Posted By FarmerJ on May 24, 2011

1.  Recent storms have been producing some spectacular skyward scenes.  As the evening went on, the light displayed in this particular thunderhead became even more astounding with shades of pinks and oranges.  I didn’t capture any of those shots, though, as it was already raining.  I didn’t want to get wet.  I was afraid I would melt.

2.  ‘They’ say, and we believe, that when one door closes, another opens.  Well, we’re knocking.  And, we’re getting anxious to see what’s behind the new door.

3.  One girl’s junk is another girl’s treasure.  This has been proven by the fact I have sold a Halloween costume that has been stuffed in an old suitcase for lack of anywhere else to store it for…oh…about 12 years.  I only wore it once, so it’s like new, but still.  I was just going to throw it in the Goodwill box, too.  Squeeeeeeeeeee!

4.  Darling Husbie and Little Big Brother have completely torn down LBB’s blown engine.  The little 2.2L engine that once could no longer can.  At least not until some serious machine work is done and new parts get ordered.  Valves 1 and 3 encountered some misfortune.  As did the boy whose engine is in a gazillion pieces on Dad’s shop floor.  You can see some foreign metal particles that became ‘welded’ to the wall of the #3 valve, if you click on the photo to view the larger version.  It ain’t purty, though.  Just ask the boy.  And the dad.  Don’t ask me ~ I’m stayin’ out of it.

5.  Darling Husbie and I spent the majority of Sunday enjoying a mostly beautiful day in the square foot garden.  We pulled weeds, cut back asparagus, transplanted some strawberry plants, and mulched the 4′ x 4′ boxes and the potato boxes.  We used some of the small square alfalfa bales left from cuts two years ago.  They’ve been stored in the barn and they are just about as perfect as you can get.  And, oh how those plant babies love that alfalfa!  We checked on them this evening and everything has grown exponentially.  Seriously.  Like inches in just three days.

6.  Big Little Brother graduates High School Thursday evening.  What’s cool, to me at least, is that he’s graduating from my old High School.  We’ll be fellow Mustangs ~ just…he’s a young colt, and I’m an old nag.  But, still.  We’re Mustangs.  We’ll share pictures later.  Of his, I mean.  [Although, I wonder if any of my graduation photos have survived the years??]

7.  A Boy and His Dog.  Little Big Brother ready to take his girl heart to her Senior Prom.  Peanie wanted to be in the glamor shot, too.  I’ve asked the boy to get me some photos of him and his girl together.  I’m still waiting.  I’m told they’re on Facebook, but I’m still refusing to get a Facebook account.  So, I’ll just keep asking until the boy caves in and emails some to me.  Ah, the days of digitization, yes?

8.  It’s day two of the menu plan, and I’m already off kilter.  Darling Husbie took me out for lunch and I ate a ginormous plateful of the daily special ~ chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes and gravy.  And, corn.  And, a slice of bread.  And, sweet tea.  I’m stuffed to my gills.  So, Husbie had leftover Green Chile Chicken and Rice Goop for dinner.  I’ll eat another day.  Maybe next week.  Oy!

9.  Abigail is deathly afraid of the toaster.  She high-tails it into the bedroom the instant I bring out the loaf of bread ~ whether or not I plan to make toast.  Peanie is terrified of thunder.  She trembles herself into a frenzy until she pants like she’s just finished running a 10k.  Neither one of them have any fear whatsoever of running behind a tractor with an implement in operation.  The dog never wins when it’s Canine vs. Tiller.  I guess that’s why God made them lower on the food chain.

10.  Here’s a glimpse of our radar this evening and the storm we’re trackin’.  Fortunately, so far, everything up here has been fairly mellow.  Just thunderstorms.  Yes, Peanie’s trembling and panting herself into oblivion this very instant.  The more violent stuff has remained in Kansas.  It won’t hurt my feelings one iota if those Kansans keep it all, either.  Our forecast is mainly for ‘heavy rainfall and high winds’.  I can hang with that.  If you click on the photo to enlarge it, the pink ‘stick pin’ in the top center of the photo is Husbie’s weather station here at the Farmstead.  ‘You…er…we are here.’  The yellow dashed line horizontally across the center of the photo is the Nebraska / Kansas border.  This entire system is rotating.  We can see it in motion on our computer screens, but you can see it by the direction of the ‘storm tracks’ ~ the storm is moving up from the south and is rotating to the left as it moves north.  Cool, yes?  It’s only cool to me right now because there aren’t any deep purple centers in those red blobs, and there aren’t any purple triangles indicating a vortex.

Me thinks I may want to be an extreme meteorologist when I grow up.  Tee hee!  ♥

Categories: Plainly Ponderings
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