These animals have been standing in close proximity for at least two hours, since before daybreak. The thunder and lightning and rain have been intense. Each animal has a sheltered place where she could go, but then they wouldn't be together.
Bonnie and Jody aren't related. It's just that, in times of stress, the herd instinct kicks in (this is our entire herd). An electric fence separates them, but that doesn't stop them from being a herd. They turn away from the prevailing winds and simply ride out the storm together.
I can almost hear them singing "Stand By Me".
Yesterday evening my TV-DVR watching was interrupted by a power failure caused by sixty-miles-per-hour winds and rain that came sideways. After forty-five minutes, the rain slowed to a sprinkle and I ran to check the rain gauge: 3 3/4 inches in such a short time!
This looks toward the back of our place; looks like a lake, doesn't it? There's a drainage pipe there, and it rained so hard and fast that it couldn't keep up.
The evening was rather enjoyable; my sister-in-law and I found all sorts of interesting things to keep us entertained during the power outage, like three cop cars going to the neighbors. Evidently their horses had escaped again, and for once they must have headed down the highway instead of coming here! Anyhow, I saw the kids leading them up the driveway after the cops left.
There was quite a light show when a transformer blew, down by the highway.
Confident the electricity would be restored in a couple of hours, I got my Ipod, put it in the battery-powered I-home, and enjoyed the wide range of music I have there. That's my handy-dandy flashlight beside it.
Now remember, we have a well. So when our power is out we have no water: No flushing, no bathing, no way to make coffee. Not a big deal as long as power is restored before too long.
When Cliff came in from work at 3 A.M., there was still no power. OK, we have a freezer chock-full of meat; I began to worry. Unable to sleep when I'm worried, I got up.
If only I had a battery-powered radio so I could listen to the news and weather, I thought; then I remembered there was one back at the cabin. I put on my Muck boots and with flashlight in hand, waded mud to get back there and retrieve it, only running into a couple of cobwebs on the way.
At six o'clock A.M., I saw the sister-in-law taking her dog out, getting ready to go to work; I went out to let her know that there were only three or four homes without power. I knew this because I had taken a stroll around the yard in the dark, checking to see who had lights and who didn't; I wondered if Kansas City Power and Light would take their sweet time, since so few people were involved.
Thank goodness, while we were talking the dusk-to-dawn light came on and we knew we were back in the modern age of light switches and indoor plumbing.
I came to the house, flushed the stool, and made coffee.
Life is good. Except that I need a nap.
Cliff and I have been planning to go to the Lathrop tractor show for quite awhile. We hoped to ride our motorcycle, because it's a nice little ride... about forty-five minutes.
This morning, however, after looking at the weather forecast, we decided to go in the car. Egg-sized hail wouldn't be much fun on a motorcycle.
We walked around the flea market and took a quick look at the antiques and tractors. I only took one picture during our walk through the show:
I don't know how old this fan was, but it was running. It's battery powered.
We looked at several tractors; trouble is, they're the same tractors we see there every year. We have them memorized. And all the time, we had that forecast in mind, because our Mercury is rear-wheel-drive. And at a tractor show, you park on grass. We knew if a downpour occurred, we'd be stuck.
It was hot and steamy when we went into the building where lunch was being served, and there was a long waiting line. Cliff said, "You know, we'll be going past lots of places to eat on the way home."
Normally I like to support the people putting on the tractor shows by buying lunch on the grounds, but I was worried about the weather. So we left, thank the good Lord. Because not ten minutes later, an unbelievably strong wind came up, and some mighty scary clouds.
Here's the view through our windshield as we headed toward home. We hoped to outrun the storm, but our hopes were in vain.
This was taken through my passenger window.
This shot was taken much closer to home, before we crossed the Missouri River.
We arrived home to find an inch of rain in our rain gauge and our electricity not working. For six hours. Oh happy day.
I am SO glad we didn't take the motorcycle.
Thunder and lightning preceded the rain we're having now, making me anticipate the storm that was approaching. I lose our Dish-TV signal during rainstorms, but that's OK. It's worth it. I do love rain.
Sadie doesn't deal well with storms, and seeks a snug cave in which to hide. So I removed my guitar from under the baby bed behind me to allow her to curl up there... although she isn't normally allowed in that space. I'll vacuum tomorrow to remove the dog hair. It's the least I can do, to make up for poisoning her Saturday.
This year, Mother Nature has been quite generous with precipitation... up until August. This month, the whole world simply dried up. I've been watering my baby Norway Spruce trees, as well as the lilac bush and the burning bush I recently bought. No worries about grass; we haven't planted any back here yet. Oh, there's the clover/orchard grass mix that was here when this was a pasture, but with all the traffic that's involved with building and moving, that's pretty well shot. Yesterday all day long, the weather-guessers excitedly blathered on about possible heavy storms. When we're going through a dry spell, I tend to block all that out, because I just don't believe the forecasts.Along toward evening, though, distant thunder grew closer and raindrops started falling. My dog, scared of storms, cowered behind my chair, and I settled in to enjoy the storm. Then the electricity went out. Now let's face it, there isn't much you can do in such a case to keep yourself busy. At my house, you can't even flush the bathroom stool more than once, because we're on a well, and an electric pump brings water to the house.I remembered my Blackout Buddy, which supplies me with light and a radio in such emergencies. Trouble is, I never listen to the radio, and couldn't find a station I liked. I remembered Cliff talking about a show he listens to at work on his MP3 player: Delilah. But I didn't know what station to look for; so I called him on the cell phone, at work, to see where it's found on the dial. Turns out it was KUDL, a soft-rock station.I don't know when I've enjoyed a storm so much. Just me and my frightened dog in the safe cocoon of home which has, of late, become my favorite place to be.
The power was out for an unusually long time, and I went to bed sometime after nine, still with no lights.
We got three quarters of an inch of much-needed rain.
