Like a walk through the country side living on a small farm is full of daily surprises, sometimes wonderful and amazing, and other times puzzling and sad. I hope you will walk with me as I live out my dream of living on this tiny farm. You will come to know the dogs, cats, Shetland sheep and chickens that make up this farm and what goes into keeping them happy and healthy. Come and join the journey with me.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Tornados, Mud & Rain


That's why they call 'em muck boots!

We've had rain here and lots of it. The best I can figure is around five inches the last week. Thankfully we've not had the extreme flooding that some areas have had though. After the last couple of years of near drought conditions, I'm happy for the rain. It has caused some havoc with haying, but then what else is new? Doesn't everything??

The mud and muck have been awful. In fact there are places I quickly realize I shouldn't go when my trusty muck boots sink deep in the mud.... deeper than they boots. Finally yesterday the sun came out after 4 or 5 days of cloudy rainy weather. I can almost hear the grass growing...or maybe that's wishful thinking. Today is another sunny day, and truthfully it will be nice to see some of this mud recede.

My garden has become a weedy jungle with monstrous tomato plants.

Saturday I went to the 'big city' to stock up on dog/cat food and bum around some of the stores I don't often get to. I ended the tour by going to a large flea market. This place is huge and kinda junky, but has lots and lots of good stuff and great prices. It also isn't air conditioned, but has fans strategically placed so you can stop in certain booths and let the sweat blow dry off you. As I was almost done, and browsing through the last booths, I heard what I thought were the storm sirens. Well, I'm not a city girl, but they sure sounded like the sirens. I looked around. No one looked concerned. The people at the counter were busily helping customers, with nary a look outside. Hmmm... I thought.... Soon I was up at the counter and heard more concern around me--was it a test? Must be a test. Would they test on a Saturday? Finally some resourceful gentleman (not the owners I might add) called someone and yes, indeedy, it was the storm sirens. And no it was not a test! Uh oh. Remarkably, the people at the counter and nearby customers remained unconcerned. I was a bit worried. The lady helping me was sooo slow... I finally started pulling tags off for her, to get her to hurry along. By now the sirens had stopped, but as I went outside I scanned the sky closely. There were some ominous clouds but nothing too threatening. I turned on the radio. Nothing. Then a short blurb on the radio. Something like 'oh yeah, there is a tornado warning, better take shelter'. Sheesh. I ended up calling my Mom to see if she had heard anything while I hit the road for home. Once I got on the highway I could see very dark and scary clouds off to my west. By then the radio people had woken up and were posting the path of the storm. It was for the most part all off to the west, although we did get more rain from it. It also was behind me and later caused some torrential rains in the towns I passed through. I was fortunate though and didn't have to deal with anything more than some temporary fear and concern about what was going on. Never is it dull.

Enjoying the sunshine, but not the humidity! ;-)

1 comment:

The Frugal Shrink said...

My sources tell me that they set off the sirens in "the big city" ALL the time, little storm or big. So that may be why no one seemed concerned.