and again, and again, and again! (Thank you Lou Christie – 1965)
This week Aunt Jeanette writes:
When things happen, many times I automatically make a connection to song lyrics or book titles. That is what happened when our middle son sent me this picture. Now, once more, you need some background information.
On Father’s Day 2001, our house was struck by lightning. Instead of striking the two tall trees close to our house or the lightning rods on the house, Mother Nature chose to bypass those obvious targets and hit the house. To make a long story short, it took several hours for the smoldering wood and insulation to start the actual fire in an upstairs bedroom closet. The firemen battled the blaze all through the night and managed to save our home. We moved out, taking what was left with us, and basically rebuilt our house that summer. We moved back in the following fall and made it ‘home’ once more. Chalk up one more exciting learning experience – one that left me terrified of lightning for many years.
Our first thunderstorm of the season arrived with a BANG a few Sunday mornings ago. My first thought was, “How nice to wake up to thunder and the sound of rain on the roof.” There was some lightning, but nothing that alarmed me. However, our middle son and his family who live a mile south of us, heard a loud crack of thunder early that morning – so loud it awakened all four of them. Figuring it was just a normal spring storm they went on with their usual activities. Megan, Darren’s wife, was outside in the yard Monday. She noticed this huge pine tree in their yard looked different than it normally did. That loud crack they heard Sunday morning had been lightning striking the tree. I know you can’t see the small details in the picture, but it is fascinating to see where the lightning struck, jumped to another branch, and then traveled down the trunk.
Now you may be thinking we have a big red X on the Edgar, Neb., area that says, “Hit us! Hit us!” We survived two tornadoes and a house fire in the summer of 2001. We have been through numerous hail and windstorms since then. We endured two tornadoes last summer and hail that wiped out the majority of our crops. The weatherman is predicting our first severe storms of the season for Wednesday. I think I will start crossing my fingers now and hoping the storms miss us this year!
Until we walk again …
Bayer CropScience has a long history of commitment to pollinator health and honey bees in particular and the new North American Bee Care Center builds on that foundation. 
Mark Schneid, who works on the turf and ornamental side of the Bayer business, says the center is the culmination of Bayer’s 25 years of bee health work with a desire to make a difference in the future, “so that we have sustainable agriculture, sustainable landscape, and sustainable and healthy pollinator partners.”
