Days of Rain

Last week,  I posted about the fact we had been sweltering through a hot summer, as so many of you are this year. 

This week, we suffered again, but... we have had 3 inches of rain since Thursday!  Two, today, from a storm early this morning and then another this afternoon.  We have a storm warning for tonight, too.  I am supposed to have a construction company here this week to start doing some work on the house, so I am not sure what this means, but I am so glad to have the extra rain. 

This happened in a storm three weeks ago.  Ben tried to get it down, but no tugging would do it.  If you look on the left, you will see one branch is totally dead, but two are still hanging secure.  One has dropped down almost to the ground now, and I am mowing around it, and yes, I am careful.  I am hoping if we do get the additional storm tonight, there will be some movement while no one is under it to get hurt. 

Look who came back this week!  (Yes, that's the ram in the foreground... impressive!) 

Nugget, who was formerly mine, was born here and she is heavy with lamb. 

It is so good to look out in the morning and see them all grazing. 

The length of time they will be here now will depend on the grass... but this rain surely helped. 

They made quick work of the weeds in the pen.  

I have let the chickens over on the "house side" of the yard several times this week.  

I looked out to see Singleton, the most dominant rooster, on the porch one afternoon. 

Singie was the lone chick that hatched under his mama. 

He is five this year, and more dominant than his brother, Buddy, the other big rooster. 

I looked out one morning to see Bob staring up at the feeder. 

There was a squirrel perched up there eating, not knowing how close Bob was. 

(or maybe knowing full well!) 

Bob was actually standing on his hind feet stretched out against the pole, but got down when he caught movement in the window where I was. 

I finally went out and called Bob, and the squirrel ran off. 

It's bad enough that I'm always running out to rescue birds from Bully. 

Here was one out here today, while the cats were all inside sleeping. 

Don't look now, friends, but the next holiday is upon us! 

I walked into the commissary at Fort Leavenworth this week to see them setting up the Halloween displays. 

I actually am going to confess that I went to Sam's for cat food today, and 

looked at all the Halloween creatures that lit up and talked, but did not buy anything.  I DID, however, buy the first two Christmas toys for the little ones for this year.  I am limiting the three great-grands to three each, and buying them early, as my hard rule is NO CHARGING GIFTS.  I have followed this rule for years with great success. 

I have one for each of the first two.  

I had just unwrapped this rocker I got at Tractor Supply when I took this picture. 

I have wanted a rocker on the porch for so long... and the wood ones were always expensive. 

This was reasonable, on sale... it is just a tad too high for me, but is comfortable and I rock Bob in it. 

I found him asleep in it today. 

There are mama and the three babies on the front porch of the big hen house the other night. 

And here they are scavenging in the barn.  When the weather is so hot, 

I leave the door open for the two cats that live in there.  They have a fan, too. 

I leave a tiny pile out for the cats when I take the food up at night, you see the raccoons are eating it.  Mama does not let the littles have any if she wants it, that one on the right is begging her. 

A friend of mine with a large farm told me her electric bill was 690.00 this week, she has fans running in all her buildings, two fans dedicated to old horses, fans in her chicken houses, etc.  I am planning on mine being between 4 and 500 dollars, because the fans have run almost non-stop, plus the air in the house.  I do have it cycling off and on, though, and try to keep it high enough to be comfortable but low enough to be tolerable. 

Here is my little Wanda crossing the porch at night... of "her" hen house.  One morning of rain this week was chilly, and I found her curled up in a nest box for the first time.  The next three days were awful, though, and I think she goes under the little hen house to escape. 

She will sleep inside the big hen house this winter, as she did last winter. 

Her eyes are looking a little rheumy again, so a trip to the vets may be in her near future. 

Here I am, caught by the camera on the porch of the hen house, doing what I feel like I did all week long... mowing... I got almost the whole yard done before the rain today.  I swear to you that I mowed last Saturday and Sunday, and by Wednesday it was like a hay field again! 

I didn't get that cat food in quite early enough! 

That's Bob.  This is a miracle. 

That's Coco, also a miracle... who HATES BOB. 

These two could not care less. 

Oh yes, he is the King! 

(see little Wanda behind him?) 

The Drama! 

Have a good week, friends.  I know so many of you are coping with fires and floods, and terrible, terrible weather.  I pray for all of you, daily. 

 

A Stormy Tuesday

Storms have come to Northeast Kansas today. 

That was this evening, but we had a storm come through early this morning. 

Lilly ended up in the basement with Keith, she hates them.  He makes a place for her to go down and get in the darkest corner of the basement, where she can't hear thunder or see any lightening. 

Here was our side yard... the one I had tadpoles in last year. 

That was from the morning rain. 

It has been raining for the last 30 minutes right now. 

The entire yard was sodden.  (and thank heavens I cut last night). 

See my perennial garden in the background????  Coming up great!!

I saw this in a pasture as I came down a gravel road from the park.  Four ducks and at least seven different kinds of shorebirds!  That is not a pond, just a wet spot.  I got home, dropped the dogs, switched to the long lens, and went back on my way to the store.  The ducks were gone. 

I think these are all upland sandpipers or upland plovers, the birding group calls them yellowlegs. 

There were three more in the field on the right, but they are colored just like the dirt. 

See the corn coming up???

Something had died across the road.  The fourth had just flown. 

There were three more above them. 

Roadside phlox is blooming. 

And look at the creeks!  Wow!  

See the phlox along the banks? 

Our park is waterlogged, too. 

(I am switching back and forth from big camera to little Canon) 

Our straw bales are under tarp tonight because we don't want the 

fertilizer we have put on them to wash through and out. 

However... we had a harbinger of spring here tonight who serenaded us merrily. 

Be safe, everyone in the storm's way. 

I am going to get off this thing while it is storming! 

After the Rainy Night

Yesterday morning, I snapped a few pictures of flowers still blooming at the old house. 

The gardens are terribly overgrown at this point. 

It's so odd that the sedum is blooming so early. 

Lilly and Jester got to go to the pond. 

They had a good time, despite the humidity. 

As the day wore on, the humidity got worse. 

As we drive home, I came across this scene, and got out of the car to take a better picture: 

I was being watched: 

See me in the rear view mirror? 

I went another two miles, and saw this ahead of me. 

I counted four little poults walking with her. 

At 3:30 the senior Yoders got here, to spend the night.  We had planned to meet Amber (Keith's daughter) and her sons for dinner.  However, Mother Nature intervened in a huge way. 

This is the juncture of four yards in our back yard. 

That's where the water was headed.  This is our neighbor-directly-behind us, and the blue building is his detached garage. 

See the pond?  All the water was headed there.  

His basement and the detached building flooded, and a major cleanup is underway over there tonight. 

There was also considerable flooding on the next street over, and a culvert collapsed under the street there.  

Flooding is all over Leavenworth County. 

Dinner out was cancelled and Amber stayed at home, safe with her boys. 

Look whom I ran into this morning on the way home. 

If it IS the same group (and it was the same vicinity), one poult was lost in last night's major storm. 

I was sorry to see that. 

I had horrid vibration in the car, but there was no getting out to get a clearer picture. 

She's keeping them in the high grass, but they struggle to get through it.  I'm crossing my fingers for them. 

This was a common scene in our county today! 

A Rainy Wednesday

We have a game tonight. 

But look...

Oh, yes.  

Not complaining, but the season is almost over, and we have missed a bunch of games with Keith's illness. 

He's feeling much better, and has worked at the old house the last three evenings. 

I have not been out there, since we had workmen coming here... so 

maybe tomorrow I'll see it. 

Here was something on the front steps I had seen in many months...

a horse fly.  This doesn't show the size of the darn thing... it was huge. 

I'm helping take care of sweet little Austin.  The birdbath fell off its pedestal 

on Monday and broke her leg at the hock, and she is in a cast for a month. 

She can JUST get around and go potty. 

She can't play with her sisters and brother... and cannot fly to her new family this weekend. 

Hurts me. 

The coleus on the front steps have bolted now.  I should have pinched them back. 

Coulda, woulda, shoulda, as Keith would say. 

You can see the shaved spots on Lil in this picture.  The stitches are under 

her eye, on the left in this picture.  It was seeping a little today, so I am keeping a close eye on it.  

So far, she has not torn her vet wrap off the leg wound, that has seven stitches in it. 

Not lookin' good for our ballgame tonight... but we sure needed this rain!