We are starting to see the grass come up green once again, which means that spring is not far away! You can see patches in our lawn, as well as in the ditches when you are driving. It is really exciting to see the ground wake up again! We are anxious to turn over our garden and get things planted. Phil has been burning the long grass based on a recommendation from "the guys" at work. It went so fast and took out the majority of the long patches of grass. I asked Phil what he had planned on doing before (because we didn't really know you could burn acres of grass like that) and he admitted he had planned on turning it al over by hand. Wow...and I thought I was ambitious!
I guess the burning is also supposed to take care of mice/rat homes (ick!) that they make during the winter in the folded over grass. I am thankful we have gotten rid of them!
Yard cleanup is still going to take awhile. We have a bunch of old tools and stuff in piles out there. We talked to a scrap metal guy who is going to come and take what we don't want...but now Phil has to decide what he can use and what is just junk. We have a few old grain harvesters, an old broken windmill...it's amazing what you can store on 5 acres! And we haven't even started on the old pig shed! So, that will be our next challenge. Ongoing, of course, with our other inside projects.
And along with Spring comes storms...
We had our first "go to the basement" scare last night. If you are faint of heart about storms, don't read any further. Around 2pm I checked email and saw that there was a storm watch for a few counties. Pretty normal around here. They have really great alerts regarding storms/tornadoes and when we can expect them. So, out of curiosity, I kept watching. As the afternoon progressed, there were 17 counties under tornado watches (none of them being mine, but I kept a very close eye on that website, you can bet!) Around 6:40pm, there were 27 counties on storm watches/ tornado warnings. At 7pm, Uncle Jim (bless him!) called to make sure we had heard there was a storm headed our way. He said that there were possible 70 - 90 mile an hour winds expected, and to not be afraid to head to the basement if we needed to.
So I once again checked online, and sure enough, there was our county, under "storm warning". I was thinking, hey, no big deal. No tornado, no worries, right? Phil remembers the lightning storms from when he was a kid, so was all excited to go out and watch. We sat in our front room, where two of the walls are windows, and watched lightning like I had never seen before. It looked like fireworks off in the distance, brilliant white. Being 7pm, the sky was a dark blue still, and we enjoyed the thrill of a storm for awhile. Then, all of a sudden, the sky went black, and the wind started howling loud. I went from a little excited to terrified, and got Ryan up from bed and went to the basement with Phil. We weren't down there more than five minutes when everything calmed down. It was a short, fast storm, but man it was a little ominous. And we didn't even have a tornado warning!
So, we came upstairs and watched the weather radar online for awhile, thankful that they had such great coverage of storms, that we knew when it was coming, and when it was over. I can't imagine living here back when you had no weather service to tell you when to expect snow, hail, showers, or tornados. I have them sending me emails when there is a watch or a warning in one of my surrounding counties, and of course for DesMoines where we have family. I was amazed at how accurate they were with timing and expectations of the storm. See the email below:
The NWS in des moines has issued asevere thunderstorm
warning for: marshall county in central iowa.Until 730 pm cst..At 644 pm cst, national weather service doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm
capable of producing destructive winds in excess of 70 mph. This storm was
located 9 miles southeast of nevada, or 25 miles northeast of des moines, and moving northeast at 45 mph.The severe thunderstorm will be, 5 miles northwest of rhodes by 655 pm cst. Near state center by 700 pm cst. Near clemons by 705 pm cst. Near albion by 715 pm cst. Near liscomb by 720 pm cst.The locations of st. Anthony and marshalltown airport are also in the path of this severe thunderstorm.A tornado watch remains in effect until 1000 pm cst Thursday evening for southwestern iowa.This storm has a history of producing strong winds across northern polk and southern story counties.
And their assessment was actually really accurate. So, all in all, the "storm" was nothing any seasoned "iowan" would have written home about, but for us new to the area, it proved to be a bit of excitement. I suppose it all comes with the "spring" territory. So, while I am really excited about the whole garden planting thing, I am a little anxious about the storms bringing the rain that will help our garden grow!
In other, more light hearted news, I have been baking! (I know, big shock!) Calli taught me how to make bread and cinnamon rolls...yum! Just had to make sure that oven really works, right?
Fresh from the "oven" at Grossmann Farms!
