ORDER ONLY: The storm.
Aug. 6th, 2012 11:07 amWe've had quite a morning. We went out as soon as the weather died down and it was light enough to see, and I'm taking a moment to update everyone before heading back to work.
The storm was indeed a bad one -- we haven't had one on quite that magnitude for ten years at least. We're all safe and sound, but we lost four goats and a dozen chickens. One of the greenhouses was smashed to pieces by a falling tree. There's glass everywhere and we're working as best as we can to salvage as many of the plants as possible, but it will be difficult. The other two greenhouses are in much better shape -- they were sheltered from the worst of the winds, and we only lost a few panes of glass in each along with some minor water damage, but our fluxweed supply has been halved. The roof held, but is in sore need of repair, and several windows will also need to be replaced. Our new dormitory addition wasn't fully walled in yet, so that had quite a bit of damage as well. Victor is currently assessing the boats, and I've no idea if they are still seaworthy until he comes back with his report.
Everyone with a wand is currently shin-deep in mud, trying to accio the root vegetables out of the ground so we can store them properly before they rot. There's very little we can save of the veg that was above ground. It's late in the summer to re-plant those particular crops, but we'll see what we can do once things dry out a bit. We had a good month in July, so we've got quite a bit canned and preserved already, but August's crops of tomatoes, courgettes, peas, cabbage, and corn will be sorely missed. Our carrots, onions and potatoes are such staples of winter that I'm hoping we'll be able to save as many as we can, but we won't really know until October whether we'll have enough to float us through. I have a feeling we'll be very dependent on the solstice shipment this year.
I've got to get back to it now. I'll be sure to keep you all appraised.
The storm was indeed a bad one -- we haven't had one on quite that magnitude for ten years at least. We're all safe and sound, but we lost four goats and a dozen chickens. One of the greenhouses was smashed to pieces by a falling tree. There's glass everywhere and we're working as best as we can to salvage as many of the plants as possible, but it will be difficult. The other two greenhouses are in much better shape -- they were sheltered from the worst of the winds, and we only lost a few panes of glass in each along with some minor water damage, but our fluxweed supply has been halved. The roof held, but is in sore need of repair, and several windows will also need to be replaced. Our new dormitory addition wasn't fully walled in yet, so that had quite a bit of damage as well. Victor is currently assessing the boats, and I've no idea if they are still seaworthy until he comes back with his report.
Everyone with a wand is currently shin-deep in mud, trying to accio the root vegetables out of the ground so we can store them properly before they rot. There's very little we can save of the veg that was above ground. It's late in the summer to re-plant those particular crops, but we'll see what we can do once things dry out a bit. We had a good month in July, so we've got quite a bit canned and preserved already, but August's crops of tomatoes, courgettes, peas, cabbage, and corn will be sorely missed. Our carrots, onions and potatoes are such staples of winter that I'm hoping we'll be able to save as many as we can, but we won't really know until October whether we'll have enough to float us through. I have a feeling we'll be very dependent on the solstice shipment this year.
I've got to get back to it now. I'll be sure to keep you all appraised.