Monsoon Magic

The monsoon rains bring the desert to life...

...and my desert is alive with wildflowers!  The beautiful life that the rains bring from what appears to be parched, lifeless earth and rocks never ceases to amaze me!


Isn't she lovely?

Desert Bird Of Paradise

Here's a few more:

The girls even like to frolic in them...

My roses love the rain...

The bumblebees and hummers love this Desert Willow... it blooms all summer

...like fireworks coming up from the ground

These happy little desert marigolds are everywhere...

And I'll leave you with a color-enhanced beauty:

Very 70's, huh?  

Have a beautiful day....

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...

Clouds

The Storm: Part 1

A storm came in over the mountains Tuesday afternoon.  I had just finished painting primer on areas of the house to protect the old exposed wood from the coming monsoon rains. At least until we could paint, those areas would be protected. I finished on the house and decided I might as well get started painting the shed. Since the earlier storm blew over, I had hopes this one might at least hold out for awhile. But one storm was coming in from the west, the other from the southeast.  They were headed for a thunderous collision over the riparian river area where I live.

We were finally able to get the chicken coop started only the day before.  It was solid, with a partial tin roof, almost four complete walls, and a make-do door.  We needed to get the shed built first, the coop was to follow right behind.  Between work and getting the house done, we were right on target as home improvement goes... falling well behind!   

Well, monsoons ARE here... so we just expected a good storm, but as the clouds blew in off the two opposing mountain ranges...the proverbial pot began to boil quickly.  

The rains started...

The lightening flashed. 

Clouds rumbled... and on the thermometer I stuck to the window just hours earlier, the temperature was plummeting quickly from the 94 degrees it had reached.

The chickens huddled near the house, where they were used to roosting as they waited for their new home. The sky darkened...

We tried to 'herd' them to the coop before the rains, but they were enjoying grazing in the cool of the day..and were used to being outside, day and night.  Grasshoppers were starting to emerge, and they had no intentions of missing one. A couple hens stayed in... but the rest were chasing 'hoppers'.

The rains came.. and they stayed outside.  

The winds picked up... gusted. Unsecured things were blowing everywhere. We were under severe storm warnings with hurricane force winds... and we had no idea.  

We went inside not too worried about the chickens.. rain won't hurt them.

Then the hail started.  The hail storms I've experienced never lasted too long.  We figured by the time we caught all the chickens, it would be over.

I've never seen hail fall for so long ...it was about 2 hours before it stopped. (and I grew up in the Midwest.) 

I put a motorcycle helmet on and threw on a rain coat.  I didn't have time to change out of my shorts... the chickens were getting hammered.

We ran out to get tenderized chickens to the coop.

It got worse.  The hail went from pea-sized to penny-sized... to quarter-sized.  And the winds were coming in like a hurricane...

OUCH.  And I mean try-not-to-cry, ouch.  For me or the chickens... I couldn't hold them and my coat shut. I'm a mom.  Can't help what I did.  I  turned to take the pelting to protect their little soaked feather bodies..

The chickens let us scoop them right up... except for one guinea rooster.  He wouldn't go in.  He was standing guard, no matter what.  Literally, hell or high water, I guess. 

I've never seen chickens so wet. So cold. Or so afraid.

We were soaked, sore and cold.  We left him, figuring he'd be dinner.

We returned to the house trudging through the quickly rising water...

The Land Of Oz

The grass grew a lot this past week..looks like the Land of Oz around here, and another storm is darkening the horizon...

A storm is brewing... there's thunder and rain in the distance.

So before it headed this way, I thought I'd give the patiently waiting hummers a refill...

dog days for Bolt

it's cooler down here..

..and there's something down here

The first monsoon tarantula

Uh oh, I think it got Bolt. She's limping.

She acted like a snake bit her or she got shot...scared me to death.

She laid in her chair and moped for over an hour.

She must have stepped on the fuzzy spider and got the barbed hairs in her paw.

Silly dog.

Now she's hiding under my desk...

afraid of the thunder. Poor doggie.

Fire & Rain

Natures fury is so beautiful...yet so destructive. (Photo from the local paper)

I'll take the mud and rain...over the fireworks.

Monsoon Rain