Be careful what you wish for

I've been wanting it to rain for some time now.  The pastures are dry and eaten down.  The grass won't grow without some moisture. Thursday night it rained and hailed. The city got hit very hard with hail.  Cars were buried with hail, it was that bad.  We had about quarter inch of rain plus the hail. Friday night the same thing happened except we didn't get any noticeable hail.
What we did get was an automated call from the sheriff's office saying that a tornado had been spotted in our area and we should move to a secure location.  For us, the bathroom seems to be the best option. I had Andy and Alex in the tub.  Peter and I were sitting around and Mischka and Ringo were laying on the floor of the bathroom.  Max was outside barking at something.  Jack was laying in the kitchen. Mischka had actually been trying to sit on my lap earlier when the power went out and it started to rain. But by the time we were sent to shelter she had calmed down.
The call from the SO said they would let us know when it was all clear.  We never had a phone call from the SO about the danger being over.  For as calm as the dogs were I didn't think that a tornado was anywhere near us.

An unwelcome visitor

Saturday afternoon I went out to the chicken house to let the chickens and geese out.  Ringo, the puppy, started chasing the birds and was soon chased by the rooster and one of the hens.  He runs into the chicken house and I went in to get him.  I heard a hissing noise and looked up to see a raccoon on a shelf. It is the first raccoon I've seen around here.  We spent the next half hour trying to get it to leave. The kids were all yelling, throwing rocks.  All from a distance with a fence in between. Max was trying to get the raccoon.  The raccoon got into an old tire on the roof and Peter shot it a couple of times.  It crawled into the chicken house and died.  The chickens were pecking on it.  Is that karma, how many chickens has that raccoon killed?  Neighbors down the road had a raccoon break into their chicken house, literally tore the door apart, and killed all the chickens, didn't eat any.  Peter felt really bad about shooting the raccoon but I'd rather have my chickens, eggs and cats.  My only other experience with raccoon was years ago in Arkansas when I went fishing with my great-grandpa and we put our catch in his holding pond.  The next morning all the fish were gone. Grandpa said the raccoons got them.

School Awards

School finished last week for the summer.  On Thursday afternoon was the elementary school awards.  Alex received an award for excellence in math, good attendance and citizenship award.  The citizenship award comes with a $2 bill.  He and Andy would have had better attendance awards if we hadn't gotten snowed in.
Andy received an award for excellence in art and attendance.
I received a certificate and gift bag for volunteering
When Magie was at the school today, she learned that there was a change in classrooms for next year due to the large number of siblings and cousins who would have been in the 4th/5th grade combo.  So next year we will have K/1, 2/3, 4th grade (Alex) taught by Mr. Frank who Andy had for 4/5 this year and Ms. Hotop will teach 5th grade (Andy)  Andy's pretty happy about it as Ms. Hotop is really into the sciences.

Alex receiving his math award from Ms. Hotop



Andy receiving his art award



Respect

In honor of our veterans, which includes my dad, we are flying the colors today.  In the wind. My Grandma always wanted the boys to salute the flag whenever we had it out.  We don't always fly the flag on the appropriate days due to the wind. After lunch we are going fishing. 


Alex putting the flag up




Andy and Alex saying the Pledge of Allegience



Hitchhiking

We have a little pond where we like to go fishing.  It has trees, a bathroom, picnic tables, all the things necessary for an enjoyable day of fishing. It is stocked with blue gills and lake trout.  Alex likes to find snails and tries very hard to bring them home.
Sadly, the fishing pond is right next to the water treatment plant.  We don't often get the smell from the plant but we don't eat any fish we catch there either.  It's entirely catch and release.  Alex is actually turning into quite the fisherman. He generally catches more than Peter.

The last time we were there, the turtles were out in force.  I caught this small turtle catching a ride across the pond.

Morning visitor

Snake in the chicken house

This morning I went out to feed the chickens and rapidly left the chicken house.  We had a visitor.  Not a coyote this time but a snake.  Just not any snake but a really big snake.  I hate snakes.  Tigger and Smokey, the barn cats,were in there as well.  Tigger, being older and wiser, was keeping his distance but Smokey being young and well, stupid, kept getting closer to the snake.  Peter came out and I had him get the snake out.  And kill it.  It was only a bull snake but I can't have any snakes in the chicken house because they will eat the eggs and might go after the pullets when I put them out there in about two weeks. 

Andy and Ringo with the five foot snake

Ice skating

Our little friend, Jenny, recently turned 7.  I remember when she was so much younger.  Anyway, she had a ice skating park at the rink in the Springs.  It was Andy and Alex's first time on ice skates.  Kids can have a big pile of buckets for stability.  Andy liked the skating, Alex not so much.  That's probably related to the amount of falling down Alex did.