Weathered a Million Dollar Storm

Lush green is showing once again. We had nearly an inch and a quarter of moisture-snow and rain, which is a rarity in the semi-arid high plains. The moisture is life-saving this year. This storm is the western edge of the slow-moving system that wiped Greensburg, Kansas off the map. My neighbors apparently got their feed truck stuck in the pasture in the wet clay soil. I would have helped but I was busy going back to bed to beat the chill in the house. I tried yesterday to take the chill off the house with a camp heater but the house had lost its ambient warmth during the power outage so there was nothing to do but dig for dry logs and fire up the Franklin Stove. Then we were on the verge of having a sweat lodge because it never did drop below 30 degrees outside. Still, a fire in the fireplace is always nice and it restored warmth to the house and allowed the electric furnace to recharge itself. New hours for off-peak storage are very chintzy so it was still a little cool this morning. The electricity is still ebbing and flowing- I don't know what to think of that.

The woodpecker created a sizeable hole in my house and wasn't done. I went out several times to shoo him off-he was a ruby throated handsome devil but he was abusing my hospitality. I thought of the .410 shotgun as a remedy but he was just being a woodpecker and I did not fancy shooting my house. So I went and fetched my fake owl out of a Russian Olive tree and perched him on a fence post. Problem solved. I need to remember to move the owl from time to time and eventually remove him because I maintain a bird-friendly habitat garden but he is handy. Also keeps the real owls hanging around- "love is in the air."

A bunny is munching clover in the yard and scratching his ear. I think he came up the irrigation ditch. Buster is very capable of catching a rabbit so I hope the rabbit keeps to his sector below the garden. That is where I leave ageing heads of lettuce and the like for him. He may be too tame for his own good.