This may not look like a blessing. Where there was once a forest full of pine, sits instead, a dusty, dirty and somewhat barren landscape. In short it’s a mess. Broken up stumps and spindly twisted limbs lying everywhere you look.

We had a windstorm this spring. It blew like a tornado through the farm and out behind, leaving great swathes of timber lying on the ground like wheat. For months we worried about the cows that might have gotten caught in it, with us not having a way to get to them. And then a wildfire came licking at the edge of our mountains this summer, and we held our breath knowing there was so much tinder waiting for it.

But now there are great machines crawling back and forth across our backyard, carrying away load by load of timber, and giving the farm some much needed surplus.

Suddenly the pasture has grown to a whole new size, and the view from the back bench has opened up in a brand new way. Who knew that a windstorm could bring so much change and hope for our farm? What could have been disastrous, and life threatening, has been changed into something good… sound like Someone we know?