Storm coming into sonomaRemember yesterday I told you how thrilled we all are here in farm country that we are getting our first winter storm in mid-November? Well, Mother Nature has a funny way of turning the tables. Just a few hours ago we were looking out toward the Coast Range and cheering the rain clouds skidding over the mountain tops. Then the windstorm behind those clouds kicked in. It seems to have blown all our rain clouds out East towards Tahoe. We were left with gusts up to 50 MPH and clear skies. The better to see all the flying branches and debris. Where the vineyards around here were covered with lovely yellow leaves, now they are stripped bare by the wind and those leaves are swirling around in mini-cyclones. Our windstorm has already taken out a few trees, and the winds are expected to last all night and through to mid-morning Friday. As of this afternoon, we’d already had some trees down. Including a willow along the mini-waterfall above Lake Charles. That was fun to take out as it had been sitting in a nice soupy swamp of mud from our latest rain.

digging stumps

Just look how fun farm work can be. Sometimes you get to dig stumps out of a marsh.

Hey, it's loads of fun! See, DJ's smiling.

Hey, it’s loads of fun! See, DJ’s smiling.

Pat, Pomo Indian

Pat wasn’t so sure once the cold blew in. Hey, Pat! As our First Nation representative, shouldn’t you be at one with the environment?

Once it got dark, the wind really picked up — downing power lines and blowing out a large plate glass window in a restaurant in town. It’s too dark to see what state the ranch is in, but driving back in from town, the road was littered with branches and leaves. As I pulled in the gate, I thought I saw the plastic covering the guys had carefully put over a dirt pile go sailing away out across the pasture. Now I’m hunkering down in the living loft in the barn listening to the wind howling. Tomorrow is sure going to be interesting.