May 20, 2025
First, Bruce, Nox and I, as well as the house and outbuildings, are fine.
We had a violent thunderstorm hit around 5 o’clock clock this evening. It rained so hard with strong winds that we had white out conditions from it.
We were under a tornado warning. We had the closet door open and ready so we could dive into the closet.
The wind howled around the house from the north. It seemed an odd direction for the wind to blow, as the storm was moving east at 40 miles an hour.
Once we could see any distance out the windows, I noticed one of the trees in the line of pines in the back pasture had fallen into another tree. I called out to Bruce, “We’ve lost another pine tree.”
He came to the back door and noticed another pine down, to the left of leaning tree and further back. The rain started pouring again.
I had hoped we had just lost a big branch, but from the bedroom window, the damage was clear.
I felt sad. It was such a stunning tree.
The rain stopped around 6:15 pm, and the weather app claimed no rain for 25 minutes.
We headed out to the back pasture to see the damage.
We lost three pines. One was in the process of dying, so we weren’t upset about it falling over. We are sad we lost the two large pines. They were stunning trees, providing shade in the back pasture.
After walking out of the back pasture, we headed into the front yard to see what the damage was there.
The large oak out front had a lot of dead limbs come down.
One of the pecans had a large dead limb come down. The big pine out front lost a lot of smaller dead branches.
The ditch was full of water.
As we walked up our driveway, we saw our neighbor to the north had taken some damage.
After we got inside, just as it started raining again.
Just a short time later, our neighbor on the north side texted to check on us and to let me know about the pines. I replied we were good and if they were all safe. I also asked if he needed help with getting his shed flipped over. The shed flipped onto his tomatoes, corn and beans. He’s just going to use his tractor to flip the shed upright. Apparently, it gets flipped over once or twice a year.
The rain cleared about sunset.
I happen to look over at the pecans and saw a large live pecan branch down. It came down in the short time we had walked around and sunset.
I watched the sunset, enjoying the beauty after the storm.
Blackberry Homestead 
What a storm! Your photos were beautiful, though.
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Thank you. It was an impressive storm.
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Oh, I am so sorry to hear all of this, but grateful you are all okay and no house damage.
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We are grateful we are okay and with no house damage as well. The two beautiful trees fell in the best possible direction, not hitting anything and the other pin didn’t fall on the fence.
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That was one heck of a storm! I’m glad everyone’s safe. That is too bad about your trees. Can you use the wood for anything around the farm? Firewood, at least?
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Our neighbor is interested in chipping the branches up to use. He was going to see if he could find a chipper to rent. We’ll be able to use the trunks and very large branches for putting in the bottom of the garden beds.
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At least the pines will still be with you!
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Thank heavens you are all okay.
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We are grateful we are okay.
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Wow, scary! Bummer that you lost those trees, but good that there was not any damage to your house. Most houses in Minnesota have a basement or walkout level which comes in handy when there is a tornado or bad storm. Sounds like you do not have one.
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We don’t have a basement or walkout. Most houses in the South don’t have basements or walkouts.
We went for a ride today. Our neighborhood has a lot of trees down. One of our neighbors lost their entire pecan grove. The trees were all leaning over, with the roots up. So sad.😞
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Goodness, that was certainly a dramatic event and quite scary. There was a lot of damage but you are all well, which is the more important thing.
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Yes, it was scary. I am grateful we are okay and took relatively minor damage compared to neighbors and a town nearby. Our neighbors down the road lost their entire pecan grove. All the trees are tipped over with the roots out of the ground. I hope they can sell the wood. Trees are down all over the place and many were broken. Tornados (at least 2, maybe more) tore through a city 55 miles away. One tornado followed another. While the damage was severe, no one was seriously injured in Alabama.
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WOW!!!! That was some storm!
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It was very scary and did a lot of damage in the area. The folks we’ve talked to have said that this is the worst year for storms, they’ve never seen it this bad.
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WOW!!! How scary! Glad you are OK!
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Thank you!
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Of course. 🙂
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