Latest round of storms to hit Arkansas

Last Sunday night, Arkansas was hit by another round of tornadoes and flooding.  Thankfully, none of my friends or family were effected. 

We do have a storm shelter.  We have never had to use it.  In fact it's our "root cellar", where we store our dehydrated foods and such.

For more info on the how Arkansas was effected by the recent storms, please check out our local news station, KAIT8.  Storm surveys continuing for arkansas tornado

We got 7 inches of rain in our area.  The local town of Hardy had some flooding, along with all the other little towns along the Spring River.

Our friend who live in Ravenden found a cottonmouth (2 feet long) in their basement while there were sheltering from the storm.  NOT GOOD.  Luckily, it was stuck to one of those stick mouse trap things!  Damn!  It wasn't enough that they were in the basement, watching the river rise higher and higher... they had to worry about MORE snakes being in their basement!

Some home improvements and spring landscape

Spring is busting out all over here in the Ozarks!  We have things blooming.  Bees are buzzing.  Dogs are running around outside after the squirrels and chipmunks.  We saw our first black snake down by the gate earlier this week.

My lilacs and peach trees did really well this year.  We didn't have any frost when most of our neighbors did.  I'm not really sure why.  I think those who were unlucky and got frost are closer to the Spring River than we are.

Peach trees and daffodils (with bedroom to be removed in the background)

Peach petals falling like snow

Our peaches usually do well.  We had more blossoms this year.  These trees are about 8 years old.  I'm looking forward to fresh peaches!

The wind really blew the petals around!

Now the lilacs are blooming, and the violets.  It smells so wonderful walking by.

Our house has been in disarray the past few days.  We decided it was time to replace our windows.  The ones we've been living with for the past 8 years are the windows that were installed when the house was built in 1978.  The 2 windows in the Great room were cracked (I had packaging tape over then hole/crack).  We got our friend, Chris Graves of Mammoth Springs, to install the new windows.  He and Jack are doing a great job!

The first 2 sets went in fairly well.  But when they got to our bedroom window they discovered some pretty serious rot in the logs.  Out came the chainsaw! Once all the bad wood was removed, Chris called around until he found an acceptable window.  Jack drove up to Koshkanong, MO to Ozark Salvage and got a very nice 5 ft by 5 ft window.  So now we have an egress window in our bedroom.  The other 2 windows went in well, no problems. 

Jack and Chris are milling some cedar to use for molding and such today.  And depending on the rain and other possible issues, will be back on Friday or Monday to finish the interior work.

So, here are some before and after pictures.

South entrance, before

South windows, after.

Front entrance, before.

Front entrance, after.

 

 

North side of our house, before, with bedroom addition to be removed.

 

 

Our bedroom window, after.

Our computer room/utility room window, after.

Our kitchen window, after.

After Chris and Jack get the molding and such up, they will be building us a new storage shed to replace the old aluminum one we have now.

The storage shed is behind the truck, on the left.

 Once the storage shed is complete, we'll be moving Josh's furniture out into it.  The weird extension on the northwest end of the house will be torn down, and a new addition will be built in it's place.  This space was a afterthought porch kinda space when we bought the house.  We did a some work on it and made it into our "back porch" and a bedroom.  The brick patio was added outside.  Here's what it looks like now.

Patio and back porch now.

Here's what it looked like before we worked on it in 2007.

North side of our house in 2007.

Notice how much the landscaping has grown in 7 years!  Amazing!

It's spring!

Spring has sprung here on the Farm!  We have daffodil and hellebore blooming.  Our peach trees are showing off (they looked better before the winds today). 

Peach trees on the north side of our house

Peach blossoms on the ground from the wind

We have thundershowers moving through our area today.  Winds, some thunder, a tiny bit of rain.  Some sun.  A typical 75 degree spring day.

Daffodils and wild violets I've transplanted from the woods

I wish I had taken a picture of the trees yesterday.  They were beautiful!  And the fragrance!

My lilacs should start blooming soon.  I love the smell of them!  One of my favorite smells from childhood.

Guinea fowl on the south side of the house

The guineas were out looking for fresh shoots and bugs.  They can be out and about until we get ready to plant the garden.  Then they have to go back in their run.  They just DESTROY the garden, dig up everything.  Even if they aren't going to eat it.  We had replant last year and the year before because of their digging.  So, they have to live in the run during egg laying/gardening season.




Our banty hen, Pebbles, and her 3 little chicks are doing fine.  Those chicks are so cute!

I didn't get all the leaves burnt yet.... too much wind.  But, I'll get it done slowly but surely.

I've been taking it kinda easy, since I know I have that kidney stone in my left kidney.  I had an outpatient procedure on Tuesday to put a stent in.  On the 10th the doc will try breaking up the stone so I can pass it.  I really hope this works, because I don't want to spend time in the hospital.  The stone is too big to pass, so if breaking it up doesn't work, they will have to remove it through my back.  Not something I would look forward to!

I've been working on one of my longterm knitting projects.  A peach/pink merino and silk spiral lace shawl.  I started it back in October 2011.  And now it's done!  Hurray!!

Here's how it looks.

How you wear a circular shawl

A closer look at the shawl