My Momma said ....

Don't play in the rain!

I don't think I listened to my Mother.
I went out between huge downpours to give the mules some dry hay and check on the creek.

The creek was up a bit but not flooding. That would occur overnight with another 2 inches of hard rain. The Kickapoo is out of its banks today but our stream wasn't.

I wanted to take the little waterproof camera out in the mists and explore. Plus I wanted to see how the Mark iii performed in low light.

It did nicely. And it was rather nice not to have to carry a tripod or put on an ND filter.

As I made my way back up out of the valley and headed towards home, the next front started to rumble in.

We had a lot of thunder and lightning with very heavy downpours.

After the Pres Debate, I let Charlie outside and stood on the porch. 

Not only was the rain coming down hard, but there was an eerie fog oozing through the pasture.

I wasn't going out to play in the fog. I'd wait to do that another day.

Mom never said anything about fog...

Just wicked weather

Wednesday was neat we had a snowstorm of sorts and I spent the day just cleaning the house and rearranging things. I don't have a big house so it didn't take all day.
Charlie and I took a small walk around the pastures early and to the creek just to look around. I am always amazed by how green it is in the creek bottom.

Note that Charlie is wearing his 'beeper' collar. He is an avid rabbit hunter

and a demon on squirrels and deer tracks. Well,

he thinks he is. He does still once in a while

catch a luscious scent and take off on the

run.

However one beep distracts him and he races back to 

me.

Thursday was quiet also.

I prepped the lasagna and then started thinking about redecorating for Christmas. I gathered my sticks together and did some experiments with glue and Epsom salts.

Epsom salt and glue on 

a grape vine twist.

Dried Espom salt on a branch.

The real deal. Ice on branches in the woods!

It was messy, but it kept me occupied.

Yesterday morning after chores I decided to take Charlie up the road for a walk and to gather the mail. I dressed in orange and that awful safety green/yellow vest I have. I was staying on the road and I didn't expect the city boy hunters to be out as early as I was.

Charlie on rabbit track. 

He is zoned in.

My neighbor's field corn.

It has not been a good year for 

farmers.

The weather has been relentless. I had to move Little Richard from his pen to a stall inside as there was not a dry spot in his paddock to be had. He was standing with two hooves crowded into a large feed pan when I went to get him.

Make no doubt about it. He is loving the accommodations.

The photo above is the view from the porch. Rain/snow/sleet/freezing rain, and then rinse and repeat. The mules have done well as they have places that are in the woods out of the wind and where the ground is solid.

I have been taking their hay to the round bale feeders to keep them from stomping it into the ground.

Normally I would be out in this weather, but I've seen a few hunters across the way and have heard shooting even in this crap weather. 

I decided to spend the rest of the day deciding how to decorate.

This year there is no tree. This year there is no Christmas Chair. I've decided to see what I can come up with that is not the same as what has been done before.

Out came the old wood boxes, the little nesting box, toys...stuffed toys, beads, fairy lights...and ribbons. 

I needed to occupy myself on such a dreary ugly day. Charlie supervised when he wasn't napping.

Stay tuned for my crazy new ideas for decorating. As always, it is a constant work in progress.

Wicked Wicked Weather

And it is not letting up!

The winds are howling and roaring above the house in the trees making hollow resounding noises above me. I can see a birch tree across the way in the meadow swaying hard. I imagine if the trees had been full of leaves many of them would be losing branches.

Yesterday it started with thunderstorms, lightening, and 3 rounds of hail.

The mules headed for the woods after the hail started...

Before 10 am yesterday, about 2 inches of hard rain fell. There was too much lightening to walk down to the creek and watch the water rage down the bottoms.

I could see the water rushing down the side of the driveway.

It let up in the middle of the day. There was enough time to get Charlie out for a quick walk in the sodden grass before the winds and more thunderstorms came marching across the land.

All night the winds howled and rain/sleet sliced sideways in the east winds.

I woke up periodically to listen to the roaring noises above us and wondered what it would be like to listen to it on the ridges. Or for that matter, to be in it on the ridges.
Wind gusts are being recorded at 37 to 51 mph. Sustained winds at 22.

It wasn't quite so bad when I did chores this morning. No one looked cold, all the animals had plenty of hay to eat and could get out of the worst of the weather. Some of the Dexter cattle were laying in the fodder bale pile chewing their cud as if they didn't have a worry in the world.

I decided to do some Still Life photography. The light coming in through the south windows was very subdued yet it would work if I used a white sheet to shoot against.

Our photography group is working on Lines and Shadows this week. I stood a vase of 'sea glass' that I'd collected with my Kenosha Gang folks on an old night stand. I tossed an old white sheet on it and used a chair to hold up the fabric behind the vase.

Of course that wasn't the only shot. If I set up for one shot, I generally do more.

Paint time:

I dug out the brushes two days ago with the intent of painting an old small vanity that we took out during remodeling two years ago. I desperately needed a piece of open backed furniture to put the WiFi and phone hook ups in. I took the old vanity and cleaned it up. 

When the weather breaks I will paint it and add something inside it for storage, but for now the ugly electronics are no longer sitting on the floor.

It is a bit tacky looking. But it will work for now until I can what I want for that corner to keep everything organized. I would paint it now, but Charlie is a bit too willing to help on these projects.

So until I can do it outside, I guess it will be in the corner hiding all those luscious looking cords from Charlie's teeth.

It actually helps organize a few things for right now until I get the trim on the wood in the eating area. It holds the phone, the calendar...and ... 

well here it is...

What I have in mind though is another thing entirely!

Something like ... this....

So I got out my old cracked cup and saucer and messed around some with the sea glass.

I took a few shots and tried a few things.

Oh ... How did this happen? Somehow I never feel like I've done justice to Still Life unless I put something odd into the photo.

Star Wars Figurine/Sugar/Coffee Cup/Spoon

Soldiers and Ponies

Okay, they really don't go together at all! But over the years, I've accumulated some odd things from the children I know.

Creepy Baby and Friends

I think I'm going to grab a few more things from my 'toy' basket and see what I can do to brighten this wicked dreary day.

And let the wicked weather do as it wishes outside.

I have water in my Outhouse Basement!

Well...
I do.

July 19th started out innocent enough with a beautiful incredible sunrise. I went to the ridge and enjoyed a brief flash of colors.

I drove to Black Bottom Creek and the clouds rolled in darkening the morning light.
So I should have heeded the old saying.
Red sky at Dawn
Sailors take Warning...

The sky had turned an incredible red before I got to the ridge.

And the saying proved very true.

This was after the hard winds of perhaps 70 miles an hour raged through with 1.5" of rain in less than an hour.
However the sunset was stunning.

I received a warning on the Smarty Phone saying that more severe storms were on their way.

So I made a quick check of the fences and animals. The mules had gone down into the hollow and were fine. No trees were across the fences and the animals were quiet.

Then the next round came. And the NOAA noted that it would be a long night of heavy storms with heavy rain and lots of lightening.
They were not kidding.

The hail hit at about 3:30 in the morning. I'd given up sleep by then. I worried about the animals and wondered if the heavy rains would wash out the creek again.

I started to chore and noticed there were some limbs down and it appeared that a tree was over on the fence.
We had sort of expected something like that.
So I went to the outhouse which also serves as my storage for my nippers and machete.
I grabbed the nippers then glanced down into the hole.
It was filled with water.
The rain had come so hard and so fast that it ran down the hill from above and had come into the outhouse hole.
I shrugged.

This looked like a job for a chainsaw.

I did chores and checked quickly on the rest of the animals. They were all just fine.

The garden looked like a mess but as of this morning the corn seems to be recovering and didn't suffer too much damage from the hail.

We were lucky. In McGregor Iowa a tornado had come through with the first storm and tore up that little historic town. The storm raged across the river and winds tore up Prairie Du Chein. So we were lucky.

The total rain fall for our place in 24 hours was 6.10 inches.

We finished up the day and have started to make preparations for the next round of storms.
Heavy rains, flash flooding, hail, and high winds.

Yeah. And there is still water in my outhouse 'basement'.