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.

Friday, May 15, 2009

And the Rains Came Down.....

House just outside of the town I work in. This entire valley was flooded, when normally there is a little trickle creek that runs just to the right in the picture. This was about two hours after the storm left the area. I had never seen this house flood.


This is the Niangua River--not at full flood level yet, but overflowing it's banks. I'm sure it got much higher overnight, as I could hear it roaring from the house. (I live in a horseshoe bend area of the river, but it's about a mile and half from my house).

My Mom took this picture out their backdoor. This is their back yard, which is a slight slope and by no means a 'low water' area. There was a pretty good river running downhill.

This weekend is the Fiber Fest--the truck is loaded and I think I'm ready.... I hope it will be a successful weekend. It's been a busy week, trying to get all the fiber and promotional items ready.

It's suppose to rain tonight--maybe more violent storms, but I hope not. It is calling for rain in the early a.m. tomorrow and cool temperatures in the 60s. Fortunately the event is located under livestock pavilions, so that helps immensely.

I mentioned before that we had a crazy storm system move through last Friday. It came mid-morning and lasted for what seemed hours, but was more like 45 minutes. This particular storm type even has a name---Derecho. It's described as 'a long lived thunderstorm induced windstorm'...really. What it looked like was a mini hurricane, with rain and wind swirling and blowing every which way. The storm that blew in on Friday caused wide spread wind damage, with an estimated 17 tornado reports, straight wind and damaging hail. One person was killed near here when he and his wife were sucked out of their home and thrown into a field.

I was at work when it hit, and the sirens went off. We grabbed our purses, radio, flashlight and other worthy things and trundled off to an inner room located on the lower floor. Sadly we weren't in a hurry and even after landing in the 'safe' room, we roamed about looking out windows, and in my case procuring a better radio from the office--and while at it setting up the copier to run 500 more copies. Just in case we didn't get wiped out by the tornado. Only later did we realize how severe the storms were. I had my camera with me but did not even think to take pictures of the wind and rain and the flood waters encroaching on the office behind ours. The sirens went on and on and on. As in the last time the sirens went off, we had people 'wander in' from off the streets to wait out the storm with us.

On the way home I snapped a couple of pictures but they aren't that impressive. We had about 3 to 3.5 inches of rain in about 45 minutes. I have not 'in all my born days' as they say, seen the water rise that fast. There were rivers in the roads, lakes in the housing developments, water where there had never been flood problems before. It was freaky.

Buzzards drying out
I was very thankful that we all made it through the storms, as well as having no property damage. It looked like I had a little 'river run through' my breezeway and some overflow into the kitchen, but it was minor.


When I got home I noticed something 'funny' about the empty house across the street. At first I thought the chimney had been damaged, but a closer inspection showed it was two vultures or buzzards perched on the chimney. I suppose they were trying to dry out, but I have a little hope that they may be nesting in one of the abandoned buildings. That would be pretty cool.

In the evening I started to get something from the cloths hamper and noticed a dark blob on the arm of my office chair. Hmmm...that sure looks like a toad. And it was! I'm not sure how it got in, but I figure it had something to do with all the rain and flooding confuing the little critter. I threw a little rag over it and turned it outside. No house toads, please.

Stranded Toad

The ground is super spongy and soft here and hasn't had a chance to dry out. I had to laugh when I saw on the news tonight that we are going to have an 'extended dry period'....all of three days long that is.

Have a great weekend!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Those flood and river pics are pretty impressive! Glad to hear you & your home/animals are fine, your parents too! I hope your Fiber Feast is successful...I am going to one next weekend and hoping to come back with some impression and ideas:)

Michelle said...

Would ya please tell the weather to calm down (and not heat up too much) before we come in early June?

Tonia said...

That House Is next to the creek that flooded the farm here!!! We are on the opposite side of 64 and over the hill some... Apparently I just didnt pay attention to your profile But I grew up in this area and When You showed the river I clicked it to enlarge the County sign I was Like I know that county!! Thats just to crazy.. I need to pay more attention... Lol

Tonia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tonia said...

Oh and that house has flooded before it did last year when we got 6 inches of rain in 24 hours and I remember when they built it most of the old timers around said it was a bad idea and it has flooded at least 2-3 other times that I know of.. It was not a good place for a house. I have seen it flood thru there and be nothing but water all thru that area over the main road and everything... What was bad was one year it was abundant hay and they had it all baled and getting ready to pick it up the next day it rained and flooded the field next to that house and washed that hay down under the bridge and it was a mess.. Thats been years ago though!

Vicki Lane said...

Glad you weren't swept away! Over her in NC we had 2 and a half inches of rain on Thursday night and that seemed like a gracious plenty!

Love the picture of the buzzards! And the house toad!

Tammy said...

Kristi,hope you have a blast at the fiber event! They are very educational and are a great place for new ideas.
Michelle, hey, I'll work on that! ha...we would love to have some stable weather and NOT that stinky humid stuff. Email me when you plan to come down. Joplin is even further away than Springfield though, so not sure what we can work out. Tonia--I knew you lived around close but now I know where! I had pieced some of it together from your blog. I've heard the house in the flood had gotten it before, but I guess it's always happened after I went by from work-this was the first time I saw it flood. I remember the hay bale incident, that was pretty bad.
Vicki, I guess it's still pretty dry your way? We've been 'blessed' with allot of moisture this Spring, and I am grateful, just wish for less drama. ha
Tammy