Twist and Shout

Hurricane Irene came roaring through 2 weeks ago. New Farm was lucky as we suffered no real damage other than the loss of power and communications for a week. The generator protected our well stocked freezer and refrigerator. Our friends and neighbors 7 miles south on the coast of Connecticut were not as lucky as the new moon, high tide storm surge caused considerable damage. Luckily the official yacht of New Farm, Gedaway, was pulled out by us prior to the storm hitting Long Island Sound. She is now back safe at her slip at the local marina.
Our friends and neighbors to the north in Vermont also took it on the chin as the rivers swelled over the banks and took out bridges. We saw that first hand as well as we were north for a wedding when Irene hit.




The Connecticut shore got pounded by Irene


The Vermont rivers were angry - Here the Quechee River rages a covered bridge.

One thing that did happen here was an apparent micro-burst that twisted trees, branches and even a couple utility poles. It traveled in pretty much a straight line though the woods. It went down the middle of our garden but stayed high. It then went just north of the garage and then past the shed and on into the woods to the west. It twisted down a tree that fell between the apiary and the hen house with its canopy just reaching into the squash patch. It also took down a few more trees in the yard while on its path.

It did take down a section of the deer fence but that was easily repaired. We bucked up the logs to add to the firewood stash and chipped up the brush for the garden path and we were back in business not too much worse for the wear. One other event was in the sunny days after the storm some of the insect pests we battle really exploded. They included three of our main nemeses in organic gardening. Squash Bugs, Mexican Bean Beetles and Cucumber Beetles that put an early end to our squash and cucumbers. We had to pull the plants and get rid of them.
The path of the microburst was interesting to see. The trees were not knocked over at the roots but rather twisted off at the trunks. The microburst must have also stayed fairly high occsionally dancing down to twsit off a tree top.



This tree just missed the hives and hen house.

Good Night Irene!