We heard it before we saw it, and we rushed out of the house to see this. It was a show stopper.
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Two Photo Journals, this one, The Fall of the Apple Tree.
There was some fierce wind, rain, and lightning on Saturday afternoon.
Maria looked out of an upstairs window to see the back half of our apple tree sign, groan, and fall right over the fence and into the side of our barn. It was frightening and disconcerting – life on a farm is never perfect – until we rushed out and saw that the animals were fine, the barn was fine, the fence was fine.
That is a miracle. I rushed to the phone and called our friend, the miracle man, Dan Rogers, and he said he would be over first thing in the morning. And he was (more photos of that later.)
Dan is one of those amazing countrymen who love to work and seem to know how to do anything. Up here, we all see that younger Americans no longer have the stomach for hard labor, and the people who do love to work are being run out of the country and terrorized by the idiots who call themselves leaders. Soon enough, they will see what we will be missing when their own trees fall in the yard.
By 10 am, Dan cleaned it up. He’ll be back to tidy things up in a few days. He is our miracle man.
I’m showing this in two parts, photo-wise. The first, this one, is the Fall of the tree, meaning Saturday at dusk. The second part is “This morning,” meaning Sunday.
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Maria suddenly looked up. She saw this beautiful sight in the sky (below).
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What a beautiful rainbow, it came just as the sun came back out.
When the Limb fell, Zip ran and hid in the barn. It wasn’t long before he came out and took charge.
The sheep wasted no time in eating the leaves off the Apple Tree.
Maria is looking to see if she has found any bird nests. We saw birds coming in and out of the bushes, but we didn’t find any nests to pull out and try to save.
The donkeys were clearly rattled. I had run out in my new summer pajamas, and they came rushing over to me. They were frightened, and I calmed them down. It’s unusual for them to want comforting like that. It might have been unnerving from their end.
Maria calmed Lulu down, and I talked to Fanny. I talked calmly and soothingly, and she settled down.
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Zip wasted no time in climbing the tree, no doubt looking for birds or Chipmunks.
Jon, these photos tell a beautiful story! There’s something almost otherworldly about these scenes, and in my eyes they reflect the integration of the farm as a sacred space. I’m very moved by them. So in my opinion you posted photo art today too. I’m sorry you’re feeling lousy today.
I can’t remember if I told you that when FDR’s mother died at their estate on the Hudson, a magnificent sycamore that she loved literally toppled over and died too. Makes me think that your apple tree made sure to fall in a way that hurt no one and caused no damage to essential structures. And that Maria witnessed it as it happened seems like a kind of sacred synchronicity.
Love to all the denizens of your beautiful farm.