Wild ride

First, my apologies for it being some time since my last post. The storm of a week ago got my computer modem and it has taken a bit of time to get that resolved.

As this blog's title infers, we have had a wild ride. All the weather forecasts were for extreme storms last Wednesday and we were not disappointed. The severe weather moved in around 7PM just in time to preempt a special I had so very much wanted to watch on ABC, "The Last Lecture." Fortunately, I had strongly encouraged a friend in Memphis to watch it and, because she had plans for the evening, she recorded it so I will get to see it eventually. With Channel 5 and weatherman Garrett Lewis, I settled in to watch the storms. The super cells were marching out of Oklahoma and over Ft. Smith dropping tennis ball size hail, shattering windows on cars and buildings, and obliterating siding on homes. These are the nights you don't go to bed here. Instead, you doze on the couch with one eye on the TV to see where the storms are. Shortly after midnight, it was our turn for the supercell. I watched as it moved steadily straight toward us and when Garret said, "People in Paris should be moving to the interior rooms now" I headed to my chosen spot to ride it out.

Living in a century old home creates a safety issue when it comes to storms. Yes, the house is solid as a rock being made of much larger timber than today's lumber. However, the floorplans of that time didn't include interior rooms. All rooms have windows and an exterior wall. There is hall upstairs but you are told to take cover on ground floors since the roof may depart. The downstairs choices include the space under the stairs and the half bath beside the back door. I opted for the half bath although it does have a 3' exterior wall. With old homes, storage space is even more rare than interior rooms so the space under the stairs is carefully packed full for optimization of all available space. Yes, I could have moved it all out but I also have a little voice in my head that really wanted to go to the bathroom for protection. Somewhere in my heart, I could see the stairs falling on me and, if there were a horrendous tornado to take out the house, I felt I wanted to be closer to the edge so the entire house would not fall on me.

My two little house mates, Prissy and Ruffles, and I gathered up the pillows, blankets, flash light, and cell phone. We were nestled in just in time when the wind started rattling the windows. Within a few minutes, I heard the hail hit but it only lasted a few minutes and it didn't sound like it was very large. I sat there imagining what the horses and other livestock were doing through the storm. I had terrible fears for the horses in the barn in case the storm was severe enough to destroy the barn. I had thought that, if it held up, they were the fortunate ones but was mindful that it could go either way. I was confident that the hens were on their roosts so there was little concern for them. I envisioned the sheep being under the large trees where the customarily spend the nights and, with the massive fleece coats, were the most cushioned from any pounding hail. The goats were in their house and I had locked the new calf up in the big red barn. Everyone was pretty well sheltered other than the horses in the fields and they could go to the woods. I even took time to ponder what it was doing to all the beautiful spring flowers. The daffodils were mostly spent but the tulips were just approaching full bloom along with so many other wonderful plants.

The lightening was almost constant such that the kitchen seemed to have a light on throughout the storm. It also was the best indicator as to when the storm passed. The rains continued most of the night but the relentless lightening was only associated with the heart of the storm. Once it subsided, I ventured from my security nest. Of course I lost my DirecTV signal throughout the storm and it didn't return for quite a while after the severe weather passed. Heavy rain will block the signal which is what we had so I went to bed with a prayer of thanks.

Morning light allowed me to look for damage but there was none to be found. All seemed right with the world other than the enormous waterways racing across the pastures. My farm had become lake front property over night which also told me that I was living on an island once again. I call it an island because, when we have severe rain like we have had twice this spring thus far, the streams that cross Short Mountain Road on each end become flooded and the road is covered with up to several feet of water. My rule of thumb is if I can see water on the Corp land behind me, there is water crossing the road on the east end of Short Mountain Road. If the whole Corp field looks like a lake, there is about 3-4 ft of water. As for the west end of the road, any major rain of several inches over a few hours will produce some flooding but people drive through it. With this rain on such already saturated ground, it too became too deep.

Friends called to check on my and to report that Carbon City Road was closed because of a culvert under the road completely washing away leaving an impassable canyon. Fortunately, it was repaired by Saturday because that is the route I recommend to guest to come to the farm. Now all that remains is to get the county to grade my driveway/road. It technically belongs to the county as an old county road that used to go through but it was all abandoned other than the portion that comes to my front yard. The runoff from Short Mountain Road decided that it needed to meander my driveway and render several large ruts. I will be the squeaky wheel to get that fixed.

At long last we have a weather forecast that is free of storms. With the strong winds of the past few days, the ground is drying and I have high hopes to finally get to order the concrete for the barn. I could not proceed with the building of the tack room and such for the past two months because of the multiple rains per week we have had. I also hope to finally get the new fencing started. Moreover, I also dream of having the ground dry enough to get the garden plowed and planted. It looks like it will be a very busy week.