Storm: Part II

The water rose. The winds gusted up to 100 mph.  It was like a hurricane with sideways rain and hail that  lasted 3 hours... I've never seen hail last for so long.

Water rose up to the door, blew through the threshold, through the windows, through the skylights and vents ..and on to my brand new carpet.

Our short dirt road off the main road was flowing toward the river.

This is our road much later...after the storm cleared.  It was still flowing the next day.

Just down the road, the earth gave way to make a waterfall... 

This is a half mile BEFORE the river. 

Locals say our annual rainfall here is about 11"..  We got 6" in 3 hours. 

The way the storms collided and came through the riparian, made it severe in just a small area.  My friends 3 miles down the road only got 3-4" of rain and pea-sized hail for a short time.  

Weird. 

 For a couple of days, no one knew what we were talking about... 6"???  Large hail ??  Then the stories started come in about bridges washed out and folks driving through ranches to get home, carports blown over onto vehicles., animals drowning... dead birds everywhere.  

In town it was bad too. Trees blew down...even one on fort. The winds were bad, and the rains seemed heaviest toward the mountains.

That was the kick-off to monsoons. 

Oh boy.

The good news is:

I get a new air conditioner and roof. and the paint for the house is paid for. 

We saved our chickens. 

And I don't have something happen to me without something funny or strange... it's how I roll. lol:

My extra washing machine was outside because we didn't get it to the shed yet and the other one broke, so I was using it until we got a part for the other one. (there wasn't room in the mud room for two) The insurance man saw the hail damage on it.  We said not to worry about it...it was a spare that came with the house.  

He asked if I was doing laundry outside. (I think he thought I was a real-live redneck woman)  

"Uh, yeah... I've been washing outside."

. He looked at me funny and gave us money for a new one.  LOL

I'm thankful it wasn't worse... it definitely could have been.  

But my poor car...

Jumping Cholla Horror

We hadn't been up to the lake in sometime... so we decided to go Saturday.  One of the first friends we made here runs the marina.  We were chatting in the store and he introduced us to some other friends who had a very interesting story:

I don't know if you've heard of these cactus or not...

Cholla.  ...or 'jumping cholla' as we call them.

Just looking at them hurts, right?

Well, imagine a couple teen kids... driving down a dark road at night.

A javelina darts out in front of them... they hit it and it goes up on the hood, into the windshield,

...But not before they swerve and lose control

coming inches from a power line and electrical box.

They crash into a 'forest' of these cacti.

(remember the windshield is gone)

They can grow tall... like trees....

Just like it would be in a good horror movie...

they were covered with chunks of cholla.

Head to toe.

Swollen, bleeding, hurting like heck cholla needles stuck everywhere...

I wish I had the pictures to show you.

I never would have believed it if I didn't see the pictures for myself.

I've never seen anything like it.
It looked like they rolled in them... because they pretty much did.

In their hair, eyes, neck... eee gads. you name it.

One spiny monster damaged an eye pretty severely. 
He has to be careful from sudden movement so he doesn't tear his retna further....

The poor dudes had them 'e v e r y w h e r e'. 

(can you imagine these little barbs on one of your, uh... parts???)

They went to the ER to get 'plucked'.

The docs say it will take months for all the needles to fester and work themselves out.

It wasn't an alcohol related incident... but it probably became one.

Monsoon desert, uh.... 'sheep'?

Last week, I'd let my dog out in the evenings as the summer monsoon rains were really beginning to kick in and I heard a flock of sheep "baaaing", "bleeting" (...whatever they do) ....out in the desert.  Even Bolt sat on the front porch and listened.  I couldn't figure out who in the heck would start raising sheep out here in the desert during monsoons...and around so many coyotes.  Cattle are one thing...but sheep?

I got the flashlight and tried to see if I could find them...wondering if a few close sounding ones got loose, but I didn't see anything but puddles and grass.  Bolt sat on the porch, cocking her head and watching me.

The next day, I read in the paper that the same thing happened to a local cops' widow.  She woke up hearing sheep outside her window.  Well, after looking everywhere for the darn thing, she called her police buddies to see if they would round it up, thinking one must be loose in her yard SOMEWHERE, and it was keeping her awake.  They came out and found it under a water cistern.  Turns out it was a pretty small "sheep" with a really good cistern acoustic stage to perform from.   haha.
The "sheep" was a TOAD!  (She had the darn thing arrested and sent to the county prison holding pond for disturbing the peace.  heheee... just kidding).

Couche's Spadefoot Toad

(non-poisonous...sounds like a sheep, I imagine coyotes love 'em)

I really thought I'd been in the desert heat too long and was losing it...  Wrexie's hearing sheep now.  great. 
It did make me feel a little better that a cops wife thought the same thing.  Poor coppers.... wonder how many "sheep" calls they get?  hehe.

OK... I told you kids "lick" the "sheep" to get high.  Well, silly me...

I got my 'sheep' mixed up.  It's not the 'sheep' toads that they lick... it's the  "Jimi Hendrix"Toad.

Sonoran Desert Toad

(poisonous...see the gland behind its eye?)

(not sure what THEY sound like...probably sings like Jimi Hendrix or something)

I think most people out here know about these toads... because if a dog grabs one in its mouth, the toad releases poison from the glad that causes hallucinogenic effects...the dog foams at the mouth and gets violently ill or even dies. 

Bad trip.

I read that some people were catching the toads and using the gland to get high....

"magic mushroom toad" I guess.   geeze

"The skin secretions have hallucinogenic properties. (Toads are involved in reports of toad licking or the smoking of dried parotoid gland secretions. Some states have passed laws against toad licking, and classify the venom of toads as a controlled substance.)"

http://www.californiaherps.com/frogs/pages/b.alvarius.html

I read in one article that they're extinct in Califrornia now...

hmmm...wonder what happened there?

I really hope I don't see flying javelinas next week....

See their little white 'wings' all folded in? ...it could happen out here.

Pink Floyd knew pigs could fly...

The Owl and the.... Bunny

My poor little desert bunny. He tried to hide

in my garden to recover... but I fear he didn't

make it past the owls.

Life can be like that, I suppose.

Desert Rose

A little boy in one of the classes I taught last year showed me one of these that he found. Ever since then, I've been on a mission to find one. They look like little flowers that were turned to stone...

The largest one ever found was 125 lbs. Whoa.


But the thing about them that facinates me is...
if you don't collect them, wind and rain will disolve them again. They're formed from minerals that make their way to the surface.


I love flowers... even sand ones.

Can you tell what this is?

Arizona Highways has some good amateur photographers...