Wednesday, May 2, 2012

First Storm


I actually hope with this will the only storm this summer but that is pretty unlikely.  We were in town and had just pulled up to pick Dancer up at Ultimate Frisbee when the sky got all funky and the storm warnings started.   On the way home I told the kids to run right out when we got home and put the goats in.   We got about three miles from home before the rain and hail started so we were ever so grateful to get in the garage.  It was lightening and the rain was really coming down so I told the kids to forget about the goats (there is a wide eve on the barn and the rain was from the other direction) and just run in the house.  We were not in the house more than a few minutes, long enough to fill the tub, the scrub bucket, and several jars with water (this is standard storm procedure in case the electricity goes out, it is nice to flush the toilet), when the hail started.  Then it rained, and rained, and rained.  Three and a quarter inches of rain.  It started coming in the basement by the door so we ran for the pump to put in front of the door.  Dancer had the wet vac and sucked up what came in.  With the pump we only had 24 gallons come in.  Since I was out with the pump and already soaked I ran to let the goats in the barn.  They were in their little outdoor shelter but were more than happy to get inside.   


About an hour after it stopped raining we did a little drive around the neighborhood.  This is the creek that Spark likes to poke around in, won't be doing that for a while.


Here it is spread out over the field. 


This is the culvert under the road behind us where the creek runs, it has rapids it is running so fast.  This side the road and nearby fields are also flooded.

The water must have run over the road here and the hail piled up.  Those are tire tracks going through it.  I told Dad to not get stuck because it would be embarrassing to call AAA and tell them we were stuck in a hail drift.  Actually, we would have waited for it to melt.


Another ditch where the fog was starting to rise off the water.

All in all we were quite thankful.  Just a bit of water in the basement, no strong winds or tornadoes, there were some around us but I didn't hear of any damage yet, and we didn't get the golf ball size hail that also hit the area.  A special treat, the electricity never went out.

1 comment:

Amy Dingmann said...

I am so glad you didn't get any big damage. We heard a tornado was spotted just west of you guys and I got worried. We got 1.5 inches of rain in that same storm and the farmers fields around us look like lakes! Tell Spark to stay out of the creek for awhile.... never a dull moment at your place, right?