Storms aplenty have battered this relic of High Plains homesteading, from wintertime blizzards, to downburst-dumping summertime thunderstorms, to hail-flinging warm-season supercells such as the one in the background (that nearly spawned a tornado earlier). Out in this harsh, unforgiving, dryland agricultural environment, a high fraction of storms that can produce enough rain to make crops worthwhile also are potentially damaging to the same crops, as well as a threat to the structures of those who would plant them. This, therefore, has become livestock country, and expansive ranches long since have consumed smaller parcels pioneered by folks like the presumed builders of this house. What a vast vista they had, as these tempests swept across the shortgrass prairie every spring and summer!
