Hail, Yes? Oh, Hail No!

After one of the driest summers on record, we received a little rain one night last week. And by a little rain, I mean about 3/4 inch about a ten minute time span.

Accompanied by hail. Ping pong ball sized hail.

Ping. Pong. Ball. Sized. Hail.

Or maybe I should say table tennis ball sized hail.

Glad I wasn't outside when the hail hit. I could have severely concussed myself.

To be honest, we had no idea that a storm was raging at our house because we weren't home.

My cousin, Hannah, visited my family for a few days last week. I absolutely loved having her here. She's young, she's fun, she's beautiful, and she didn't destroy my house. In short, Hannah is the perfect house guest.

As per her request, we ate dinner one night at the local pizza phenomenon. I didn't eat pizza.

Instead, I got a salad because I'm like, such a health nut. I'm all up in healthy eating's business. Yep. That's me. Miss Healthy.

Okay, okay. I'm jiggly. And I don't like it one bit. That's why I got the salad. But the salads are wonderful. Really. I didn't miss eating the pizza like, at all. That may be because (hypothetically speaking) I may have had a slice.

Or two.

Hypothetically.

Ahem, moving on.

Upon our arrival home, we saw this on the front porch:

Looks like bits of melting snow, but it's actually hail. This is what was left of the ping pong ball sized hail.

Here's a fun nugget for you: Ping pong ball sized hail will shred a window screen. Ta da!

Sadly, the hail severely damaged the already struggling garden. In early August, the sweet corn isn't supposed to be brown with shredded leaves. That would be the hail's fault.

The hail actually bruised the corn kernels inside the layers of the husk. That was bad enough, but it did terrible things to the melons.

Terrible, brutal, unmentionable things to the melons, which I will now mention to you.

First off, the hail killed the baby watermelons. Killed them right in their sleep.

The hailstorm injured the cantaloupes so much that they won't survive.

But the worst offense of all was to the ripe watermelon. The hailstones popped the ripened watermelon open like a pinprick to an overinflated balloon.

In short, the melons burst right open in a gory mess.

WARNING: The next images are graphic in nature and they depict murdered watermelons. Proceed with caution.

Avert your eyes if you must. It's a pretty barbaric scene that is played out over and over again in the garden.

The only item to survive the storm (besides a few brave green tomatoes) were the sunflowers. They came out alive and are doing well.

They are so pretty. Pin It Now!