Wet Weather

3:30 am on Wednesday...

Hannah started to growl and do some quiet 'woofing'. She was standing at the foot of the bed looking out the window.

I woke up and was surprised to see lightening and heard thunder. I grabbed my cell phone and checked the radar and the weather.

Thunderstorm warning with hail was expected shortly. I ran outside and moved my car into the machine shed.

After day break, I moved the car back out. The weather seemed to have passed over.

Two hours later? I moved the car back into the shed. Another line of heavy storms were on the way.

The dogs and I enjoyed some time on the porch with the cooler temps that the storms temporarily brought.

I had to deal with some little dog that once again tried to lick open her incision. She went out to go do her morning business and ended up chasing a rabbit through the mud with her pink shirt on. 

I grabbed Charlie's Hawaiian shirt [he used to wear that shirt when visiting nursing homes]. 

Charlie didn't care as he is not a dog who likes dog clothes.

She is darned cute with it on and doesn't seem to mind it at all.

I just want her to heal up and we can get back to our normal exciting life.

It was still muggy and humid, but I went to Kristi's. I wore shorts and decided to ride bareback. I found a blanket in my totes of horse blankets that Kristi really liked. Since I had one for Rich and one for me, I gave her this flag blanket. It looks amazing on her Black Bay horse.

Since we'd had so much rain we decided to ride along the dead end road to one of her pastures. I don't often try to take any photos while riding unless I have my point and shoot camera along. I don't like messing with the cell phone while riding. Especially bareback.

Halfway around the field Johnny was surprised by something and leapt sideways in a spook. Sunshine jumped to her left to avoid being bumped into. I caught some air over her back and amazingly settled where I was supposed to be.

The incident lasted less than a second and we humans looked at each other with surprise while our mounts just moseyed along as if nothing had occurred. What caused his momentary spook? We won't know but we were down in a field next to the forest.

I laughed and told Kristi that the ground there was soft anyway and I was riding a short mule. 

Despite the glitch, we had a nice quiet ride that felt so good. 

When I got home I found that I'd gotten a surprise package.....

How lucky can I be that I got a visit from a very good blogging friend!

Say hello to my friend Mary. She even brought a bench along so we could visit in comfort.

Thursday:

Overnight we had some rain. Okay, that is an understatement. By 6am we had 4 inches of rain, by 8am we had 5 inches.

The Sheriff just announced that there are roads that have had mudslides on them and that another local highway will be closed soon for water over the road.

Thursday seems to be a good day to stay home and go see what happened in the valley if the rain ever stops today. However, the forecast says that it will rain until some time on Friday.

If this keeps up, I will have to go empty the rain gauge. We are creeping above 5 inches and it is only 9am.

I think the weather

did this on purpose.

This weeks forecast was rain, rain, overcast and more rain. Cold, cold, then switching to warm and muggy and heavy rain with possibilities of 4" of rain with flooding and flash flooding.

I don't get too worried about the flash flooding as it happens and it is over quickly. I don't have the mules in an area where they will be washed away. During times like this I move them to the front pasture where there is little chance of trees falling on the fences... and I can keep an eye on everyone.

So all this week the weather has been either super hot and muggy or it has been raining.

All the rain has prevented me from mowing the yard. Which is a good thing. Bouncing around hurts the upper left ribs. I can walk on the flat and do fine, I can stroll slowly through the woods and do fine. But NO jumping.
The injury is not life threatening, I know that. But it sure is a pain.

I can do stretches and squats, shoulder mobility exercises, and even some gentle twisting.
Vacuuming sucks with the old vacuum cleaner.

So on Wednesday I took a nice long quiet stroll through the woods. I stopped often and watched squirrels, birds, and some deer. I didn't take Charlie and Sven so the walk was slow and easy.
Of course I brought my camera. You know better don't you?

Some shots from the walk.

These were shot with the converted camera. I just added the 'hot' mirror to use it with the regular light spectrum.

It was my regular fence 'check' and I am happy I did it. There was a branch or two down on the lines and I flipped them off. The creek made wonderful sounds that were calming.

I leaned up against a mossy tree and watched down from the bank above.

And I couldn't help but try an infrared shot. The green leaves reflect white and the trees in the distance reflected a slightly different color which enhanced look a bit yellow!

If you look carefully you can see my handiwork in the right side of the shot. It is the fence I rebuilt this spring.

I decided not to let the mules back down into the woods. Rains were predicted for up to 4 inches. Trees tend to fall when the ground is so saturated and I won't put the mules in an area where the fence could come down overnight.
The mules' hooves would just tear up muddy trails and provide more erosion to the ridge road, so they can't go back down until things dry up a bit.

In 2007 and 2016 parts of the creek banks were swept away. Our fence was left hanging in an empty space above the creek.

This morning [Friday] I will have to go down and check the fences again and do a quick check of the middle wooded pasture to make sure it is safe to let the mules out of the winter lot and back into the woods.

South of us there were mudslides and road closures and indeed, they had more than 4 inches of rain.
The weather service says we had only about an inch and a half. I'll have to check our rain gauge.

I have guests this weekend and a busy Saturday with going to the Fair and hiking.
It should be fun.
Part of the Kenosha gang is coming.
And the sun should be shining!