This, That & The Weather

Rain, rain, go away!

Yesterday (Saturday) was beautiful though the days before were filled with heavy rains, flash flooding, severe thunderstorms, hail and damaging winds. They say the weather we are having is typical for this time of year, that May and June are normally the wettest months for Southwest Missouri. Seems we are stuck in an unstable weather pattern that is producing heavy rains and severe weather. I do wish we would become un-stuck from it. We have been very blessed that the worst of the severe weather has gone around us.

The access road/drive way washed out again. Weather permitting it will be the first of the week before anything can be repaired. The straight-line winds that came through (they say the winds reached between 50-60 miles an hour and in some places 80 mph) took down two large trees in the east pasture. One broke in half, luckily not landing on the fence as of yet. The top half is resting tangled in the tops of trees above the fence line. Waiting for the road to be passable in order to have BIL come cut it down. The other fallen tree downed a couple smaller ones that were in its landing path. The goats are enjoying having access to the green leafy branches.

The yard is littered with leaves, twigs, branches and limbs. Anything that was not attached or anchored down was blown around and scattered about. The two tarpaulins we used as wind breaks over the doors of the smaller shelters blew off. I still have yet to find the throw rugs I had drying on the clothesline before the storm hit. I could kick myself for not remembering to bring them in. I really can’t believe I forgot about them. No telling where they blew off to. I even walked the neighbor’s property when the weather cleared looking for the rugs. Couldn’t have been just the bath rugs or the rubber backed throw rugs used by the doors, nope these were my one of kind hand braided rag rugs. Sigh :-(.
One afternoon after the worst of the days weather had passed we lost electric and telephone for roughly 6 hours. Thank goodness my son has his new fangled phone which for some reason will let him send and receive text out here in the boonies even when he can’t call out. (Our cell service doesn’t and never has worked down here in the valley.) Knowing the better half would call home to check in, that he would worry if not able to reach us after so long a period of time I ask Son to text Sister who is 300 miles away to have her call the better half that was 800 miles away to update him on things at home. The miracles of modern technology, don’t ya know.

The satellite we expect to and it’s a given will go out for hours during overcast cloudy days. We really need to invest in one of the new digital antennas to pick up off air channels just to keep abreast of the weather situations. One day even my little standby Am/Fm radio could not pick up any stations.

This weeks forecast says we may experience more of the same type of weather.

With the weather being as it was I didn’t manage to accomplish much out of doors. The yard is half mown, weeds not touched and pens not raked (rather hard to rake mud) and work on the skirting table came to a halt.

Still on baby watch. I assumed that the dairy girls would decide to kid during the stormy gully washer weather. Thankfully no. June 9th was 150 days after being exposed to the buck. They were with him for 2 months so we have a rather wide window for kidding. Really could be just anytime now. Isabella’s ligaments are gone; her udder is filling so we are guess-timating that she will kid first, within a week if not sooner. Barb is such a hard one to judge. Again this year in the beginning she showed signs of being bred, her ever expanding mid section, cranky attitude, her udder showed just a hint of change. Now like last year the closer we get to kidding time she almost seems not bred. No loose ligaments, slimming down through her mid section (could be babies rearranging themselves), no notable change in her udder (could be one to wait until the last minute). If I were a betting woman I would bet she really didn’t take. She also could have settled later than Isabella who knows, we will just have to wait and see.

This year the peahens came of age. The girls brought up 8 new peachicks. This is good if we can successfully round them up before any predators have their way. We have 4 buyers on the waiting list.

With dear son home and asking for dishes and treats he hasn’t had Mom around to make for him in the last 10 years, these rainy days are excellent for puttering around in the kitchen. I normally don’t make many desserts, don’t have many sweets or snacks on hand either. That has changed a bit since his arrival. It actually surprises and amuses me in what dear son comes up craving…Rice Krispie treats, Minute (sometimes called No Bake) cookies, my quick peach cobbler, blonde brownies (he is not a big fan of chocolate), strawberry shortcake. His sweet tooth has put dessert back on the menu. Yep, gained a few pounds since he has been home. ;-)

Looks like another storm is brewing, so I best unplug. Til next time…have a good one.