Before the storm....

Before the horrible and deadly tornadoes of the coming night, it was peaceful and beautifully foggy here at home. It has been warm enough that the chickens were finding worms.
The fog was very thick, so we should have known what was coming. In fact, the weather people kept warning us that extreme things were brewing in the skies.
This blue bird house has been posted on this tree for many years, and every year there are babies born in it. Such a small thing, yet to the baby birds it is all they know as their world.
It is amazing that I grew this gourd about 10 or 11 years ago, let it dry and hung it in this tree, it is still there and full of little branches where birds made their nests over and over. No wonder the pioneers, Indians and ancient people used gourds for eating bowls, cups and tools..

So, back to the storm: Bill and I heard the strangest swooshing sound, the kind of sound we heard when chasing tornadoes, way back when. We stuck our heads out of the front door, and sure enough, the same sound. Bill said it was probably a funnel cloud just above us, that didn't touch down, but it must have caught the tops of some trees because our power went out soon after that. Since we had nothing to do, we drove around town, and it was so funny, there was traffic everywhere...we are sure a bunch or rednecks, a little wind blows by and we are out gawking at it.... We drove a half a block and there were three large trees down, one looked like lightning had split it, but the others were uprooted. The power line that, is about 30 feet from our house, was sagging very low. Bill had to stop and look at it, I started yelling at him.....curiosity killed the cat, and may kill Bill.... .
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It is now several days later and unfortunately there were many deaths in our neighboring states, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama. The damage here was minimal compared to the devastation they all suffered. Locally several semi's were flipped over on the interstate near Salem and the roof was completely taken off of South Central High school in Farina. There was a girl's volley ball game going on in the gymnasium at the time, and there were about a hundred people there (Farina pop. is 400), however, the gym was cleared out in the nick of time and thankfully, no one was hurt there. The next day it rained and then snowed....that was yesterday...today...looks like more snow...I love Illinois...