Aftermath

66°f/19°C, mostly sunny. What a nice change!

We didn't escape the storms completely unscathed. This tree seems to have been hit by lightning, as it was split right down its side, then I guess the lightning exited near the base, and broke it enough to fall across the driveway.

We were on our way out, so Larry got the chainsaw and cut it up, and we dragged the pieces out of the way. It will make good firewood this winter. On the way home another tree had fallen across the ridge road, but we were able to get around it. We got the saw, went back and cut that one out of the way too. 

We saw several places along the road where neighbors had had to do the same thing, but fortunately no homes were hurt. The water did get pretty high, but no flooded houses on our road, thank goodness. These photos were taken by a neighbor.

It was a close call; on more storm would have caused damage like that in Roseville and Crooksville, Ohio. We have been to Roseville several times. It's the historic home of the beautiful Roseville pottery. I hope those buildings were not hurt as I think there are some that are still standing.

It is odd how such weather affects us, or at least me. Perhaps you are the same: I find myself unable to focus or get involved in any project. It's like I am waiting for the other shoe to drop; if I try to read, I find myself glancing up repeatedly to look outside, then re-reading the same passages several times over. I feel unsettled and on edge, and it takes a while after things return to normal for me to regain my usual calm self.

So I decided to price stuff for the booths, which while it takes some concentration,  it does so in short spurts because most of the work is simple--clean the item if needed, write the tag, wrap it up. Concentration is needed only for those things that require research. This sweet embroidered tablecloth was in the "to be priced" pile, but I decided it should go on ebay 

This rose bravely bloomed after the storms. Such a beauty, and so far still hanging in there. The heavy rain and winds beat down most of my flowers. 

Today Derek came over to help Larry load up his mower to take to the shop, again. I was so grateful as last Spring I had to help load that thing and it aboyt killed me it was so heavy. I started painting a little cabinet, and made a tomato rice soup that is downright yummy, just brown rice, diced kielbasa, sliced carrots from the garden, and a jar of our salsa, topped with Mexican blend grated cheese.

A friend shared this. Do you think it will hold true? 

And a few funnies I have seen lately:

My cousins took this photo while they were traveling somewhere out West:

Rain and thunderstorms are expected to return tonight, so better laugh while we can!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Stormy

66°f/19°C, overcast and storming.

This is craziness. It stormed badly yesterday, then again all night. After a brief break, it started again around 11am and hasn't stopped. 

Poor Pip is terrified. He won't even take a treat. He seems to feel better with this heavy rug over him. At least he laid down, where before he just sat in that corner and trembled.

Here is a short clip of this morning's storm. We could hardly see outside, the rain was falling so hard. I worried about our trees.

This happened yesterday at a friend's house. 

It destroyed her deck and her pool. There are many trees down all over our county, a lot of downed power lines and flooded roads. I am hoping no one's home has been flooded.

Currently it is still thundering and showering, but the sky is clearing. More rain and storms are expected tonight. Our power has flickered but except for a couple hours yesterday it has amazingly remained on. Counting our blessings!

Juice and Jelly

70°f/21°C, humid but no rain. Mostly cloudy.

Buddy the dog barked almost all night. At what? Who knows, but perhaps the young doe who boldly grazed under the apple tree close to the back porch while we were out there working had come back looking for apple drops.  Pip was content to stay on the rug beside our bed, and let Buddy do the night shift.

So it took me four cups of coffee to get my motor running this morning. First up: start defrosting the big freezer. It was so iced up I could get very little out of it. Such a hassle! We had unplugged it the night before, so it was starting to melt already. We worked on it off and on all day as more and more ice melted, and now it is completely empty. After dumping all the out-of-date stuff, things that had lost their vacuum seal and so on, we were able to fit all the good stuff into the smaller freezer and the freezer in the extra fridge. Next job is to clean up the big freezer and see if we need to replace the gasket, as that may be why it iced up so badly.

In between working on that, I finished up the grape juice, ending up with 12 quarts. As a treat, I made grape juice floats, just grape juice with vanilla ice cream. Surprisingly good! 

Next I tackled the elderberry jelly. I had extracted the juice earlier this week and froze it until I had more time. 

I made 3 batches, ending up with about 12 half-pints. I added white wine again, as we liked that little variation very much when I made it last week.

The tomatoes I put in the dehydrator on Friday were ready to put away, so I did that next, and cleaned up the dehydrator--quite a job as the tomatoes are quite sticky as they dry. These I will use to thicken sauces, and I may grind them up into powder if I find time. This is a good way to use up a lot of tomatoes.

Larry picked a half bushel of beans I do not need, so I guess tomorrow or Tuesday I will can them. 

Unless I can find someone to give them to. Canning season is winding down now, just a few more tomatoes to deal with. I have no apples this year so we can't make sauce unless we can find some somewhere.  My oldest son is on the lookout in his area, where there are quite a few orchards. 

Speaking of sons, oldest just returned from his annual hiking trip, this time a week in the Sierra Nevada range; Derek was in Texas and Louisiana this past week, and Aaron was in North Carolina. Everyone is safely home now, but Aaron will be on the road again this week, this time to Norfolk, VA for a job on the USS Fort Lauderdale (doing what I have no idea, but something to do with boilers or heat systems for sure). He will get to visit his oldest daughter while there as she's in the Navy and stationed in Norfolk. 

A friend took this photo of one of the bad storms rolling into Ravenswood last week. This is about 16 miles from us.

More storms are expected this week. We seriously do not need more rain.  Last year at this time we were crying for it! Crazy, crazy weather.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.