The Squawk Faces Near Disaster!

Kelly’s Country Squawk hasn’t issued a new post for awhile because of an interesting situation that happened this week. On Monday afternoon I was spending time visiting with my in-laws and kids at our house. We had a thunderstorm warning posted on the TV, but there was nothing to alarm us outside while we ate our pizza. My Mother and Father In-Law were about to leave our house, they even had their hands on the doorknob ready to walk out, when a huge gust of wind came out of no where and began swirling around the house. Trees started falling down like a row of dominos throwing huge tree limbs all around my yard. The wind was so powerful and there was a ton of debris flying everywhere. I haven’t heard any meteorologists calling this storm a tornado or straight-line wind, but the way all of the trees fell at one time made it seem like much more than a thunderstorm.

The wind raged on forever, or so it felt. My chickens were outside free ranging when the storm hit us. Normally during a storm, the girls hide in the coop or under one of our vehicles to keep out of the rain. With the massive tree branches falling around their home, they tried to make a run to my front door. They know I am their protector, and they were trying to get to safety. The wind tossed them all around the yard, feathers flying everywhere.

The chickens looked like that scene from Mary Poppins where all the nannies were flying around the street with their skirts billowing in the wind and their umbrellas spinning them around hovering above the ground. I felt helpless, I wanted to go outside to bring them in, but I was also terrified of opening the door. The wind was so ferocious, I feared the door would fling right off the hinges if I opened it. It really felt like a tornado and I didn't want to get sucked into the vortex! I also couldn't tear myself away from the window, one of the more dangerous places to be in a bad storm. I had to know what was being destroyed or killed outside!

My brave rooster stood guard in front of the coop trying to protect the chickens while the branches fell all around him and rain pelted at him. He never once took cover or snuck into safety. He kept watching for anything that would come flying at the girls so he could attack it. The chickens, one by one, finally made their way through the wind to a part of the coop that has an overhang. They cowered together trying to stay away from the rain and the flying sticks.

One of the larger branches that fell looked like it hit a part of my coop. It also fell down in an area where my girls like to graze during the day. From my view from the window, I didn’t know if the tree wiped out some of the chickens or not. It took about 30 minutes for us to have enough guts to go outside to see what the actual damage was.

Praise God, the branch didn’t hit my coop. It fell in between the coop and my husband’s beloved John Deere tractor….nothing was damaged. The branch fell from a tree directly behind my coop. It SHOULD have hit it! It was still lightly raining when I gathered up my flock. After doing a headcount, everyone was accounted for and uninjured. I couldn't believe it!

The storm also landed a huge branch on our power line. Four days later our power and Internet just turned back on this afternoon. This is a week that I was totally humbled, thankful, and blessed. My dad drove over four hours from Indiana the morning after the storm to help take down the trees. Together my Dad, Father In Law, Mother In Law, and Sister In Law cleaned up the two apple trees and three huge tree branches that fell while the kids and I were at school. With the yard cleaned up, you would never know what happened this week.

I'm even more thankful for my God. He loves me so much that He saved my family and my home from getting hurt. The outcome of the storm could have been SO much worse. He prevented my In-Laws from leaving my house by sending us several HUGE signs that it wasn't safe outside. He spared my chickens and my coop, because that tree branch really should have destroyed the coop and killed my flock. I don’t know what He thinks about Kelly’s Country Squawk, but I know He sure does love me and there must be a reason to keep my feathered friends around.

Thanks for reading my Country Squawk,

Kelly