Round Two

Even with sophisticated Doppler radar and satellite views from space, weather prediction is still more art than science.  After all the hype regarding the storm last week (which most certainly did have flooding and high winds), we were told that a second wave of moisture was coming at us, but without the strong winds of the prior event.  Yeah, how's that workin' for ya?  Nature, with her perverse ways, blew that one out of the water for the weather guys and gals yesterday.  We got rain, yes, but the winds were quite literally gale force, and I'm pretty sure even stronger than last week.  I'd burned my last stick of firewood from the porch rack and needed to replenish from the tarp-covered stack under the oak.  I'd be lying if I said it wasn't scary with the overhead branches creaking and bending or being whipped by the edges of the tarp as I filled my little red wagon.  One wagon load was all I was willing or able to haul; the wind nearly swept me off my feet on the way back to the house.  Several blips and brown-outs put baking on hold another day.  I'm falling farther and farther behind here and am very happy that our holiday has been postponed.  Becoming desperate for clean bibbies and socks, I had to take a chance and do laundry, hoping with all my heart that both washer and dryer could finish their jobs and not leave me with a muddy, sodden mess to deal with.  It was with a huge sigh of relief that I folded clothes in the afternoon.  Poppy, with her weatherproof coat, was still grazing in the big field last evening, but the goats were huddled together in the covered playpen area and were not willing to take turns going into their rooms.  It was wet chaos.  Fair weather or foul (fowl?), Ginger insists on leaving the flock and going her own way.  However, my little soggy hen eagerly pitter-pattered after me when I put the chickens to bed.  We both slipped and slid on slick leaves in our path, still buffeted by wind.

Leaving sugarplums to others, visions of thermostats danced in my dreams last night.  It's raining this morning, but the wind appears to have died down.  We've made it through Round Two.  They're saying another weather front is waiting off the coast and headed our way.  Stay tuned.