodpeckers, sparrows, wrens, orioles, hummingbirds, finches, redwing blackbirds, crows, swallows and occasional birds of prey flying overhead that cause all the others to freeze in place like statues. The planes that fly over us here on the acreage are crop dusters, experimental craft/kits and Piper types. Jets are rare enough that they make one look up as they pass over.

Finally, we still have the two brothers with us, Sammie the cat and Dice the dog. They have grown up together and are best buds. When I am outside working they will follow me from project to project, both finding a shady spot to observe, supervise and nap.