Thunderstorms and Snapdragons


The humidity has been very high the past few days, today feels like the worst one yet. Because of the high humidity we've been getting a lot of thunderstorms, a couple of them have cooled things off but the one last night didn't help at all. I woke up at three AM facing the screen door in our bedroom, the sky was lighting up pink but all was quiet. Then.... the thunder came. The thunder and lightening went on for some time before the rain actually came. I felt no cool air blowing in on me at all, even though I was just lying there waiting for it to come. In this heat most of the days work except for morning chores gets done after 7PM, usually between 8-10 when it's a little cooler. Then heavy jobs like grass mowing, weeding, and barn cleaning are a little easier on the body.

The other night at about 6 PM, I could hear thunder in the distance. I stood looking out at the dark sky and figured I better make a move. I usually don't put the animals away until 8-9 PM this time of year, but I knew I didn't want them out in the storm, or me trying to put them away in the storm. So off I went.

First was Izzie the Jersey who was out on grass, and then Jackson the miniature horse who quickly ran into his house because he knew what was coming and he does not ever want to be wet... seeing that he is made purely of sugar he may melt... although sometimes sugar likes to bite you in the rear end. I guess it's a sweet gesture although sometimes it may hurt a little.

I then got the goats and sheep away and just managed to get the turkeys inside when the rain started. I ran into the barn and the downpour began. The barnyard was flooded so fast it was like I blinked and everything was under water. The thunder was loud and the lightening was lighting up the entire barn. None of the animals seemed to care, out of everyone there were three who seemed to be bothered by the storm, two goats, Butternut and Bean, and Lila my ewe. When the thunder was at it's loudest and the lightening lighting up the entire sky, I went to sit in Sammy and Bean's pen. Sammy wasn't even remotely bothered by the storm and was stuffing his face, but he always calms me down. Always. Whenever I am upset I run up to the barn and go snuggle with Sammy. He climbs into my lap and kisses me, places his head on my shoulder just like he did when he was a baby. I remember this winter just before my surgery when I was afraid, I ran up to the barn at midnight in my pajamas in the snow, and straight into Sammie's pen. He licked the tears on my face and then climbed into my lap, lied down, and put his head against my chest, all on his own. I'll never know how I got so lucky to have him in my life.

We have been hit by lightning before, so I was slightly spooked by this particularly bad storm. We get bad thunderstorms in the summer often and I love a good thunderstorm, but I'm always slightly worried since we got hit in 2008. The lightning almost hit me when I was driving in the mule to the barn, I ran into the house just in time to watch the lightning hit the fence at the barn, and then it hit again at the house and killed one of our trees. It took out our phone line, blew up the motherboard in the hot tub, and came into the house through the phone line and blew up our fax machine/printer, the Internet modem and the satellite Internet antenna. The telephone line got blown up 8 poles down. There was a burn mark on the wall where the modem blew up in our office.

It took over a week to get the phone company to come out and help us, we told them what happened and they told us we were wrong, that didn't happen. It must be something else. A week later when a guy finally bothered to come out and look at it he said "gee you got hit by lightening." Ah, ya, we did.

So we always worry a little bit now, because of that situation. But this storm passed without injury to anything or anyone. The ducks were outside and in absolute heaven, walking around, flapping their wings, mouths open to the sky catching the rain. It was there first time out in the rain and they loved every second of it.

I don't doubt this evening the rain may come again with the humidity this high. I hope it brings some relief with it this time, a breeze would be nice. I must admit I do appreciate the help with watering the garden.

My Snapdragons are out.... I grow them because they remind me of my Papa (Grandfather.) He had them in his backyard when I was a little girl and he was raising me... I remember him showing me how to open them up by pinching them on the sides. They make me smile every time I look out at them or walk by.


Yesterday evening Kevin and I decided to go fishing for a bit.. it was slightly cooler out but too hot to work still. Driving through the fields in the Argo you almost can't see because of the timothy and grasses.

Everything is a lot higher and greener than when we left even.  Driving to the Maples you can hardly see the road!

I happened to catch a flash of color out of the corner of my eye and guess what it happened to be...


My first patch of ripe raspberries! I was so excited. I ate about five of them, and they are sooo good. I have several spots I checked a couple days ago that are not even close to being ready, but this one spot, there are dozens and dozens of red berries hanging just waiting to be picked and eaten. 

Out at the creek, it was beautiful... we sprayed ourselves with bug spray and just fished off the rocks for a while.  My first time fishing without bait in a creek like that... I quickly got my lure stuck on the bottom after a few tosses. Seeing that I've only ever fished in Alaska, in Prince William Sound, this is new to me.


After we had a beer and just enjoyed the breeze and the view, and the sound of the bullfrogs, we went for a short ride on some of our trails.



I picked my first summer squash to eat, and it's delicious. My cucumbers are growing like crazy and my first zucchini has started. My Okra blossomed too! It's so fun watching the garden grow and waiting impatiently (or patiently depending on who you are) for all the goodies you'll get to eat from it.


I collected my first bunch of thyme to start drying. My curly parsley is going nuts so I picked a bunch and some of the rabbits enjoyed a snack last night. The Prairie dogs had some too...

Thanks to one of our local beavers, one of their sticks fit perfectly into the window.


Lila's lamb is growing, her face is getting more spots as she gets older.


Izzie is growing too! (That's our wood box for the deck in the back just after being moved for the summer.)


The dogs have been following me everywhere all morning and afternoon as I cleaned in the house and watered the plants, so they are pretty worn out. 


Now that I've taken a break I'm off to make some sugar snap pea pickles for fun, I only have a handful, enough for a pint, so I thought I'd give this recipe a try and see if it's worth making more of. If it's a good one, I'll share it.

Stay cool everyone!

Comments

The JR said…
All the fur kids are cute! Sammy sounds like he knows just the right thing to do.
Twenty years ago when I was pregnant with my third child, we were struck by lightening also. The lightening hit our transformer. Hubby had to drive to town to phone the power company. the hubby was on the phone when the lightening struck. The phone also died. The power company made it out to the farm around midnight to replace the transformer.It took almost a month to get the phone to work properly. I finally had to tell the phone company that I was due any day-which by this time was true- and that I live on a farm and would appreciate a proper working phone.

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