after the storm

A weather report, with unrelated images.

Well, we knew it was coming.

I woke up yesterday to a storm warning: from 3 to 7 and from 7 to 10.

A series of storms moving in different directions,

all projected to hit my area pretty hard.

Rain, damaging winds, and a tornado watch.

tulip

The goats received their morning AND evening hay rations at 630 AM,

with the reminder that wasting hay is a sin (this does not seem to have much  impact on goats, by the way) and a warning that there would be no supper.

They all enjoyed their extended breakfast, and as the afternoon ticked along it seemed the first storm episode was giving us a miss, hooray.

But at 4, when I was busy moving things into the workshop or under the roundtops, and generally battened down hatches,

I was followed every step of the way by goats asking,

"Where is our supper, please?"

They clearly had no memory of our earlier conversation.

So I got half the hay I had already dragged out to the workshop for the morning after the storm - that would be today - and distributed that, along with a recommendation to eat quickly and then pick a comfortable spot to hunker down in.

"Preparing" for heavy winds mostly means tying things to other things.

Light things to heavy things.

Loose things to stable things.

But there is no "preparing" for a tornado,

apart from hoping very hard that there will be no tornado.

So I did that too.

tulip

When I turned to leave the barn, the sky was suddenly turning black.

I walked in the back door, and when I got to the front parlor - about 6 paces - the wind was roaring and trees were bending and rain was coming in sideways-blowing sheets. And it was very dark. I turned the Barnyard Theatre lights up, got a candle and matches, and settled in with Piper and Moxie and Della to see what we could see.

poppies, drawn from a carving

It was quite a storm.

A lot of lightening.

A lot of very strong wind and heavy rain.

And by 10 PM, it was pretty much over.

When I woke at 230 AM, it was so quiet I opened a window for fresh air.

We are all fine.

The herd is subdued, but fine.

Moxie and I went out first thing this morning and walked the fences: all intact.

We released Agatha and Eloise from the barn, where they had been confined.

They may have been a bit annoyed but at least they hadn't blown away.

Clintonia

It's been a glorious clear and sunny day,

quiet and peaceful. But I haven't taken photographs.

So even though they are not related at all to the storm,

I've illustrated this post with some recent line drawings.

Left-click to see them in nicer resolution, if you wish.

This one was from last night: 

I hope your weekend is going well!

I think we are all going to have an early night here.

~~~~~