On August 26 a severe weather system came through this part of Saskatchewan.  There were tornado  touch downs in the area, but fortunately not right here.  The sky turned a strange dark coulor ... a darker version of the background of this page, with a strange yellow light  in some parts of the sky.  I tried to hang up my cap and could not even see the hat hook, it was so dark.  Then the loud popping sounds, like wood breaking or  small explosions.  The wind was severe but what came was hail stones at least two inches in diameter.  When they hit the water of the pond the water plumes that were pushed up were about 10 to 12 feet high.  Fortunately they were coming down at only a slight angle so my windows did not get broken.  That lasted about a minute and then was fiollowed by hail about one inch in diameter.  It shredded my gazebo cover and made short work of a heavy duty tarp that I had covering my wood pile.  The power went off as well and was off for 3.5 hours.  There were still piles of the hailstones  a few iches thick at 6:30 in the evening.  I could not get any photos of the big stuff coming down.  it would have been total recklessness to try to go outside at that time.  Those balls of ice could kill or do serious damge depending on where you got hit.  The damage to my apple crop and garden are not significant when compared to  the damage done to others by the actual tornado.  Here are a few images that I did take after the storm had passed.

Thunderbird came over and showed its power.  I am grateful that we were kept safe.