From the ArcaMax Publishing, Recipes Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/recipes/s-355359-362984
The storm raged on for what seemed like an eternity. The wind howled
and the rain pelted the house sideways and, every few minutes, there
would be a tremendous gust of wind that would shake the house. The
horizontal rain was followed by a barrage of hail that sounded like
marbles being flung against the house. The lightening and thunder was
constant and reached a fever pitch as the storm concentrated directly
above our neighborhood.
Before too long, but not soon enough, the storm began to calm and then
died down. It continued to rain for some time after the storm had
passed but the wind became much more manageable and the thunder and
lightening continued to move away from us.
As soon as the rain slowed to a mere sprinkle, I went out my front
door to survey the damage to my yard and neighborhood. There were a
number of trees down and tree limbs and leaves littered the ground. I
noticed a few trash cans and other yard type stuff had been blown
around the place and there were still little piles of hail here and
there. Then I went into my back yard to see how it had faired.
Again, there were limbs large and small down everywhere and the grass
was covered with a layer of leaves. I could sense immediately that
something was wrong but the yard was so messed up that it took me a
minute to get my bearings. Then, it hit me. The four foot tall
tomato garden was gone!!! The garden that I had worked so hard to
protect, with chicken wire fences, a chicken wire roof and large logs
all around to prevent the invasion of the drunk muskrats (they had
been indulging in the fermented fruit in my orchard and then attacking
the garden with no inhibitions) was no where to be found.
After two blissfully ignorant and completely successful years of
growing tomatoes, I had really worked hard at it this year to protect
the crop. I thought I had finally succeeded in overcoming the
difficulties and I was looking forward to a bumper crop. Now there
wasn't a tomato to be seen. Where had my garden gone?
God Bless America.
Enjoy!