Storms and taking photos of . . . EVERYTHING

WELL NOW - we had damage INSIDE the house yesterday.

Josh, Jenny and the kids were over grilling out yesterday and the storms were coming. We have all the iPads with live radar working and as the storm neared I was out on the deck watching the darkness arrive.

Josh comes out and we're looking and Sydney is running around the deck.

I say, "LISTEN, you can hear it!"  Jenny, inside looking out, says "what can you hear" and I say "you can hear the gust front" and I point.  Jenny from inside the house says "I don't hear nothin!".  At that second Josh swoops baby Syd into his arms and starts to move towards the house while I continue to point and yell LOOKIT!!.

Flying plant

BAM - a wall of wind hits us and a plant INSIDE the house lifts up, spins around and is literally spraying dirt all around the kitchen landing 5 feet away.  Of course Josh and I squeal like little girls at how exciting this is while baby Syd is FREAKING out.

Crazy wind that registered at 48mph on my wind gauge.  The one storm dumped 0.25 inches of rain and the temperature dropped 21 degrees in 10 minutes. 
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This is what a cow looks like JUST before he licks your lens!

More on that later.

I picked up Elwood from Madison and stopped at Eddies for a Nitro Stout and some burgers with the plan to get some yard-work/landscaping done.   We had a task list of things to do (we do that).

The big project was to remove a Juniper from in front of the house.  McKay does some good things and some things that just do not work out well and the Juniper just looked ugly.

We  had a few beers to prepare for hard labor and then one or two more to hydrate ourselves properly.

But before that we "went to work" we did a few tiny things like look in awe at our Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum).   ANYWAY - it's never gotten this tall, 14+inches!

Sweet Woodruff - Galium odoratum

Sweet Woodruff - Galium odoratum

And we marveled at how some Georgia Blue ( Veronica peduncularis) was now blooming

Georgia Blue ( Veronica peduncularis)

And I can't remember what this is but we call it erosion control as it sucks up amazing amounts of water.

And finally the EAST side of the house is starting to take shape.

So - after contemplating life we started to dig up the Juniper which was harder AND easier then we thought it would be.   After chopping off all the branches it looked like it would be easy.  BUT once we started digging the roots were crazy thick.

We got it, collapsed and decided to have a beer.

Here is the thing - the NEXT day, DJ and I did more work Sunday morning the Elwood and I did all day Saturday.   GO FIGURE!!

Actually while I mowed the lawn (longest it had ever been I believe) DJ did the clean up of the front to perfection.

HINT - anyone that does yard work GET GLOVES.  Seriously, it really makes the jobs much more fun.  DJ will attest to that.  When I started working I got gloves and WOW - what a difference.  Then I told Elwood and he said he did not need gloves as he did not mind dirty hands.  I said that was not why.

A month later Elwood had gloves and  WOW, what a difference "this is amazing" he said!!  It's just knowing that there us nothing that will puncture your skin, no tiny sliver, no reason NOT to stick your hand deep into he dirt.

Now we can start improving and rearranging the front yard. 

DJ did a GREAT job.

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Back to cows.

We took a side trip looking for photos and came accross this barn near Marshall.

There is a woman who's job, for the Library of Congress (I guess, is to take photos of . . . everything. Americana sort of stuff.  I'm thinking I should do that around here.  The reason is that you never know when something will go away.  For instance - she took a glamor shot of that giant cowboy down in Texas (some University) and 2 weeks later it burned down.

SO - I begin. 
  

Have a cheery week and be glad you do not golf in league on THURSDAYS! LOL  AGAIN - Thursday will totally suck!  Fourth week in a row.

Rod