Weather Woes

We have been beset by storm after storm for weeks and we have had record breaking (yet again!) rain and there has been massive flooding all around our area. We are on a hill and though we were cut off for a while from the outside we were generally faring pretty good until the pond over topped the spillway during a period where we had a foot of rain in about a 5 hour period.

It came off the South pasture...

It came off the upper East pasture...

Then the upper pond breached the spillway and flowed to the lower north pond and we had a relatively fast flowing river between Judy's mobile home and the farm house. We have taken great pains to grade everything away from structures and channel the water flow because we do get monsoon rains but as one local told us, "I've never seen anything like this around here for the 74 years I have been around". None of the structures got water into them or were damaged but our roads were washed out in places and about $1000 worth of the gravel we laid this spring got washed down to the lower pond.

 

It feels like we are back in Alaska with all the rain and I almost expected to see some salmon swimming up stream here.

Our upper pond is now a lake. Last year at this time it was only about 4 foot deep due to the drought and now its about 20 feet deep.....the drought is over.

Here is the spillway that is causing all the carnage to our roads and parking area. Normally to the right in this picture you would go down about a 10 foot embankment to reach the pond.

This is a normally dry stream in our back woodlot but its been flowing for about a month. Its actually kind of picturesque and the cattle have been enjoying drinking from it.

Others have had more damage and we consider ourselves lucky. Our nearest neighbor had his access road wash out onto the highway and partially block one lane so he was out trying to clear it right after this particular storm. We have a great State Transportation Dept but they are spread thin in our remote area and its expected that land owners take care of things...and we do.

Some other friends that live about a mile and a half from us as the crow flies got hit with a small tornado and they lost a couple of barns that they used for their business but luckily no one was hurt and their house amazingly didn't even lose a shingle. Amazingly the Mustang buried in the ruble in this picture wasn't damaged much.





The power of Mother Nature is an awesome one and we live in an area where we are very attuned to the weather for obvious reasons. Its not a casual "watch the news and see what the weather will be" thing either. Virtually everyone has a weather radio, we get storm alerts sent to cell phones, we have NEXRAD radar links on the computer and most of us have our own weather instruments (Thermometer, anemometer, barometer, and rain gage). In fact, the weathermen around here are minor celebrities and often attend fairs, are featured speakers at churches and other civic meetings etc.

This entire section of one of the barn roofs was found about 100 yards into the woods wrapped around a tree, rafters and all.

I was actually on a structure fire call in another town (lightening strike) at about 0500 in the morning when the tornado hit but Holly got a call and immediately went over to lend support and then when I got back a bunch of us went over to help them move things into their basement and garage. We worked most of the day getting things in order and soon there were drinks, pizza and a second shift of people showed up to finish up. Its what neighbors do around here.

 

The rain continues, we cant really repair our roads and parking area until it stops because the pond is so full even a little rain over tops the spillway now but its supposed to let up later this week and our farm sales seemed to have surged with the bad weather. Its just life on the farm and where we would have been upset or kind of freaked out about all this a couple years ago...now its just another thing to deal with like everything else...and not really all that big of a deal at that.

 

 

 



 

Weather

We dont live too far from Joplin and the past couple weeks have been stressfull. We have had storm after storm with tornados and high winds to the north, south, east and west of us and we stay glued to the NEXRAD radar display. We have had hail and heavy rain and the temps today didnt get out of the mid 50s but compared to the folks in the communities that got hit by these terrible storms we are doing well with little damage other than an over soaked yard, pasture and garden. I am proud of this part of Missouri for their giving spirit, their perserverance, and the way the entire area has come together in this time of great destruction and loss. People are lending their time and giving their blood (literally) and what little money they have to help their fellow Missourians of which we are proud to be in that group.

Our phones were out for days and we learned that its not enough to have a storm shelter, a well stocked pantry, reserve water and backup generator....we need a means of communication to the outside world (SATCOM or my preference HAM radio) and we need a more sophisticated weather station on site since we cant rely on our ability to receive communications. And some simple things (I know starting a sentence with "And" is a no no but its my blog and I am tired) like having important papers in a heavy waterproof safe are equally important. We hope to never experience any calamity like what has happened to Joplin but we live in uncertain  times..weather wise, economically, and politically and we strive to be as self sufficient and prepared as we can be. The last couple weeks has shown us we have work to do in some areas and though we are well prepared for the economic and social uncertainties; money and our ample supply of weapons and know how does nothing to deter mother nature.

So we plan on doing to following:

1. Obtaining our HAM radio license and equiping ourselves with the equipment to maintain communications in the event we lose commercial or grid tied comms.

2. We have alreay been studying weather and we are fairly competent in our observations but we need more sophistication which means a better barometer, an anemometer that doesnt twist itself into scrap at 50 mph and a non-grid tied weather radio. But frankly that is a remote backup to knowledge on how to read the various radar arrays currently available on line. Knowlege is power but you have to have the power and connectivity and this will be an area we will remain vulnerable as the weather here is more regional than local and storms move at 50 mph or more.

3. We will be installing a heavy safe chained to the floor of our storm shelter to house important documents like birth certificates, military discharge papers, family photos etc. None of this stuff is financially valuable but its loss would be heartbreaking and in some cases would hinder our ability to recover.

Its supposed to calm down for a week or so and  we all need a break. Our thoughts remain with those in Joplin, Tuscalosa, and the other communities that will never be the same.