Severe Sunday Continued and the rain barrel is full

Okay, it's not actually a rain barrel. It's a muck bucket. It's not used as a muck bucket either but a toy for the boss to play with and in, like this morning, when it looked like this:

He was soaked in 3.948 seconds of walkin out the door. The kid just can't leave water or mud alone. Not only was his arms in this bucket up to his elbows but his pants somehow got wet up to his knees, with no mud on them. He had overturned one of the dogs' big water dishes, actually a rubber tub for grain, and used it to stand on to dip his legs into the water.
After the first round of storms yesterday afternoon the roots from the maple all stood on end:

Then around 6 p.m., after there were two warnings of tornadoes, each within 7 miles from our place, the second storm came rollin in. This time we got to see clouds! And it was beautiful!









And it was dark!







We had high winds but not the straight-line winds that folks close to the storm had.

Our winds blew the rain into the louvers of the vents under the eaves of the house. We had some dripping on the stairs and some pooling up in none other than....a light fixture. Yeah, I went to turn the light on over the sink this mornin and it didn't work. It was dark so I didn't even think to look up. At lunch it was dark in the house because of all the cloud cover and I remembered it didn't work so I looked up and saw this:

Very safe. And since the house has been wired a little differently, we have to shut off all the breakers in order to drain this thing. I'll be honest. I'm a little jumpy.
Signing off and thankful to have a somewhat dry but not burned down house!
P.S. After draining that one, we've since found another light fixture in the same condition. This time just half full of rain water.
P.S.S. This has only happened in one other storm in the 7 1/2 years we've lived here.

Severe Sunday

The meteorologists have said that today the storms could be the most severe we've seen yet this season.

Ominous, dark, heavy. Severe. Watches. Warnings. Most of that describes Hoss, otherwise known as JD. I wonder if it has anything to do with the weather because that's exactly the adjectives for the weather outside right now. We've had no sun. None. It's been overcast the whole day with no definition to the clouds. We haven't been able to see the storms roll across the prairie like we usually do witht the huge bright thunderheads.

Yesterday there was a line of storms from just west of OKC, up through Wellington and Winfield, on up through Andover, Augusta, El Dorado and on to KC. At the racetrack last night, the Nascar Truck Series was in progress when they had to call a halt to the race and 30 minutes later a tornado was spotted in that area and went by the track.

Today there have been a handful of tornadoes already to the west of us 'round Greensburg and Pratt and farther south in the panhandle of OK. Our whole state is in a tornado watch with some already in the warnings. The cells today are poppin up farther west and south than they did yesterday, which, when you think of polo, 'man-line-ball', you just have to switch it to 'town-line-storm' and that's how it happens out here. Generally speakin, if the storms are headed in a NE direction and Guymon, OK and Anthony and Harper, KS are lined up in there then we're gonna get hit too.



Definitions of the day:

Hail:half dollar sized, golfball sized

Strong/severe winds: as in 70-75 mph, tornadic

Lightning: cloud to ground, like the one that just hit 6 seconds ago. Hello cable! Please stay on!

Heavy rain: as in 'it's rainin like a cow peein' on a flat rock' kinda hard or as in 'rainin buckets' or 'rainin cats and dogs', torrential

Tornadic activity: the 'weather ones' have said that today is a perfect set-up for severe storms and large, violent and long-lived tornadoes.

It ain't a kitten out there tryin to play. It's a big mad polecat stretchin her claws and flexin her muscles. The thunder is comin in loud cracks followed by giant rolls. The raindrops are huge. Okay, now the rain is just plain torrential. I can't see more than 100 yds away. The tv is strugglin to keep cable so I'll probably be shut down here soon from rain or lightning.

The street is flooded slightly:

Our front yard is flooded more than slightly:



Hold on, the sirens are goin off.....okay, the warnings are for 4 miles to our east and on up in a NE direction. No tornado yet, but strong rotation.
Portions of our side yard look like it's in dire straits:

Well, the grass seed in the front yard might be gettin the required 2" today!

Ice Instead of Blizzard

Saturday, March 28, 2009

With the rise in temperatures last night at about 10:30 the sleet turned to mostly rain. It rained/sleeted throughout the night then the temp dropped and we woke up to a layer of ice on the north side of everything. We still have yet to get the snow but they say it's still comin.

When Life Gives You Lemons

Friday, March 27, 2009

Okay, so it's not raining lemons. It's sleet comin down in bucketfuls from the sky! The deck looked like this at 11:20 a.m. today:

In the early to late afternoon the kids made the most of it by doin what? Yeah, they were outside. Wyatt cried and Abigail turned very sneaky when we wanted them to come in each time to warm up.

Abigail had Wyatt's new fishin pole and every time she cast it Wyatt and Buster and occasionally Prix would run to get the fish. There was lots of giggling, slidin, and fallin.

Wyatt nearly had his face scraped off a few times from Buster leaping into the air. *Watch the posted videos to see how I'm a class A redneck mom laughin at my son almost losing his scalp. Sorry, but it was funny! He didn't get hurt so there's nothin wrong with laughin! It makes him tough!

This is what the back deck looked like minutes ago:

With a full belly of vegetable/beef stew this kid was content to roll around in the sawdust and chew on sandpaper while we hung out in the garage with Uncle Mike and Aunt Dee.


This is the front yard:

If I had taken a picture while it was still light out you would see that it looks like it's only sleeted on our yard and the road and driveways. You see, every one else is pretty stingy about people steppin in their grass...but not us! Nope! We've got a charred circle smack in the middle of the yard where the fire pit has been burnin the past couple of months. We've got a low depression up by the door that the dogs continually scratch and open up to lay in when it's hot. We've got roots from the maple that keep bowin up all over. I swear the tree tries to trip you with those roots. It's her way at gettin back after all the late nights.

Not Enough Rain to Settle the Dust

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

This is what came out of Wyatt's diaper yesterday after I changed him. It's a soft pellet from an air gun courtesy of the neighbor boy. These pellets are all over our front and back yards.

This is how Wyatt amused himself after finding out that it had rained during his nap.




Meanwhile, little bro thought that all the buds that had fallen from the tree in the wind was a great source of fiber.

And here's the step-by-fall-over view of how close (or not so close) our 9 month is comin to crawlin! It does give a mama hope!




My flower opened up more!

Ramblings About Rumblings

Date: Jun 6, 2008

...excerpt from my email to my sister...b/c i'm lazy like that and i don't care. and you don't have to read it anyway.

As for plans for the weekend? No, not really. i might go down to derby and drive thru all the garage sales b/c i'm looking for another table to put out back on the deck since the other one got smashed fromt he wind.

this morning i started on my diaper stacker. i was racking my brain trying to find a way to put something hard/stiff in the bottom that wouldn't be destroyed on the off chance that i'd have to wash it. i finally thought of it. cardboard....but.....i took my laminating sheets and used them to seal it up on all sides. now i could wash it if needed. i'm making it out of dark brown material with a very off white ribbing. it'll match the play pen.



well, we got storms, lightning and thunder and lots of it and the wind!! and a TON of driving torrential rain! But thankfully NO hail or tornado! we have some very small branches tore off the tree. only about 2" in diamter and very green. it was weird. E is taking the storms a heck of a lot more seriously now that we have wyatt. used to he never paid ANY mind to them! even when the sirens went off. he'd check to see where the rotation or funnel was spotted and then just go on watching tv. but NOW? i'm downright proud, not that i expected him not to care, it's just, he's never been like this before we had wyatt. he had the air mattress, blankets, pillows, water, batt. operated lantern and other stuff all downstairs and ready to go. he fried bacon early and got wy fed while i gathered extra clothes diapers, snacks (in the pantry in the basement anyway), wipes, some toys and had them down there. our sirens went off but the funnel was hitting down about 30 mi. south of us and going n/ne direction. there was a funnel straight west of us but b/c the storms were going n/ne and downtown wichita always seems to dissipitate the tornadoes, we didn't have to worry about that one either. it was actually pretty uneventful compared to most times. and yes! i know what you mean about missing the thunder! and lightning across the prairie.
i was planning on washing buster today or tomorrow, or sun. or monday. whenever i get around to it. you know, i bought those collars called 'gentle leaders'. i do NOT like choke chains and i used to use the pinch collar on buster and the ch. chain on prix. but the pinch collar somehow got all bent out of shape and i can't bend it back to normal. so, i bought those gentle leaders. it's a collar but it has a loop that goes over/around the nose/mouth area behind the lips and down to the collar underneath the neck. it acts the exact same as a halter on a horse. when they pull forward with the neck and head it puts pressure on the top/back of the neck instead of cutting into the muscle/throat/airways like a choke chain. i'm pretty impressed. yesterday i put them on the dogs to get them used to it. prix did great. buster fought it and acted like a huge baby, like his whole body wouldn't work b/c of it!! it was hilarious! today when wy and i took the dogs out down the road to see how they'd do prix kinda fought it a little more than buster! but it subdued buster enough that he actually walked down and back without getting so damn excited and yipping and barking and yapping and dancing all around that whole way! it was really nice! and off course they didn't bolt out the door when we left too. i kept telling them to 'walk'. they did good! at least i didn't feel like strangling them and leaving them home!
i think wy thinks we're crazy when we say my belly is a baby b/c he knows babies only as babies-real live crying, wiggling things that look like him! but i'm hoping there will be a connection somehow that i don't know about. when we come home from the hospital we're going to have him ride home with us so that he knows that the baby is all of ours....kinda help him understand that and make the transition.
after i get wheeled back into the recovery room we'll be there probably until mid-afternoon before i can handle the move up to the higher floor w/o puking like i did last time. the dr. is going to be able to tell if i ripped the internal stitches when i puked. i'm glad he doesn't do the stitches on the outside or staples! i like the fact that i don't have to have anything removed after a week or so. the last length of thread just dissolves and i can shower or take a bath as soon as i can get out of bed pretty much. which is about 6 hours after the surgery when the epidural is totally and safely worn off that i can walk with help. i will probably text you girls first thing, then call mom and dad and then later i'll give each of you a call to talk. but, it might be earlier b/c i might have time, who knows!
okay, i'm dying to get back to sewing. wy of course is down for a nap and i'm getting hungry besides!
love ya and have a barrell of fun on vacation!!!!