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!

Pole Fishin' on the Ninnescah

Yesterday we went to the Ninnescah (known round these parts as Cougar Country) to fish with the boys. We refrained from tellin Wyatt about the trip until Saturday mornin for fear that he would forego sleepin more than 24 hours in anticipation. Plus, he's only 2 1/2 and doesn't quite grasp the concept of time in minutes, hours, let alone days. When we told him that mornin, he was all about packin the truck.



I'm not sure why he wanted to drag the cooler all the way out to the road but I convinced him it needed to sit by the truck so we could pack ice around the food.

This is the view lookin upriver:

It was a perfect day as far as bein outside. We had cloud cover most the day except for short periods of sun later in the afternoon. Uncle Mike was the reigning king of catches. He caught 4 or 5 fish and one soft shell. Soft shells just look pre-historic. They look like you should be out runnin for your life from dinosaurs and hiding from pterodactyls. Straight outta Jurassic Park is the feelin I get evertime I see one of these. It's hard not to jump when a shadow passes over the ground and throw my arms up to fight off a homosapian-hungry flying dinosaur.





Wyatt was all sorts of excited about the turtle until the thing felt land beneath his feet and tried to bail. He went clawin right in Wy's direction to which Wy replied with a big scream, a scramble to get away and of course, tears. I'm sorry, but yes, I laughed. I also held him when he came runnin over to me but by laughin it got him settled down and pretty soon he was gigglin about the turtle tryin to get away.
Aunt Rene caught a fish and had the boss reel it in.

He was proud as punch!

Here's the boss, checkin on lines and patrollin the bank.

He did really well with the whole 3 foot-drop-off-into-the-river thing. There was just a couple times my mama's heart almost stopped beatin. I wore shorts and a light shirt just in case I'd have to jump in and drag him back to the edge. I didn't want any resistance with swimmin if I had to put my life-saving skills to work.
'Ole Hoss had quite a time.

He was pretty sleepy by the time we got to the river so shortly after we got set up I took him up to the truck, nursed him, and strapped him into his car seat for a little siesta with the music on. After his nap, and some lunch, he was a much happier kid. We tied off his walker to a sapling behind him so he wouldn't try wind-surfing off the bank and into the water.

I swear the kid believes that walker is equipped with floats, all-terrain tires with snow chains, wings and a motor!
We did some scoutin around for more fishin holes. The guys went down river, under the bridge, and caught a few and lost a few. Aunt Rene and I went upriver and found nothin but slick-as-snot muddy banks, spiders, thorn bushes and lots of life. Here are some pictures.

Now for the other part:



My camera kept focusing on the background so the spider is very blurry. I didn't think to put it on manual focus and I couldn't find a leaf big enough to hold behind it to bring the spider into focus.

Cricket frogs-try cathin those suckers on a muddy bank!

Yeah, it didn't work out so well for me.





It was either this fungus growth that stunk like feces or the fact that there was a fox den just beneath all these clumps of black fungus, but I'm tellin ya, it stunk!



The light wasn't the greatest when I took this shot. As I stood and looked up the tree the green foliage was a stark contrast against the dark bark.

Another den, this time from a smaller animal:

Last, but not least, the boss got in one more frightened scream when I tried to put this little guy on his shoulder and take a picture:

He wanted N-O-N-E of it! He was content to watch him in my hands and no closer!



Hoss wanted to grab him right away and without a doubt, put him in his mouth.



That, I didn't let happen, but he did almost eat a worm. Just kiddin. But he would, if we'd a let him!

Yard Work

This past weekend we spent waitin the storms that were supposed to come. They didn't show up til Saturday night so Saturday we spent the day outside. Kenneth, our good friend, and his son Austin, our god-son, came over. Austin's birthday is comin up and one of the things he wanted was some rails to ride his skateboard on. Eric had some leftover tube steel pipes so he welded them onto pieces of angle iron for a base. They worked on them from noon til about 8 in the evening. E made a double rail and an inclined single rail. After the welding was done, they bondoed the joints, sanded and painted them a sky blue. They look really sharp. Austin was pretty excited about them but didn't realize they were gonna be so slick. He hit the double rail, stayed on for a bit, and because of the downhill speed off the driveway, the board slipped right out from under him and he hit the driveway pretty hard. I'll have some pictures up soon of the rails and hopefully a video of Austin ridin. Austin drove the boys around in their truck and the boys had a great time!





On Sunday, we filled in the buffalo wallow the dogs had made in the front yard with fill dirt and seeded grass. In other areas, like the spot where we've had the fire pit all winter, we turned up, added dirt and overseeded. We also mulched the flower beds and raked up the side yard. This is one of the flower beds with views from either side of it.



I killed the first black widow of the season in the pile of bricks that the kids just happened to not get into these past two weeks. The first thing Wyatt did after he walked out the door was to take a pass thru ever-single-lovin mud puddle he could find! He was soaked from his toes to his knees within 5.294 seconds. His jeans, after we took them off, had slightly dried and could almost stand on their own. Take a look-see:



E sprayed weeds again. They seem to have permanently taken over the back yard. I planted tomatoes, bell peppers, jalepenos, green onions, sweet onions, carrots and zucchini, and lots of different kinds of flowers. Wyatt helped E chop out weeds in the yard.

E cut down to size a small-headed hoe for Wyatt. At one point, E stopped, leaned on his hoe and asked Wyatt, 'Well, what d'ya think?' Wyatt stopped workin, leaned on his hoe (his hand all stretched upright to cup the end of the handle) and said, 'I don't know. What d'you think?' Daddy got Wyatt to hold some worms.



Up til now he's not wanted to touch them no matter how hard we've tried and no matter what we've told him. We've been talkin about fishin a lot and he's been askin to go. We keep tellin him he's got hold the worms so he can put 'em on his hook and catch fish when we go to the lake and river. I think he put two and two together and obviously his love for fishin took precedence over a crawly snake in his hand. He also held a grub worm. Now, I don't touch those unless I'm usin them for bait so I was glad he was holdin that one by himself! Of course, if he'd a asked me to hold it I would've had to because I don't want him seein me not likin it. Wyatt also took a ride on the dolly:

Redneck entertainment, I know, but it was fun and he obviously enjoyed it so we don't care!! This kid don't need expensive toys and movies to keep him occupied! All he has to do is dig in my utensil bucket and drawers and go outside and he's good a quite a spell!