Wednesday.  We woke yesterday we had no (cable) TV and no internet.  We didn't get them back until about 8pm. We are amazed at how that discombobulated us; how much both seem to dominate our lives.  Thankfully, we had power which many people still don't have in the greater Chicago area.  The news said some 100k as of this morning.  We didn't see much damage when we went to the farm market and did our grocery shopping.  The corn in the community garden a couple of blocks away had been flattened but most of the rest was in good shape.  One of the venders at the market quipped that he lived in one county but the wind blew him into the neighboring county.  The farm fields around him had serious damage.  Five tornadoes hit well west of here but the straight-line winds did damage not far away--trees, a barn, a silo, and power lines.

Our gardens came through well.  I had one borage plant I had to tie back upright and I lost the weakest of the scented geraniums.  I was surprised it was flattened because it is in a fairly protected place between the wall of the house and the much larger rosemary plants.  Some of the others were a bit battered but still vigorous.  The beetle trap seems to be working.  It already has about a dozen dead beetles in it.

About a week ago we finished the last pack of blueberries we froze last year.  But the new crop is coming in and we picked up a 20lb box at the farm market.  All of it is frozen with the last two trays ready to package.  Today we have cherries to pit and freeze.  We picked up another five +/- lbs to go with the two-and-a-half pounds we bought last week.  I figure we won't have to buy any dried fruit over this next winter.  Since we paid about $1.50/lb for the blueberries and $2.50/lb for the cherries I think we saved money on that.  We like fruit in our cereals and love blueberry pancakes, muffins and syrup on our cheesecake.  We will do the same when the peaches and apples come in.

Update:  we finished packaging the blueberries, splitting/pitting the cherries which are freezing now and I have a quart of green beans fermenting.  I am trying a recipe for green beans I found on line which includes oregano, marjoram, thyme, rosemary and garlic in the jar with the green beans and brine.  Should be interesting.

I can't add anything to Golem XIV's post.  He says what we have said here for sometime:  the financial and commercial elites have no loyalty to place or people and their only god is MONEY.