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.

Night Out!

 

So my good friends/neighbors had an opportunity for a planned night of celebration out and an overnight in another city. Situations changed and the Grandma that was scheduled wasn't able to come and stay with the kids.

Lauren ran an idea past me and I jumped at the chance of hanging out with the kids. Their 12 yr old has been vaccinated and the other two have been following the standard Covid precautions. Lauren teaches children in Wuhan China English as a Second Language. To say that she has insight on Covid 19, is an understatement. 

Okay. I will leave the Covid issue out of it from here on in.

The result was that I agreed to come up and spend the evening and sleep over while they were gone. Having a responsible adult around? A must in our minds. And besides, Rich goes to bed early and sleeps until about 8 or 9 anyway. 

Lauren will be the one watching after Rich in a couple of weeks when I go see my son Eddie. 

First thing Allie asked was 'Can we go buggin'? I jumped at the chance and we went up the road peering at different plants looking for crab spiders, moths, and various insects.

We didn't get far before the rains came. But we did find a few insects. 

Not the best shots, but fun anyway. Always more fun with a sharp eyed youngster along.

The brown marmorated Stink Bug is below. I have no idea why it liked the bird poop. 

This was a Little Sulfur according to the common name. The scientific name is Eurema Lisa. I think that is a really cute name. It wouldn't stay still and moved a lot as the raindrops hit it. I tried to get its face which appears to be green with tiny black eyes?
It sure was a challenge.

I can imagine it having something to say in the above photo.

I brought an adult coloring book that I'd found in my MIL's belongings and the two youngest kids sat down at the counter and we proceeded to chat and to color.

The Tween wasn't into that and politely excused himself to do other things in his room. 

Eventually it stopped raining and the kids asked to go out to their playground and play. They showed me how to use Alexa to play music and I colored while they did their thing. It felt strange asking Alexa to play songs for me, eventually I just opened Pandora and let the music flow while I colored.

I viewed Allie's Bug/Insect collection and admired it. She really does love insects and hopes to become an entomologist. 

The youngest treated me to some of his practice songs on his piano. 

The pups needed more attention from me than the kids. I gave out many belly rubs and Stella was even kind enough to snooze with me on the couch.

About 4 am the storms rolled in and dumped inches of rain in a very short time. Thunder rolled and rumbled. Stella moved closer to me. My smart phone said that 4 to 6 inches was expected out of this downpour and to watch for water over the road. 

I got up and finished coloring my picture and then as the storm subsided I went back to sleep with Stella.

By 8, all the kids were up and had something to eat. The oldest handed me some Kringle and said I should take some to Rich. I texted mom and dad to let them know things were all good and was it okay for me to go down the driveway?

I'd called and talked with Rich, he was fine. But I was dying for a cup of coffee. 

The folks said I was good to go and they were on their way home.

Huh.

My big night out.

I really did have a good time!

Stella:

...and Basil...

Total rainfall in our was 2 3/4. It rained lightly on and off the rest of the day which was exactly what we needed.