When you seem to be stuck, and it feels that the whole world is conspiring against you, look beyond. Find the real, positive, enduring value that life does indeed have to offer.

Flag Counter started April 3, 2008

Representative Blunt and his Ag Tour stopped at our farm to discuss our switchgrass field, our cattle operation, and our low-stress stockmanship.

Here’s the link to the photos I took for our Hand ‘n Hand blog.

Here’s the link to the KORL 10 report which appeared on TV tonight!

And here’s the link to the Springfield News-Leader articles in the August 12 issue. We were front page, above the fold in the actual paper!

Here’s the group on the Third Annual Honeymoon Float! Our flotilla filled nine canoes and three kayaks. And this year we had the added enjoyment of Guitar Man and his dog! Click here to see more photos!

I’m really late getting these movies posted, so they are out of order. This is from April 26 when Justin and Calie were down visiting.

Justin wanted to fish while he was here, so we went to a farm pond with Delilah, Bryce and Andy and had some fishing fun. Bryce is a killer casting guy with his little kid fishing pole! They didn’t catch any fish, but they sure had fun!

Today was Emma’s first birthday party (her actual birthday is Tuesday, June 9). Click here for more photos!

Here’s the kids enjoying the wading pool.

Today was Richard’s big 60th birthday. We spent a really quiet day around the farm with little birthday activity happening. Then, about 7:30 pm, Jessica, Rondle, and kids slowly and quietly drove down the driveway and sneaked onto the porch and yelled, “Surprise” through the open front door! Richard was surprised! I couldn’t have my camera ready or it might have tipped him off, so no photo of the surprise! We couldn’t let this auspicious day go by without some sort of small party!

He almost got them all with one breath. We figured we could count that as good for an old guy! Thanks to Jessica for making this great cake!!

This morning Richard had a fencing demonstration, and I went along to take photos. We knew the forecast was for nasty weather, but in the Ozarks you just never know whether that forecast will come true or not, so we decided to just go ahead with the show! On the half hour drive to the farm where the demonstration would be held, we listened to the radio announcing all the severe thunderstorm warnings and flash flood warnings heading our way. Then came the warning no one likes to hear in flyover country, Tornado Warning! It was for the county to the south of us and the path appeared to not be heading our direction, so we continued on our way.

When we got to the farm, I fired up my laptop because I needed to check email and give approval for the brochure for the midwives conference this fall. I brought up the weather radar (with warnings) and saw the tornado warnings to the south of us. Whew! I checked email and looked at the proof and thought I’d just re-load that radar and see what it was looking like. Oops, another RED box (tornado warning) covered not only our current location but Jessica’s family in Bolivar also! I turned on the radio to get more information and grabbed the cell phone to call Jessica to tell her and the kids to head to the basement! I quickly finished my approval of the brochure, shut down the computer, and ran into the new shop building where Richard, Bob (his co-worker), and the landowner and his son were listening to the radio and hearing all about the tornado warning!

We watched the WIND whip the trees and howl (freight train!) and the RAIN pelted the shop. Bob spotted a tree falling just a few feet from the house and that was a little scary! The landowner offered that we could go to his storm cellar, but I was out-numbered testosterone-wise, and the guys just didn’t think it was “that bad!” I don’t know how long we watched the storm wondering how bad it would get before it weakened, and we could tell the worst had went past. The electricity went out at some point, they got out the battery radio, and we could tell by the damage reports that it had went pretty much over us and was now past.

Here’s a shot taken out the window during the height of the storm. I should have done video to show the trees whipping! Here’s that tree Bob saw fall (click to see the larger photo to see it better). Notice the bits of leaves on the window.

This tree was partially uprooted in the yard.

We later found out a man died when the same tornado that went over us set down and destroyed his house about 8 miles from where we were. A school about 6 miles from us suffered severe damage with only a few minor injuries to kids who had just arrived for school when it hit.

After the rain stopped (only about 2.5 hours after it started!), Bob and Richard were trying to figure out how and when to reschedule the fencing demonstration when two attendees showed up! They had driven from Springfield and had to take several detours around trees over the road they couldn’t move and they moved/cleared all the ones they could! So, we held the demonstration! O’Bannon, and local bank, was going to cater the lunch (about 25 were supposed to attend), and they decided to come on over and cook the hamburgers anyway because, with the electricty out all over, an outdoor BBQ was the only method of cooking available. He fed us and also cooked up the rest of the burgers to take back to the bank to feed the employees there!

The only damage to the house was one piece of siding. The landowner tacked down the other siding near it to keep more from falling off.

The clouds sure looked odd after the storm!

Here’s the bits of leaves on Richard’s truck torn up by the high winds.

Here’s the big tree that blew down in their yard, luckily missing anything it might have damaged going down (click to see larger with better detail).

Here’s the group listening to the demonstration.

Richard sets a lightening arrester on the fence, it might be needed someday!

Then, on the drive home we saw downed trees, shingles blown off houses, minor home damage, and some odd looking pieces of items we couldn’t even identify due to the storm damage.

We could tell that the damage got a little less as we got closer to our house, though the high school gym about 2-3 miles from us had most of the shingles blown off it. As we turned onto and could see the county road that runs along the South end of our property, the highway department was chain-sawing a tree from our property that had fell across our fence and over the road. They had just about finished getting that done, so we went on home to see what we’d find.

We came over the hill, and I saw something in the power lines and couldn’t ID it until we were past. I told Richard, “I should have tried to photo that.” and he asked if I wanted to go back! Sure! So, I got this pretty good shot of someone’s trampoline in the power lines!

Here’s the road maintence guys cutting our tree off the road ahead of us!

We couldn’t believe that there was NO damage to anything around the house. The worst was one really large limb had feel about a foot from the Crown Vic without even touching it! Our electricity was out, so we had to move our three remaining calves to a pasture with a barbed wire fence (although they are well-trained to the electric fence and probably wouldn’t have bothered it) and a pond to drink from (as they were in a pasture with a water trough needing electricty to run). We chain-sawed the limb in the yard and picked up all the little limbs, and had that job done in just a little while. The sun was shining, and it seemed so odd to think of the destruction that came through just a few hours previous!

I did need to do a little more computer work and our electricity was out, so I hooked my (now dead) laptop to the converter in the Crown Vic, hooked the cellular internet connection card in, and finished uploading the files so people could begin registering for the Midwives conference in California in October! It’s sure nice to have a portable office! It was kind of nice to not have the TV on and to just enjoy the peace and quiet! The electricity came on about 8:30 pm so we knew our freezer full of food and the food in the fridge would start getting cooled again!

Here’s the party group!

I got to take some photos of my boy and his lovely wife.

Richard got a shot of me and my kids! Jenny was standing on a little hump, she’s not taller than Justin!

Here’s my kids: Jessica, Justin, and Jennifer!
Justin’s back for a short visit!
I’ll have more photos Sunday when we have a family BBQ at the farm!

Jessica was born in Kotzebue, Alaska several years ago this morning! I went into labor late at night, and I remember walking to the hospital in labor as we didn’t have any other means of transportation. It was a lovely night, and I didn’t mind at all! I also remember that you couldn’t look out the windows at the hospital because the accumulated snow had built up around so you couldn’t see through it.

Since my husband had died 4 months previous, I was alone as I labored. Luckily, there wasn’t anyone else in labor at the same time, and the wonderful nurse took her breaks with me just to keep me company. She said she really wasn’t supposed to do that, but she wanted to. I had already had one baby and was pretty good at working through the contractions, so I didn’t really need active labor support, just someone to sit with me!

And, now Jessica is a lovely grown-up with a great husband and three wonderful children of her own. Time sure does fly by doesn’t it?