Summer of Storms

Liz and Peg 2015
In the Cellar

 I can't recall any recent years where every single ten-day forecast shows thunder storms every day but maybe one or two. Not that this isn't the time for thunderstorms, but five or six a week seems excessive. I don't know how the farmers are getting any dry hay. A single day without rain is rare, let alone three consecutive ones.

Last evening we were all in the house doing stuff and talking when my phone started screaming...a tornado warning.

The ominous edge of the front

We scurried around getting dogs in, moving the car away from trees, and getting ready to hit the cellar if we needed to. Liz and I spent the next hour checking the sky for the wrong kind of cloud formation. The cellar is not a place we want to go if we don't have to. The birds all went silent....

Storm bird

We got some vicious winds and green skies, a bit of the now all-too-familiar torrential rain, but not much that hasn't come with every storm since the beginning of June. I guess other places saw much worse with trees down and at least one house hit by lightning, probably two, but we were okay.

I know complaining about the weather is about as productive as trying to teach a chicken to line dance, but dang, it's getting ridiculous!

I don't LIKE the cellar and I don't want to go there!

On the other hand it is a lot cooler today.

A captive tornado at the Fonda Fair Model Railroad
Display

Ark

We may need to build one. Sure am glad they let the river down this week, because man, oh, man, has it ever rained. It's like being in the Forrest Gump movie where you get every kind of rain there is....

Here we are getting soft rain that barely gets you wet. I went birding in that yesterday and barely had to keep my hand over the camera to shelter it, even though the river was dimpled with drop marks.

Heavier rain that makes the dogs smell funny and assures that the camp towels "drying" on the clothesline will never actually do so.

And duck drowning rain that will practically knock you over if you step off the porch.

A whole summer's worth of rain crammed into just a few days. It is raining now. It was raining then, it has been raining for a long while, and I am afraid it will be raining for a while yet....it can stop if it wants to though, any time now. I am tired of conjugating rain...

Hiatus

Herring Gulls yesterday. Looks as if they're getting out of town
Do they know something we don't?

Or the calm between the storm....

We are under apocalypse warnings at this time, with a strong chance of zombies. It's already kinda ugly.

Snow, snow, and more snow. 

With wind. 

It is as if ma nature has dandruff and is flatulent. Guess she's getting old like the rest of us.

The ground was white this morning, and wires and twigs and limbs adorned with fluff aplenty. However, the sky was fairly bright by seven or so and you could even...faintly...see the sun.

Hmmm, didn't look too bad and I wondered about the Thruway being closed to trucks and schools letting out early. If this was all we were going to get.....

However, that lasted about and hour, and now the dandruff is coming down hard. Birds are plentiful at the feeders and restless, as am I....restless that is, not plentiful, being one of a kind and all.....so I guess we are in for it.

Again.

Even the birds are screaming, BAH HUMBUG

Waiting for LIght

This is Becky's photo of the doll she crocheted for the fair,
which she gave to Peggy when it came home.

Oh, the sun is up and all...and for a change there is some sun....but it is too foggy to tell a House Sparrow from a rooster, except that the latter is crowing his head off. So I'm waiting.

The fog will burn off soon enough as the sun creeps over the trees to the east. Then it's out for a little hide-and-seek with warblers.

I thought of my dear friend from Ohio yesterday as a little Wilson's Warbler came cheerfully out of the brush to inspect me..... thoroughly. What a delightful little fellow, yellow as a buttercup with a small black cap on the very top of his head. He didn't leave until I tried to raise the camera.

Warblers are about the most elusive birds you could imagine, except for Wilson's, Yellow-rumped (sometimes) and Common Yellowthroats. Those three will come right out of the bushes and hang around looking at you while you look at them. It is so companionable. Every fall some Wilson's or other will pop out and check me over, for all the world like an emissary from my dear friend. So, Cathy, if you sent him...thank you....

Meanwhile, it is impossible not to worry...a lot...over dear friends and close family who are in harms way with the terrible storms and fires. I feel kind of guilty planning a walk out on the land while people I love are racing for safety or battening down for the big wind, or gasping for air out west. Indeed even here in Eastern NY we are all sneezing and wheezing, I believe from the smoke from those Hell fires out west. 

Peggy's first day of pre-school today at Mom's Morning Out in Fonda is today. Becky and Alan both attended there and had a wonderful experience and lots of fun. We are all wondering if they still have the big wooden barn Ralph and I built and Liz donated....we built her another one, of course. That one is in the living room right now, full of horses and such....

Harvey

Our valley in 2006. It was the same story then.....
people showing just how good they could be, helping each other

Thanks to Facebook I have been watching ordinary people perform acts of heroism that are the stuff epic movies are made from. Watching them graciously turn away thanks and praise and go back for another neighbor. And another. And another. Watching strangers save strangers and glad to do it.

Watching America. Because this is America, not some gang of rent-a-thugs making headlines by their sheer horribleness. You are America. I am America. We are better then those making news lately and if this doesn't show that what will?

Prayers for Texas......and good on all you people that I have come to "know" on Facebook, who are working hard there taking care of those in need. Thanks for what you do.

Rude

We had a rude awakening last night...well, we weren't all asleep yet, but everyone was winding down for the day.

Suddenly horrible winds came up. The whole house shuddered and shook. Rain flew sideways and lashed the windows like pebbles flung from a slingshot.

I guess damage was done around the region, trees down, power out, but other than the lights flickering and the lawn chair....a vintage metal one btw...being tossed over for the hundredth time, everything seems fine so far.

Sure was wild though.
 

GatorQuest, success at last!

Again with the Flooding

The calm before the storm

Ridiculous. I have no idea how Jade got home last night, as he was hauling up in the western part of the state when the really heavy rains hit.

It began raining night before last. It is raining now. It rained most of the time in between. There were horrible thunderstorms, wind, and lashings of rain, some of the hardest we have seen all summer.

All the roads were closed in front of the farm when we went to bed last night. Mud slide across the river. State of emergency for the whole county. Don't know if the report is true, but I saw on FB that someone was struck by the lightning.

I know I took the cows up the lane a lot faster than I normally do. Metal gates. Metal umbrella. Metal fence wires. Tall trees all around. Normally I meander a bit listening for good birds and staring up at the branches. Not last night.

It was nasty. It has been nasty all year. Our hay supplier from when we had the cows called to chat last night and said he was down 500 bales this year....500 big round bales that is. If we still had the cows, he would not have been able to supply us!

California, and anyone else who has come up short, come get your rain. It has outstayed its welcome.

It Just Keeps Gettiing Worse

One of the strange sunsets we've seen lately

Every week, sometimes even every day, the state has been experiencing severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. It is not abnormal for there to be tornadoes here, now and then, and thunderstorms are a feature of summer here. 

That is normal and expected.

However, although it is perhaps only a perception, it seems as if they are occurring rather more frequently in recent weeks than has been the norm.

Last night was no exception. It was perfectly calm, although really nasty humid, until around eight-thirty or so. Then the huge wind tuned up again, and clouds worse than those in last week's big one boiled up over the western horizon.

The men ran from window to window, and door to door, watching them writhe and pup and spawn. Huge tunnels formed in them and then closed and dissipated. Tongues dropped and then recoiled back up into the seething clouds. 

 It was scary. 

They called me down...thought I was sleeping...Nope, I was going from window to window, upstairs, watching, ready to call for a trip to the cellar if it got worse. 

And then it was done. Cooler. Less humid. So far we have found a few boards off the barn...not sure yet how bad that is, but so far no big damage.

However, in another part of the state, where we know folks, and Liz had lots of farmers in her milk inspector days, things were bad. There were deaths and wanton destruction. I dread to hear the news this morning.... 

Enough, Really, Enough

After years of trying finally got a lightning shot
Not exactly stunning, but satisfying just the same

With the storms already. We got the usual, high winds, some lightning, a lot of hard rain. However, up county where Jade's family lives, it was much worse. No word on whether it was a tornado or not, but trees fell on the buildings where they keep some of their garden equipment and got their tractor snow blower and their old boat and side bar mower.

Worse though, it took out the Amish neighbor's barn, while all the people were inside. No one was hurt, but what a mess. 

I guess the kids will be sawing wood for a while. 

Stormy Night

But

beautiful. 

Well That was Interesting

Corner of Lusso and Borden Roads in the wake of last week's storm

Another big storm. Haven't heard yet about any damage, but everything we had in the yard took a hike, including a heavy stainless steel milk house bucket and the big barrels we use to haul water to the barn.

Started out with warning tones from the National Weather Service interrupting the boss's TV. Didn't sound good atall, atall. "Continuous cloud-to-ground lightning.....seventy-mile-per-hour wind gusts."

When I paused on the stair landing there were still a few stars glimmering in the west but that continuous cloud-to-ground was already flickering against the gathering clouds. 

Not much later both bedroom doors blasted open despite being firmly latched closed. The whistling started and the whining and the lashing rain and booming and blasting of the thunder. I should have gotten out of bed and tried for that elusive lightning shot I have been chasing for so many years, but I was sleepy.....after a while it tapered off and sleep returned, but it was a hummer of a storm.

And now, this morning, we are looking for stuff. 

Last week's big one took down a box elder tree in the barnyard. To our great hilarity all three cows take some time every morning to eat the leaves. Must be something there they want or need because it is just about bare now.

Anyhow, these photos are of the end of the road that runs behind us, Lusso Road, and Borden Road. I don't know where the water came from, but it sure cut a heck of a channel. It is no wonder the roads were all closed in that area. 

Dunno about you, but I am ready for some warm, dry weather for making hay and drying laundry. That is all.

Sound of the Storm

Amish farm just between the storms

Below is a little video I took last night of the tiny stream between the house and barn. Normally this is barely deep enough for the cows to get their noses down for a drink. This was taken a couple of hours after the first really bad round of rain had passed, so it was probably much higher a little earlier. Turn your sound up if you would like to hear it.

However, I have a deep and abiding love for the camera and don't take it out in that kind of weather. Plus it probably wasn't all that safe up on the bridge then. It has calmed down considerable since then....butter wouldn't melt in its mouth so to speak. 

I hope this is over, but the strong warmth of the sun on this really chilly, wet morning, are making me think otherwise. 

The kids are at the event below with Diamond, if you want to stop by and visit....and with Peggy Ann too!


Click image for details.

Storm!

Just before the screaming started

I was Peggy sitting so I didn't get any storm pictures, but there was wind and hail and there are tornadoes off to the east.

Gettin' ready to tune up

Dunno if it's over, but I sure hope so. Also hope you are all safe. 

Did you see that hail in Amsterdam?!? We had nickel-sized and a lot of it, but I saw pics on Facebook of lumps the size of small lemons! Yow!

And the wind... I was sitting in the chair with Peggy and the trees next to the driveway started to bend 1/4 of their height and to lash and whip, so I got up and took her to the center of the house away from all the windows. When you have four-by-eight foot windows you stay away from them during storms.

She never even woke up. Now her mommy and daddy are home so she is happy as a clam at high tide.

Gramma, you funny lookin'

Crazy Glad

That Alan is working up here in the Capital Region rather than in NYC, where he normally is. And so sick and sorry for the city. Some of the most horrific photos whirling around Facebook are of places he was working as recently as a few weeks ago. Bad enough up here but...

As you can see we came through the storm all right. Milked a couple hours early last night in case we lost power, which we didn't but a LOT of people did. It is still too dark to see what else happened out there, but I don't think too much.

Really, right here, where we usually catch the very worst of winter storms coming up the valley, last night wasn't much worse than a normal winter storm, only warmer, for which I am most grateful.

Sorry on the other hand for the loss of life and devastating property damage in other areas. I actually sat up for a while watching TV with the boss..sort of stupefied with horror at what was happening in the city...

Hope wherever you are, you are warm and dry and sheltered.

Prayers for my dad would be appreciated. He is having another surgery today. Thanks

Anniversary of Irene

This is what happens when you let the boys chalk tail heads

You remember her. She stopped in this time last year and left a legacy of devastation that still haunts much of the Schoharie Valley and even places right down the road. 

And this

We were personally very fortunate, but neighbors lost a lot. However, one of my most compelling memories of the time of trouble was the overwhelming spirit of help and cooperation that infused the center of Upstate NY. It's impossible not to be proud of the people who pulled together for their neighbors and who still, a whole year later, are fundraising and volunteering for clean up and rebuilding efforts.

It was just a little nerve wracking to hear the rain begin to thunder down again last night, but although things are mighty soggy, it seems to have stopped and the forecast doesn't look too bad. Hope it stays nice as we would like to get over to the fair a couple of times this week. Liz took the pony over so we are down two people for a good part of the week. Nobody here but Becky and the old folks.

This is what they were supposed to be doing

On the Egypt-BooBoo cow front, so far so good. I went outside when the cows were coming into the barn yesterday morning and made her stay outdoors. Then I milked Dublin and turned her out so Egypt couldn't get me and let Egypt come inside. At night the boss offered to do the squeezing in between and getting squashed. He is bigger than me and a darn sight tougher and Egypt didn't even give him any trouble.

De Tunder Boomers

Is rollin' in. This may be a real short post if I have to ditch and run around pulling plugs. 




Along with horror at having to purchase health insurance in the future...we let it go when Alan was still in school because the monthly bill got higher than the milk check...there is this whole days-are-getting-shorter thing going on.


Got up two days in a row now and the sun wasn't up yet. Darn that whole tilting thing anyhow.


That pic is a cucumber blooming happily on the bench in the living room, clear evidence that Liz is a busy young person. She has two flats of assorted annual garden plants on my bench. The tomatoes are two feet high! Ah, well, they are very pretty and I don't mind watering them.

Hail to the Chief

Or would you believe, hail to the ground and everything else?

Yeah, it really came down today, rained like it meant it and hailed for a while. It put on quite a show.

Lesson Learned

Over the past few years I have learned not to wish for rain.....ever....

So I didn't wish for this rain, even though it got pretty darned dry over the past few weeks.

Everything is wet now and I am ready for it to move along. Rain scares me.

Scho-Mo Confluence

A necklace of gulls hunts where the waters merge

 A mighty tree the flood washed up at the boat launch

 Mappy for size reference
You can see part of the aqueduct behind him

The Auriesville Shrine from the boat launch

The innocent corn fields looked much the same...

you would never know that they had been inundated with feet of swirling water. When we were little the then owners let my dad and his friends and us kids walk these river flats after the rain, searching for chips of flint, arrow heads, pot shards and other evidence of those who lived here before us.

On the way home from the hospital Sunday my brother and sis-in-law were kind enough to stop at the boat launch where the Schoharie "creek" (a word used loosely for a sometimes-raging monster river) and the Mohawk River (which did some raging of its own last year.)


All the way home, things had looked the same and yet different from the last time I had been this way....before the flood...houses still sat where they always had been, but now they were wrapped in Tyvek, surrounded by dumpsters full of sheet rock and sofas, or sported condemned stickers and waited for their fate. 


It was a little like moving away, growing old, and finding your town somehow different when you came home to visit....you knew where the streets were, but life had gone on without you. Kind of misty and confusing.


Except that it goes on for miles and miles all over the state and a lot of places are much worse than here.


Much the same at the boat launch...the hard things of concrete and stone were still where they used to be but water channels had changed, roads had washed out and been replaced with lesser roads, debris was piled everywhere in windrows and mini-mountains. 


I was really pleased to see that much of the aqueduct still stands...I thought it might have all fallen. Imagine the kind of construction that has kept that much of it upright since 1841.


The place was thronged with people, much busier than it is in the summer when the state holds its hand out for money every time you drive down the access road. People hunted lures, played with eager doggies, or just looked out where the gulls whirled in the current, hunting herring. It was wild and eerie and.....well...I can't come up with a better word than different.


For more on problems with flood debris, go here.