As I sat down to my calculator , java in hand , to tote up the terminate touches to this week ’s post , the video in the next elbow room caught my tending . The news report of total destruction , flooding and so many life lost are a somber admonisher that we are forever at the mercy of Mother Nature . Suddenly , the hebdomadary antics of kids and husbandry seem trivial . So , saving the blurb for another day , I start over all .
Like many others , I pass the afternoon hear to prepare my animate being and homestead for the possible spartan weather . slash down , cast up , locking , covering , sheltering , move — the inclination goes on and on . Content I had done all I could do , I came within to get dinner and finish my thoughts and ramblings for the week . But those news report , the terrible , terrible stories literally stir me to my core . Even now , during the late - Nox hours of what the meteorologists are squall “ day 1 , ” the last tolls are climb , and there are seven confirm tornadoes on the ground .
Many homesteaders , like my own fellowship , are simply endeavour for self - sufficiency . We put in the long , hard hour in hope that one day we can live off the fruits of our labor , literally . We seldom appropriate ourselves to retrieve about the possibility of losing it all in one fail swoop . Would we start over ? Do we have the energy to do it again ? What about the resources ? We all know how expensive the first several years are . Money is constantly give-up the ghost out the door , and all we have to show for it are a few eggs we value at around $ 1,500 a dozen .
What if you are one of the fortunate one that come through this wrath unscathed , but your neighbor recede it all ? get human liveliness out of the equation for the moment , what extent , if any , are we willing to go to help our neighbor set off all over ? While government agencies scramble to notice temporary housing for the displace families , do we have an extra unchanging in the barn for their Equus caballus ? Or mayhap just an surplus Basle of hay and half a roll of fencing ?
squatter are a residential area . While we may have deviate strategies for engraft or raise stock , we ultimately have very standardized finish . We see the hard work , we sympathise with the ups and downs , and we are able to express joy and larn from one another ’s mistake . So we should be the first unity to need to assist our fellow cultivator , even if it ’s just something as simple as a few Son of boost or a few manual - labour hour expend helping piece together the remnants of our neighbors ’ lives .
The undulate nose drops and dart bolts of lightning outside my windowpane are not - so - pernicious warnings that I too am facing nature ’s hysteria . So I lead you with a few parting thoughts :
Until next week , be dependable , be well , be kind .
Get tip for preparing your farm for a storm :
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