Friday, April 13, 2012

Just Like A Woman

Nature simply couldn't make up her mind yesterday.  She blew in before dawn with howling wind and pouring rain and kept that up until I was finished in the barn.  Relenting, she parted the clouds and let the sun peek through when Kellan came for milk.  Nature is a wicked tease, though, because as Kellan was leaving, she dumped a bucket of rain on her head.  A little later, I had to go down to Mt. Aukum.  As if trying on new outfits, in the time it took to drive six miles I went through sunshine, hail, light mist, and a deluge.  The one constant all day was the cold.  Nature vacillated all afternoon between sun and rain, and it seemed to be tapering off (and that's what the weatherman had promised).  With the longer days, I've been putting the critters to bed around seven-thirty.  Along about five, Deb and Craig called.  They'd seen a warning on TV that a cell of really bad weather (including possible tornadoes) was moving up out of the lower valley into my area.  I had noticed that the sky was getting really black.  I'm no dummy.  Bess and I geared up and we went out to tuck everybody inside, early or not.  About seven, Nature hit us with her best shot.  As if everything during the day was just a preview of coming attractions, rain pounded down just before the hail started in earnest.  Turning on the deck lights, I watched as the boards were covered with white in a matter of minutes.  Thunder and lightning were so close, I started unplugging appliances.  The cats ran downstairs and Bessie huddled close.  I called Deb and Craig to thank them for the heads up; they'd saved me from a soaking.

It might seem I'm preoccupied with weather.  Down in the valley, bad weather was more of an inconvenience.  Up here, dealing with the animals and the property, our lives are pretty much dictated by Nature.  Regardless of what we plan, what we can do is determined by her.  Tree Guy had planned to fire up the burn piles yesterday.  Not.  I had planned to get the mower out and whack down the rapidly growing weeds.  Not.  I still have the barn door to fix.  Not.  I hope the old girl gets this temper tantrum out of her system soon.

It's raining SNOWING!

1 comment:

Kathryn said...

Wow! I remember the days when you said that you guys were in for a world of hurt if you didn't get some rain. I guess she is making up for it in spades. My smart phone weather says that you are having rain, rain, rain all day, but my son said not to pay attention to that app on the phone, so when I went to weather.com it only has it for a neighboring town, which said "light rain," but in red letters below it said, "locations nearby are reporting heavy snow!" Hmmm...yep! Don't slide down the hill to get to the goats. Sounds like snowshoes are in order! Yikes!