Last night the winds started howling. Some of the strongest winds I've experienced since moving back to Pennsylvania has hit in the last twelve hours--gusts up to 70mph! Of course, it had to happen on a trash night so everyone's garbage cans in the neighborhood were on their sides and the contents are now splattered across the farm and tangled in the browse pastures. While doing chores this morning, the wind was so strong, it was literally blowing hay bales like sausages across the lawn. Bird feeders, wind chimes and anything else that hung from a tree are down. When the wind gusts, the entire house shakes. 
Last year, Ralph build a couple of new types of shelters using metal instead of wood. He screwed the extension top between the two huts out where the goats are right now, but Jess and I put an extension on the two in the pasture last month for the bull calves and failed to screw it down. When the sun came up this morning, the shelters in the far pasture where on the fence. Had they not been stopped by the wire, I'm sure they'd be in Newville by now. You can see how far the wind rolled them from where the extension lid was left. They held up pretty good. The only damage was the skid on the one that rolled the furthest was broken--not an expensive fix, but a fix none the less. 
So far there is only one spot where a tree has come down on the fence. It wasn't a big tree and fortunately, it was a "trash" tree (wild cherry). Since we haven't tightened the wires in that section of fencing yet, the worst it did was pop out the top staples on one post. 
But not all the impact from the winds has proved to be a bad thing. Just ask the goats.
Last year, Ralph build a couple of new types of shelters using metal instead of wood. He screwed the extension top between the two huts out where the goats are right now, but Jess and I put an extension on the two in the pasture last month for the bull calves and failed to screw it down. When the sun came up this morning, the shelters in the far pasture where on the fence. Had they not been stopped by the wire, I'm sure they'd be in Newville by now. You can see how far the wind rolled them from where the extension lid was left. They held up pretty good. The only damage was the skid on the one that rolled the furthest was broken--not an expensive fix, but a fix none the less. 
So far there is only one spot where a tree has come down on the fence. It wasn't a big tree and fortunately, it was a "trash" tree (wild cherry). Since we haven't tightened the wires in that section of fencing yet, the worst it did was pop out the top staples on one post. 
But not all the impact from the winds has proved to be a bad thing. Just ask the goats.
Oh, yummy, yummy, yummy! Pine tree for breakfast.
That wind was wonderful today. (Sarcasm) I could never live in a place where the "wind comes sweeping down the plain" like that every day. I think I actually cursed out loud at the wind, but no one heard me because the blasted wind was so loud.
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