Week 18 - Mother Nature Has a Tantrum

This past week has been one to try the patience of a saintlier person than I am...I was pretty good, I will admit, though.

It started last weekend.  Rain and more rain all weekend long. Great for the aquifir, wonderful for the farmers.  Not so much for drivers who just want to get to work and home again.  Last week's total rainfall was, well, nothing compared to what we got since Thursday.  

I'll paint you a picture of life in the Ozarks this past 4 days - Thursday was the beginning of a storm the weather readers talked about all week. With dire warnings of water, water, and more water, 'turn-around-don't-drown' became the catchphrase on every TV channel.  John drives the interstate to/from work each day so there is slim chance of flooding there.  I drive from home to work 6 miles each way and there is rarely (I won't say never cause we've only lived here 13 years and I don't know about what came before we moved here) any flooding along the direct route I drive.  Our house sits high enough that flooding is just not an everyday factor we need to take into account.  Given all that, we still pay attention to the weather reports and predictions and make sure we have enough groceries, gas,  and reading materials so we don't even need to go into town if the rains get heavy.  And BOY, did the rains get heavy!  From Thursday early morning to noon today, we had a total of 9.11 inches of rain fall right here!  The town of West Plains in southeast Missouri is almost totally under water and the city officials had to turn off the power to the entire city because one of the power stations was threatened.  Branson is in a state of emergency with flooding from Table Rock Lake and Lake Taneycomo increasing because the Table Rock Dam is having to release water at an alarming rate of 4.5 million gallons per minute - that's enough to fill 8 Olympic-sized swimming pools every single minute!  Schools are even being closed because buses can't get to the bus stops to pick up the kids...  That's the power of water, folks.  Here is a photo our neighbor sent us of the creek that runs just behind his house.

That's some fast water!

Sunday, today, we saw a strange phenomenon in the sky - 

A golden orb that pushed thru the clouds several times before it managed to break the clouds' hold on each other.  The orb warmed the air, and brought light and beauty back to the Ozarks.

 Our grove off the back deck facing north.  Green and clean.

Facing west. Clouds moving out.  

Now the cleanup begins for those areas hardest hit by the flooding.  Our Governor has declared Missouri a disaster area so there should be some help coming for those folks needing it.  The only 'damage' we got was a lot of water in the crawlspace under the house.  This is a bit misleading cause for most of the area of the crawlspace, John can stand upright...but there's a lot of water collecting under the house and the little sump pump John uses is working it's little motor so hard!  It will be hours and more hours before it gets most of the water pumped out.  

On a happier note, I was able to finish a pair of socks that were part of Sock Madness...they were the Qualifying pair and I was only able to get one sock done in the time allowed...that got me a place on Team Cheerleader and guaranteed that I get each pattern as it's released to the folks who are still competing.  I vowed to finish the pair, even if I wasn't going to be working toward going on to the next round.  This past week, I finally completed those socks...I give you Twisted Madness in Hedgehog Fibres yarn colorway Villain.

My mannequin feet won't stand up on their own - hence the coffee can in the background.  Not a great picture, but at least you can see them done.\

Our son and his wife won a trip to Puerto Vallarta thru his work and they went last week.  Big John sent Young John a text telling him the when he(Big John) was in PV many years ago, he had carved his initials in the sand...he asked Young John and his Jill to look for them while they were there.  On Saturday morning, we got this...

Yes, they were walking along the beach on their last day in Puerto Vallarta and the surf pulled back and revealed the initials "JK"...A Miracle!!! 

On that note, we hope you have a smile on your case, and we wish you a wonderful week until we meet again,

Thanks for stopping by. 

Week 17 - Welcome Rain

This week went by so quickly.  It's hard to remember what made it special.  I think mostly it was the rain.  We had quite a bit of rain - around 3 inches total - and all the trees and flowers and roads are washed so clean and bright.  This is the view off the back deck...

I love this time in the Ozarks.  The greens are so

green and the blues are so blue.

The trees are budding and winter is just a memory. 

Even the barn seems to be brighter and happier.

John moved the cows from the lower field to the upper field during the week and now they are back in the lower field.  It's almost as though they can tell time - about 6 o'clock every evening they line up facing the house, waiting for John to come down and feed them...

Little Beggars!  That's Rosie in the far left behind Beast.  And Belle is the one in the front (right) Rosie and Belle will be going to a friend's farm to be bred soon( a friend of ours calls it Sex Camp for Cows)... and Beast is going to Freezer Camp this summer, then he's going to Utah.  Mmmm, Mmmmm, Good!

John is working on finishing some small repairs to a wall in our master bedroom suite and then, and THEN, we get paint.  Finally, after 13 years, the bedroom will be painted and perhaps we can call it finished. Now to agree on the color scheme...once the painting is done. we can move the TV and bookshelves in there and maybe a couple of easy chairs...a real sitting room!  I'm so excited. 

Well, folks, that's about all for this week.  Rains and beautiful trees and flowers and cows...yep, that's the way we roll.

Thanks for stopping by.

Week 16 - Easter

Happy Easter to you all...while I'd like to say that we started the day with a sunrise service and then breakfast with our family and a day of egg hunts and family togetherness, but it just doesn't happen that way around here.  Anyone who knows me knows that sunrise is not a time of day that I understand....I am not now, nor have I ever been, and probably never will be a morning person.  And we haven't been to church in over 10 years - the one and only Catholic church in our little town is just not a very welcoming one and we haven't felt a need to find somewhere else to go.  No egg hunts here, since we don't have any small children to entertain, and family togetherness isn't practiced here.  We DID, however, have breakfast together. Waffles and sausage patties made from our own pork along with homemade syrup.  With a cup of freshly ground coffee and you have a wonderful Sunday morning breakfast.   

I wasn't feeling up to par so I went back to bed - woke up quite refreshed at 2 in the afternoon!  Something I rarely do but evidently I needed the rest. And then on to regular Sunday chores - laundry and the blog.  I also made a Key Lime Pie and a Lemon cake with lemon frosting for after dinner tonight.  

John spent most of the afternoon over at a neighbor's house, helping them to look for the neighbor's dog...Bella is a 4-year-old German Shepherd and she never goes missing!  They spent over 3 hours looking for her, asking neighbors if they'd seen her, calling and driving around.   No luck!  Hopefully, someone picked her up and will try to locate her home - she wears a rabies collar tag and is chipped so any veterinarian could find out where she belongs. Will update next week.

Mr. Wonderful had an extra day off this week for the Good Friday holiday.  He used it to install 2 ceiling fans on the front porch - something we've talked about doing since we moved in 13 years ago.

He did a great job of it, didn't he?  Now we can sit on the front porch of an evening and not have bugs flying around our heads!

Well, folks, nothing much else to tell you.  Until next time, 

Thanks for stopping by.

Week 15 - Sky and Clouds and Weather

So this past week was a mixture of clouds and rain and extreme weather - in other words, The Usual here in the Ozarks during early Spring. 

It's not unusual for TV shows to be interrupted for storm updates.  Nor is it usual to see the following in the Spring here in the Ozarks. If you embiggen the photo, you can see Seymour.  That town is about 15 miles south and east of us.  This was the other evening.  No severe weather came our way - we're pretty lucky that way.

Most of the pretty days are, well, truly pretty.  Here is what I drove home to the other day.

Big, fluffy clouds in a crystal blue sky.  Green grass and budding trees.  Truly gorgeous!

And another.

I've always been enchanted by clouds....they are white and fluffy and gray and black and menacing and everything in between.  And I never get tired of seeing them in the sky.  

Have spent the last few days working on projects that need finishing.  Socks that need a mate to the first one, a doll sweater, a block of the month that I started with the best intentions of doing each block during the month it came out and yesterday I finished all the hand-work on the January block!  Yes, I'm a bit behind on that one.  I also worked up the block from my local quilt shop that I do each year - May's block is done, as well as being caught up on all the ones for this year in a different color way...yes, I'm an overachiever!  

I'm off to finish the laundry.  Thanks for stopping by.

Week 14 - Thankfulness

Thankfulness....I've been thinking about this word all week.  Is one only thankful during the 3rd week of November?  That seems to the time when we concentrate on being thankful.  Are we only full of thanks then, or can we be full of thanks at other times?  This week, I was reminded that one can be thankful anytime...any time we have something to be thankful for and take the time to recognize it.  That being said, I am so thankful this week.  Here's why:

Mr. Wonderful had another procedure on his heart on Wednesday.  I haven't gone into a lot of details about his health challenges but suffice to say, he has been dealing with some cardiac issues since he first went to Utah and began work there.  He caught pneumonia in the course of his work and his heart was compromised as a result.  Thankfully, he was put in contact with a group of doctors who worked diligently to help him and his heart recover...when he came home 2 years ago, our amazing general practitioner connected him to another wonderful group of cardiology doctors...thru the course of several procedures, his various problems have been discovered and addressed.  While he is not 100% healed, he is certainly on the right road to recovery.  And here is where my thankfulness comes in...not once has Mr. Wonderful presented any symptoms...NOT ONCE!  If certain tests had not been ordered (they were looking for other things and making sure they dotted i's and crossed t's), they would not have discovered his conditions.  It has been a matter of providence that the medical folks in charge of his care have looked, seen, and understood how to treat him.  He still has some challenges but I have confidence in his team to watch his back (and his heart).  Can anyone not understand why I am so thankful?

I sometimes come upon a picture that just tickles me, for no reason at all.  Here's one to make you smile...I dare you not to smile! This is how new airplanes happen.

I belong to an online community thru Ravelry.com.  It's made up of millions of folks throughout the world who are knitters, crocheters, weavers, spinners...they are divided into "groups" of folks who share common interests -  a love of Dancing with the Stars, PenPals, American Girls Dolls - honestly, if you have an interest, there's a group for you.  While the primary interest we all share is fibre arts, we break down into smaller groups.  I belong to several groups (28 of them actually) although I'm not 'active' in all of them. If you are a member or want to be a member, it's free to sign up.  And I can be found as IIIMOM if you look under People.  One such group is a Wee Tiny Fairytale and Folklore group.  Each quarter the moderators (I'm one of the 3 moderators) choose a fairy tale, folk tale, or legend and folks sign up to participate.  We are paired off with a partner and each of us puts together a 'care' package based on the theme.  The package must include a wee tiny sock knit or crocheted to the theme (design is up to the maker) and one other small item.  It should include a couple of other things (stickers, mini skeins, pencils, candy, etc.) This quarter I am moderating a swap base don Willy Wonka...I leave you with the following:

Paradise is all around us if we will only stop, look, and appreciate.

Thanks for stopping by.