Memorial Weekend 05
A bunch of people showed up and we did much cleanup, mowing, gardening. Many thanks to Phil and Kim, Sam and Greg, KC, Don, Mark, Patrick and Michelle, and Murphy. Also had two of Mary's sisters and one of her daughters overnight, and of course cousin Jeff, so the farm was eat up with people most of whom did some work. Ain't nothing much cooler than when friends and family show up, except when they show up with beer and stuff, and they did that too. Damn.
Anyway, there's more stuff fixing to grow out here than you can imagine. Plans in the works for a root cellar in time for harvest, and the complete upgrading of the well and water system was started today.
The big tornado was Saturday night a year ago. We didn't have another one this year. I liked it better without one.
Anyway, there's more stuff fixing to grow out here than you can imagine. Plans in the works for a root cellar in time for harvest, and the complete upgrading of the well and water system was started today.
The big tornado was Saturday night a year ago. We didn't have another one this year. I liked it better without one.
posted by tickmeister at 8:42 PM
2 Comments:
I remember hearing about the tornado up in Chicago. I heard Gallatin or "60 miles north of Kansas City" or something like that. After a few days I wrote to Dale asking "so, Dale, did you see any effects of the tornado? Did it hit nearby?" He wrote back and said "Nearby, hell! It hit ME!" I was pretty freaked out to learn it had basically rolled right through our campground. But someone commented a few months later that by far the worst damage came from the giant cleanup bulldozers that tore everything up in an attempt to clear the debris. It was true --- there were huge tire ruts and bulldozer tracks that seemed to ruin things more.
So, dale, how are things growing back? Are the trees looking any better, or are they still pretty busted up?
They weren't bulldozers, they were log skidders. After the tornado, the farm was just a jumbled mess, impossible to even walk across. We had the loggers come in to salvage what they could, we got a few thousand dollars for the logs. And even though they left ruts they at least left the place cleared up enough to be able to get around. It's a different landscape with no mature trees, but of course everything is green and growing wildly. The capacity of a temperate zone forest/grassland ecology to heal itself and regenerate is incredible. The rate at which trees will re-establish in any abandoned space renders evironmentalist concerns about de-forestation irrelevent.
If you look at photographs of this farm taken back in the 50's, the most striking thing is the relative absence of trees. Back in the days of intensive small scale farming, brush had little chance to establish itself. And of course there was almost no major wildlife due to the high population density. I suppose that several hundred thousand acres of northwest Missouri has returned to a near wilderness state as small farmers moved out and the land was bought by hunters and other recreational users. It was a social disaster for the farming society and an economic disaster for the local towns. It was however a tremendous boon to the local critters and plants.
The tornado wrecked a small area which happened to include some trees that I had grown attached to. Effectively, it clear cut the farm. Looking at a larger picture, it will allow a population explosion of certain species and the new areas of short dense, short brush will compliment the mature forest areas around them. Overall, it will be just fine. That's the way it works, catastrophe has always been part of nature.
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