Rain, Rain and More Rain

We had a whopper thunderstorm this morning and got two inches of rain in short shrift. 

Lilly stayed out all night long... I thought I heard her at 1 asking to come in (she scrapes the door)... and when I went to the door, I didn't see her on the deck.  At 4, there was a definite scrape under my window for her to come in.  She hates storms.  I saw lightening in the distance at 1, and 

more at 4. 

The storm started at 5, and laid a swath through Leavenworth, doing big damage at Mount Muncie Cemetery and the National Cemetery, both of which I have shown you.  Mount Muncie has those gorgeous old trees, so I will go over there in a few days and take a look.

Can you tell that I am standing IN water in the back yard? 

Our back of the back yard.  It's a long story. 

Yes, we have a pond.  

That's the side yard, by the patio.  See that bare spot on the left?  It's a mound of bad 

birdseed that piled up all winter.  It's REEKING.  At some point, I need

to dig it up and haul it out. 

Yes, I know you aren't supposed to leave it in the bird feeding area. 

It will get hauled out at some point, I have quit trying to hurry to do everything. 

Yes, the sun did come out this afternoon! 

After I helped with tours at the Ag Hall this morning,  I took the dogs 

for a short walk, as the humidity was still high. 

This pretty slider girl was helped across the road, and I watched to make sure she was oriented and started off again.  

Check out behind the calf... the pasture pond is so very full! 

It's been a while since the water came up to the cow's chests. 

I couldn't help it... I wanted to be sure the babies were safe after the hail and strong winds. 

They were! 

So are these babies. 

Keith and I noticed something in a planter out in front yesterday. 

It's hiding under the heuchera. 

It grew while I was gone today. 

A few days ago, I put one of my sweet potato plants out on the porch. 

This morning, it blew over in the storm. 

I picked it up, and look what I found! 

Too wild.  I'm going to cook it tomorrow night. 

I tromped through the water to look at the SBG... the plants I planted on 

Saturday look great!   

I was so glad to see this, I am really looking forward to it this summer. 

Gratuitous picture of my boy.  

I think this will make you laugh... turn it up so you can hear it, 

and sorry for the shaky camera work. 

We expect sun tomorrow! 

Monday

Let me tell you, being a tour guide for grade schoolers at the Ag Hall is no 

picnic.  We have one volunteer who has helped there for years... Charles... 

he does them very frequently, and I don't know how he does it!  

These four groups today of 25 each with teachers and 

parents asked the best questions. 

We did chores, and the kids learn how to wash clothes 

with a washboard and wash tubs.  

It made an impression on one little girl, and she 

asked me what they did about diapers. I told her they 

used cloth diapers, and then washed them out after 

using them. 

Her reply?

"And USED THEM AGAIN????"

"Noooooooooo" 

Everyone thought the chamber pots were water holders

for during the night. 

Well, they are, sort of. 

Yesterday, we had rains off and on all afternoon, in our area we got 3/4 of an inch of 

rain. 

The pasture pond is filling nicely. 

More storms are expected for tonight. 

These cows had the right idea, it was 77 degrees but the 

humidity was climbing. 

I should have taken pictures of the calves, you could just 

see their little faces in the grass, now that the grass is growing taller.

Two of the ponds I watched are now out of sight in their pastures, because

the hay is growing. 

I did not take pictures at the park, but there was a lot of 

standing water from the rain yesterday. 

Something happened that made me stop and think. 

You know that we had four pugs before Jester. 

Three had physical problems, and the fourth, seemingly healthy, 

dropped dead just after turning 3 of what the vet said was 

either a heart aneurysm or a stroke. 

They were brachycephalic dogs, with short, short noses and 

heavy breathing. 

I did not walk them, and did not really let them out on hot days. 

I forget Jester ALSO is a flat-nose.  Today... he gamely 

followed, but I noticed he was walking slower and slower. 

Then, he went to a big puddle, drank, and did something 

he NEVER does.  He pawed at the water, took two steps, 

and plopped his whole body down in it. 

I let him lay there for a minute... and then we went straight to the car. 

No more walking for Jes unless we do it early in the morning, or the humidity is 

low. 

Very clearly three. 

At the last, I thought I saw a fourth draped over the side of the nest, like a body hanging. 

See why I thought there were four?  I think the hawklet on the left 

has his wing draped over the edge of the nest.  

This sight made me so happy this morning! 

You see, I had lots and lots of iris at the old house. 

I did not have any here. 

This is the first to bloom, yayyy!  It is not a transplant, I got 

it from Cherokee Acres last fall.  You can see their beautiful iris 

on their website. 

Here are the baby geraniums in their barrel.  You know I will 

have to transplant them all, but I want to see the colors this summer. 

A dollar a plant!  Wow. 

These are three of the mums from the Ag Hall that I made a donation for last fall.  We had used them for decorations.  I know one is a bronze, I am not sure of the other two, and I 

can't wait to see.  That's cat mint to the right. 

These look like sunflower seedlings to me... I'll know in a day or two. 

If they are, they are going. 

Million Bells... callibrachoa... I love all their colors. 

Yesterday's rainfall.  

I know they are hard to see, but when I went out this morning to spread birdseed 

I checked the bales.  There were hundreds of mushrooms blooming.  When I got home 

tonight, they had all died or bent over.  The gray stuff is mushroom. 

Mushrooms are a good sign! 

Even though she was small, I used the shovel on this 

alligator snapper.  I don't want to be caught on a country road with the dogs in the car and have a snapper hanging off my hand.  

As we came back by the park this afternoon, there was one of the 

great blue herons, poised to get his dinner. 

More Rain

Yes, we had more rain today. 

Crazy. 

It's thundering and lightening out there right now, 

and Leavenworth County Emergency Management 

just posted to stay out of Riverfront Park in Leavenworth, because

the Missouri is out of her banks.  

It's already raining again in Easton, part of which town 

floods regularly. 

Too much! 

See this bucolic creek? 

It's the one I showed you yesterday.  It's really getting a little scary. 

Here are the five little goslings I have been taking pictures of for the 

last three weeks.  I was so glad to see them this morning, and here's the reason. 

This was Monday.  The babies were no where in sight.  

This bird was moving it's wings a little, but did not lift it's head. 

I prayed and prayed it wasn't the mother goose, attacked by something. 

This goose was near, but I saw no babies anywhere that morning, 

I was relieved this morning. 

I came around a corner this morning and look who was sitting on the wood fence? 

Accompanied by six of his friends! 

Two days ago, I found a huge blood stain at this corner... as if it were a 

deer, or a cow, or a horse, all of which are in this vicinity.  I never saw a body. 

When the dogs and I came back 40 minutes later, all the birds were gone! 

This is what our skies looked like as I was getting ready to leave the old place. 

As I type this at 9:43, it is storming AGAIN.  

It's honestly getting tiresome and SCARY. 

The hawk's nest has been vacated... but I took this picture yesterday, because I knew the babies would be close and their parents feeding them.  Can you see the baby in the middle of the picture? 

I tried to find them today in the foliage, but could not. 

And last, these are the ponds at the foot of our pasture, on the Spehar's place. 

We have never seen them so full! 

Remember, there are two large ones, and another big one in the cow pasture. 

If these go over... they go across the next closest neighbor to the east, and thence across the bottomland fields... to Stranger Creek.  

We have a 90% chance of rain tomorrow, and I am listening right now to 

many frogs in our side - yard "pond" here. 

The weather bulletins say expect winds and more rain, and hail! 

A Soggy Week

I'm afraid to say 

"When will it ever end?" for fear of 

having the kind of weather our Texas and Oklahoma friends are 

having.  A good friend, Lorie, sent me pictures of her street 

underwater today!  So far, none of my immediate friends has suffered 

hardships, but it is all around them and their lives are affected. 

Still praying! 

Can you see the hawklet flapping his now large wings

in the tree above the nest?  Both of them are up and moving 

around in the tree... they may have flown today. 

They won't go far, as mom and dad will keep feeding them. 

Here's a mature hawk taking off last night.  I had to fiddle with 

the picture bedause the light was so bad. 

And we go from the big birds to two tiny visitors !

Today was spent at my "job"... at the National Agricultural Center... 

and even though it rained rather steadily all day, our General Factotum, 

Ray, (also the beekeeper) obliged these adults and kids (in the back) with two 

spins around the track. 

Toot! Toot! 

There they go!  

That's an original depot building that was donated to the Ag Hall.... and is going to be re-painted this summer by members of a model train club who will be moving their displays into it's basement. 

They will also have a large model train that runs in and out of the back of the building (non-rideable). 

The baby geese are getting so big!  

Don't they look like delicate, tiny little dancers? 

I saw this beautiful alligator turtle on the way home.  If I had had a shovel, I would have helped it across the gravel road.  I pray it made it.  Last week, I saw a dead female in the same spot, and she had been full of eggs.  I tried to nudge it on it's way, but I frankly did not want to get bitten. 

I'm hoping that no one deliberately hit it. 

Tomorrow I am helping again at the Ag Hall, as they were 

short of volunteers.  I have met the nicest people there! 

Memorial Day 2015

Why it started.  

We need to remember it's not all about picnics. 

Though, to be fair, I was stunned and gladdened by the wonderful 

sentiments expressed on Facebook today. 

This gosling seemed to be telling me to GET LOST. 

See the raindrops on the big pond?  It was raining steadily when the dogs and I went out to do chores. 

It cleared up pretty quickly, and this bright eyed swallow watched me as I took 

pictures of the hawklets. 

Here they are together in the nest, they are so big now that it is 

hard to get their faces. Remember, they are a long way off the road. 

I never found anything beyond the one feather of the little rooster. 

There are no gaps in the fence, and, since the 9 hens have eaten a lot of the vegetation on this side, 

tomorrow, I'll open them up to the other side. 

I used to have a proper door in this yard.  Now, it's a roll of garden fencing.  That's the little red hen house yard. 

You can barely see the little red hen house.  I'm not going to open it up, 

it is very difficult to get eggs from it. 

Speaking of eggs... I got only 2 eggs from 11 hens today!  ARGHHHH! 

The two brahmas are still very lonely in their big hen spa yard. 

They are still so wary of me, that I  am not trying to catch them.  

One day this week, I'll move them over with the other girls. 

Troy cut all the grass today between our morning visit and this evening. 

I think this must have rattled the red birds, because I got only ONE egg from nine birds. 

This is their normal demeanor when I come into the yard, they flee for the far side. 

However.... this afternoon, I had goodies... and I put them in a bowl close to their food bowl, and lo and behold... they cautiously approached while I was still in the yard, so... we are making progress little by little. 

I caught this guy in a flooded farm pond on the way home. 

Yes, I made another trip, too, to see my mom and dad... 

The crush in the cemetery was terrible... so next year, I'll be going before 

the "holiday".  Why are the flowers on the side? 

Because Grandma Nellie Mahoney Trehey is on that side. 

I stopped to see my brother Mike, too, on the way home... our little 

sister is four hours away, too far for me to drive alone now, and 

Keith cannot go so long without a dialysis. 

It struck me that Keith and I are to be buried in the National Cemetery 

at Leavenworth (not on post)... and when I am gone, no one

will go to this grave, or those of my Peterson grandparents, and 

Peterson aunts and uncles.  My dad died when my nieces and 

nephews (and oldest son) were either babies, or not born. 

Only one of my boys was there when my mother was buried... 

so... my brother Pete is too ill with dementia to ever go again. 

Time marches on, friends. 

I am the only one that goes to the old family graves 

in Tonganoxie. 

When I am gone, that's it. 

My dad fought in World War II, a naval officer. 

I'm still so proud of him, and of Keith, who gave 24 years in 

his country's service, and all those who have fought or are still fighting. 

Thank you!