More Storm Photos

We had to quickly sweep this away from the foundation to prevent flooding under the house.We just fixed this bird feeder.. it was demolished. This will be our last chiminea.
Broken glass and ruined awnings and screens. And at the end of this great day...A RAINBOW seen through my STRIPPED TREES..how very special!!
Can you tell I am using sarcasm? I guess what is most important is that we are still here. And here ain't so pretty anymore. RV trip - here we come!

Well, Helloo Dorothy!

It's interesting, on the day we let the bird fly free, a tornado touches down within a half to a quarter of a mile from here. Hub brought us a new weather scanner from his trip to D and as I am listening to it, there are warnings of golf ball sized hail, 60 mph winds, flash flooding, and tornado within the 2 counties, here and the next county,to the south. We watched the clouds for a little bit and thought we had better get all of what we were working on inside and watch from there. We saw funnels and VERY fast moving cloud masses. And behold the skies let loose with the worse weather, our neighbors say it's the worse they have experienced and they lost all the windows on the front of their house and their siding and roof are totalled. We lost three windows on the same side. Look for more photos above, chiminea is toast, our trees leaves are gone, ALL the planting I have done is totalled, basically everything I have worked on in the last month is a waste. I watched chairs, garbage cans, tree limbs, screens, fly by the front door. It was storming into my bathroom, broken glass everywhere. The dogs and I were attempting to "huddle" at one point in the middle of the house. It was a torrent of hail (yes, golf ball sized, slamming the windows) and rain and wind for about 25 minutes. The T touched down in the southeast field from here. Actually hit a house east of here, we heard, don't know. The water has flooded the pond, and the water has gone over it's banks in the creek. See the photo at the bottom, can you see any pumpkin plants? That's because they were anihilated (sp)!

Time Flies

Peepers is ready to fly!!
He has spent today in a larger dog crate, flying from side to side, top to bottom. Flapping and exercising his wings. He wants to get out in the biggest way. I have to watch him, he tries to squeeze through the grates on the door, so I stuffed the larger places with paper towel. There is just one big reason we can't release him today. I NEED TO SEE him pick up food on his own and eat it. (An online article told us this should happen before releasing a bird). He "pecks" at the worms, but doesn't know how to tip back and let them slide down his gullet. We don't know how to teach him that either. I am certain he can fly on his own. So, we spend a lot of time observing and waiting. I may have meal worms all over the place by the time we are done. Oh well, they can take their place with the crickets that are there. Peepers is closer today than yesterday - to eating from the ground. He wasn't this close yesterday. WE will probably withhold food for a little bit, so he is GOOD and hungry and ready to do the deed in the morning! God bless this bird. Look how much he has grown since May 20th blog, just 10 days ago. We have learned so much about birds in this experience. Next time we see a tiny baby on the ground, we will either know what to do, or know to walk away.

Already Tuesday..

I have a lot of works in progress . This oil painting is one of them. It is Cape Lookout in Oregon, some of the most beautiful beaches in the US. The fence needs some more work. I have two portraits on the easel right now, one new and one that I started long ago. I never throw anything away because you can always rework it and supplies are expensive, and hard to come by in this part of the country.

Happy Bird Day!

Finally a day in the studio. 8 x 10 "Bailey" weimeraner, in pastel
Look at Peepers. He is looking like an adult bird. What a difference 10 days makes! He is using his talons like a BIG BIRD! Flying lessons tomorrow or Wednesday!

Best Laid Plans

Well, it's been one of those days. About the only really important thing is in this photo! It's been a "meal worm" kinda day!
We did get into town and tipped a few with the "locals". It's HS reunion weekend and MEM Day is bigger here than in the big city. The little town was a "buzzin'". It's always a bit of fun to go there. I fully intended to get out to the studio, but what did I do when I got home, instead??? I mowed. Well, we have 8 acres that we keep lookin' like a park. So it takes a lot of mowin (and gas). Never thought it would be so easy to spend my days picking up fallen limbs and spraying thistle. Repeat after me..."gas prices are absolutely absurd"!! Anyway, I sprayed the bug repel, watered the corn, pumpkins (yes, they are peeking their little heads out already) and sunflowers and mowed my brains out. Hub is STILL out there. You could say we are fanatics. But then again, I know some people,dot dot dot, I do that cause Feedburner doesn't like the real dots.

WORKSPACE

Messy as it is, this is where I do my art. We repurposed a very large metal farm equipment building into 3 - 'alike in size' spaces. The first is a 2 car garage; the middle one is my heated studio - 33' x 24' with great north light. Because we insulated it so well, it seems to be cool in warmer weather; the end part of this building is a workshop for hubbie, where he does all HIS STUFF. I am very happy to have such a big space to house all the things that I like to do, and it's all in one place. It's even big enough for the wiener dogs to do their "racing". LOL!! This building is part of the reason we located here, in the middle of nowhere. It's extremely peaceful!